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CHAPTER TWO IS WINDING DOWN..Voyage To Saltar

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Contributed by: Rich Albert on 5/9/2008

VOYAGE TO SALTAR

The Saga And Revelation Of My Journey Back Home

RICH ALBERT

Chapter two is winding down inder the sunset in the Hollywood Hills. The Santa Monica Sunset News created by The Sunset Man is reporting live from Jupiter, FL with new photos taken over the Jupiter Beach and added into the text of a new novel titled: VOYAGE TO SALTAR

CHAPTER TWO......continues

I'm back in my kitchen and start to prepare dinner for Jana and me. This one is going to be extra special. I have a combination of several different fresh fish ready to prepare. I will call this meal The California Sunset Seafood Combination. I name my kitchen here in the Laurel Canyon, "THE 24/7 CAFÉ". Maybe just for tonight. I haven't decided. I hope I find a doggie pal in the need of some extra loving around this neighborhood to help me with the leftovers generated here at the 24/7 CAFÉ. That's one of the beautiful mysteries of life. Sometimes you never know what you're going to find. I found the planet Earth many years ago.

Time goes by and I decide to take a heart shaped cherry cheesecake out of the icebox for dessert tonight. I just bought this thing down at the market yesterday. I think I will put sixteen candles on it and surprise Jana after dinner. I'll tell her I decided to celebrate her Birthday after dinner. That way, she might tell me how old she is. Not that it matters, but I am curious. I doubt if it's her Birthday today, but you never know. It gives me an excuse to take more pictures for prosperity.

I light the grill out on my terrace and start to warm it up for the night. The sun is leaving the western skies. It is about to retire for the night. The yellow, orange, and red colors start to fill the sky. Jana walks in and says, "Is there anybody in here". I say, "You are, and you're a beautiful sight to see. Come out and join me. I just lit the grill".

(Photo #1 inserted here..see above)

The yellow, orange, and red appear

Time passes. The sun has already set and we sit down to dinner. I ask Jana how her day was. She said,"It was okay, but this the best part so far". I say, "I agree. It doesn't get any better than this". Then she says, "That statement you just made could be very wrong. Knowing you just for a short time and seeing what I have seen so far. Your days are going to shine forever. Your hospitality sure is shinning and I think you got many more great things right around the corner". I said, "You are so sweet. I cannot believe you are right in front of my eyes". We go on exchanging positive comments. Then we finish our meal and I walk to the kitchen and I get that cherry cheesecake. I light the sixteen candles. I'm back in a flash singing Happy Birthday and shooting photos to catch the moment by surprise. I have flashes popping everywhere. I think I got some good shots that will go down in history.

The time flies into the early morning hours. I feel I have known Jana for 1,000 years or more. We talk about sad times in our lives. We also talk about the happy times in our lives. I wonder how long my present happy times will last? I know I had many sad ones, but lately I have been riding the clouds. I say out loud, "Thank you God for bringing me to Earth and thank you for always being by my side. You taught me so well. You taught me never to give up on the present, past, or the future. I love you above all".

Jana goes on to tell me about a brother of hers. Her brother took his life. She is very saddened as she speaks of her brother. I tell her about a friend of mine that took his life. He was one of greatest guitar players that ever lived. We change the subject and go on into happier times in our minds. We end the morning on a good note as I walk her to her house.

The next day the California morning sun is shinning bright. I roll out of bed and have some coffee. I still smell the sweet scent of Jana on my body. My thoughts from last evening still linger on my mind. It's like turning another page. I once had a band called, "Next Page". That was a long time ago. Seems like everything is a long time ago. Even last night was a long time ago.

When you think about a long time ago. Try thinking about 100 years compared to 4.5 or 4.6 billion years that the Earth has existed. Then a long time seems only like a microsecond ago. It's all so relative in our tiny space in time.

I slip all the way into the present. Although I am in the present, I am napping and catching another 30 winks. I have a dream in vivid color. My mother is dressed in an orange gown and we are getting ready to leave the house and go somewhere on an airplane. I can't make out, in my dream, where we are planning to go. I awake from my dream and I start to wonder where I was in that dream. I put these thoughts on the back burner along with the song I starting writing yesterday. Then I start singing in my mind, "Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. Please take me back to yesterday. That is where I want to stay." Then a beetle looking bug starts to crawl across my terrace.

It's early morning and the only thing on my mind is writing a new song and having Jana back by my side. I start to do the first thing on my mind. My Martin D-35 guitar is still looking shinny and bright. I pick her up in my hands and start to pick, and strum her. This goes on for hours until I finally realize it is afternoon. I think about my dream, my mother in that orange gown, and I see a plane streaking across the sky. I look up at the sky and say, "Momma you're coming home". I continue to incorporate this thought into my song. It comes into my mind in only seconds. It gets better as the minutes tick on by. It goes like this:

(Photo #2 inserted here...see above)

STREAKING ACROSS THE MORNING SKY

You're streaking across the morning sky
And I still got Jana on my Mind
I had a dream only minutes ago
That I'd be on a plane with you

Where are you going...............?
Where have you been?
It has been a mighty long time

Are you going to land?
Or are you only passing by?
Checking on your son
Momma come down and land
And let me touch your side

Make time unreal
I know you can
Let me touch the sky and grab you
And hold you inside

I don't finish the song because Jana walks in through my bungalow and greets me on my terrace. I am so glad to see her. See sees the tears rolling off my cheek, as I sing my song. Then she sees the plane still streaking across the sky. She says, "I think I caught you at a bad time. I will come back later". I say no, no stay, please stay". I explain everything and we hug like we never hugged before. I think to myself and thank God all the way back through time, into the present. I hold Jana so tight that I think she lost her breath. I release my hold and she recaptures her hold and we kiss, then we look up to the sky. I go on to tell her about my dream. I tell her I know my Momma is in that plane. She says, "She's probably with my Mother and they looking down on us. Then she asks me if she is still my Laurel Canyon girl like I told her last night. I said, "All the way to Saltar and back again".

A couple minutes pass and she tells me that she planned a trip back east many months ago. She said that she was going to visit her older brother. She asked me if I could take care of her house for about 10 days. I told her it would be no problem, but I would miss her. She then said that she tried to change her plans yesterday, but she hasn't seen her brother in a long time. I told her I understood completely.

Jana went on to tell me that she did not have to leave until noon tomorrow. She said, "How about finishing that song that I interrupted and I will cook you dinner tonight. I said, "It don't get any better then this". She said, "Watch what you say. You know it's only going to get better". I give her my classic smile, she starts to leave and says, "Be on time. Dinner is at 7". I tell her I will be on time. She leaves and I break down and cry. I look back up into the sky and the plane is gone. I say to myself, "Momma just don't be late for dinner. You got to be out there somewhere. My head in spinning as the Earth revolves. The Earth turns at about 1,024 miles per hour at the equator. I'm in California, a couple hundred miles from the equator, so I'm spinning at about 957 miles per hour. I'm happy again and smiling at the sky.

I spruce up for the night, take a shower, and wash all the tears from my eyes. I put on an orange shirt with a white blazer and my best cologne. I almost forget my pants. I sometimes forget about all the dressing techniques that go into being an Earthling. I put on some black denim jeans. I'm shinning bright just like my D-35 and head on down the road with my guitar in hand. Only two doors to go and I will be there. The door is wide open. I walk right in. I sit right down and say, "Is there anybody in here". A voice sweet and low comes from above and says, "Be right down. Make yourself at home". I do just that.

I open my guitar case, tune my D-35 to perfection, and start, picking and singing a song while waiting for Sugar to make her entrance. I play what comes of the top of my mind. It is one of my originals I wrote a long time ago. The notes sound a little like Stairway To Heaven, but totally different. I pick one note for every word I sing. I start at the fifth fret and work my way down to the first fret. Then it repeats, back to the fifth, to the third, then the second, then back to the first fret.

NEVER TO RETURN

Down by the sea she waits for me
Till I.Till I come home
Never to return to my home again
Bye Bye to my World

Down that empty road so I have to go
Till I'm free. Free from the pain
Never be afraid of what lies ahead
Just be mine. Please be mine.

Going back someday
To that place where I come from
Down by the sea she always waits for me
Till I come home

Come back into view. You've been gone too long

Down by the sea she waits for me
Till I. Till I come home
Never to return to my home again
Bye Bye to my World

Jana makes her entrance and tells me she heard every word of my song I just played. She said that it was ringing high into her loft. She walks down the stairs looking radiant and bright. She has become the queen of my dreams. I am hoping she remains that way for my stay on Earth. She says that she has dinner almost ready out in the guest-house. She decided to use the guest-house since the maid already cleaned the main house to perfection before she planned to leave town. I say, "It will be like my little Hollywood Bungalow right up the street. She said your bungalow as you call it, is your house. Why do you call it a bungalow"? I said, "Because I heard that line in a song by The Doors". See said, "Now I understand. The song was called LA Woman". I said, "You got it beautiful".

I played one more song before we walked out to the guest-house. On our way out I said, "I smell some kind of Italian Sauce". Jana made her specialty. Italian Lasagna just like my Momma use to make. We have a great dinner with all the trimmings. I help her clean up and we head back to her beautiful terrace overlooking LA.

COMING TO A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU........ The complete novel will be under your Christmas Tree...............

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