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LISTEN UP
A Short Story
By James Donnelly
© 2001, Anthony James Donnelly
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“You think that’s overlooked? Listen up. Let me tell you something that’s
overlooked? This is gonna surprise you… maybe, well, it sure surprises most
people when I tell ‘em. Now I know you’re not most people, but still, you
might not have heard this, or even thought about this before, well, maybe not
in a long while anyway. It’s kinda like a tree. How often do you look at a
tree, I mean really look at a tree? Me, I look at ‘em all the time, but most
people, what about them? It’s just a tree, right. Like hundreds, maybe
thousands you’ve looked at since birth. When do you stop looking? I mean,
when you’re just a kid everything is fascinating, right? You look at your
first tree and you gasp in awe, ‘Oh my god, will ya just look at that, will
ya ma, dad, just look at all that growing stuff… it’s huge… what the hell is
it? Is it some kinda monster? And what’s that rustling noise, and those
flying things that sing in its branches, and those strange grey things with
bushy tails? Oh look, there’s another one!’ Right, that’s how it must have
been when you saw your first tree. Then you get the labels to go with all the
things you see, then what? What about now? I bet a tree is just a lump of
wood to you these days, right? What happened? What changed? Have you got
kids? Have you, well, if you have, just take a look at them.
“Change. Now that’s another thing I wanted to tell you about. Who the hell
are all these freaks anyway who say they’re afraid of change? Freaks I tell
you, freaks! What kinda mucked up drugs are they on anyway?
Afraid of change my aunt! Listen up. Let me tell you the truth about change. Look around you.
Look, go on, just take a look. What do you see? Tell me, what’s out there,
open your eyes kiddo, take it all in. I’ll tell you what you see: change.
Change with a capital C. No point being scared of it, it’s got you
surrounded. The town you grew up in has changed. The school you went to has
changed. The people you grew up with have changed. Hell, even you are
changing. Think about it for a minute will you. You’ve got cells and stuff
inside you that’s dying and growing and changing all the time. Now I’m no
expert in these things, but I got a friend… Did I tell you about Micky?
“Listen up. Micky, now there’s a story I could tell you. Hell, I could write
a film script about Micky. Micky is one of these people who knows a lot of
things about a lot of things, know what I mean. We all got a friend like
Micky, or a relative, or a friend who knows a friend like Micky. He is the
all-seeing eye. The Buddha of trivia. He is plugged in and tuned to the
frequency about what’s up, you know. Anyhow, listen up. I was driving this
cab, much like I’m driving you now, but it wasn’t you I was drivin’ ‘course
it was the man, Micky. He was sat pretty much where you was. The sun was
shining pretty much like it is now. Only difference is he was smoking one of
his Winston’s… hey, sorry man, I didn’t know you smoked, sure you can smoke
in my cab, just ask, man - don’t get no ash on my seats though! Anyway, Micky
was laying back, flickin’ his ash out the window, we had the music playing…
I dunno, some smooth Blues or something… Listen up, this is real interesting
stuff… So Micky and I are talking, well, he was talking, I was listening.
“He takes a long drag on his Winston, glances at something out of the window
and says, ”Listen up my man, you is gonna dig this.”
“Now, ‘course, he’s got my attention right away with that. Whenever I heard
that ‘listen up’, I know there’s something good coming up, and Micky is
always the man with the word. If he told me to bet my life savings on a
horse, by god I would. It would come in too, I’m sure of that. He’s not a
gambling man though, so there’s no fear of that ever happening, but you never
can tell with Micky - full of surprises, just like that day when he said, “ Listen up…”
“Well, Micky carries on: “You know me, and I met some pretty messed up
people in my line of work, and I seen some real strange stuff in my time, but
this is some real horror stuff. I know you ain’t gonna believe me ‘til you
see it, so we is taking a detour. Take the next left.” He throws his
cigarette butt out of the window. Micky’s always conscious not to get ash on
my seats, you know. Anyways, we take that left and drive some more. Micky’s
sitting up now, like in-between the two front seats so as he can better
navigate and all. Now I thought I knew this area pretty well, drivin’ a cab
and all, but he directs me down some weird-shit alleys and stuff and we
finally park out back. “Here we are!” says Micky, his eyes and teeth like
some lighthouse on some chalk cliff flashing an’ grinning at me. Now, I trust
this man, he’s a friend, don’t get me wrong here, but when he get’s that
look - you must have friends like that, you know ‘em, and when they look like
that, you just know something’s up.
“We both get out of my cab. I don’t usually lock it, but I didn’t trust that
area none. There was nobody else about, except us of course, but I was takin’
enough chances just being there. “Listen up,” says Micky. “We ain’t
supposed to be here. Like, nobody knows about this place, it’s like one of
them secret places, but I know the guy that owns this place, so like it’s
cool. Only I gotta tell ya, we ain’t really supposed to be here, and there’s
some messed up stuff going on inside, so just be cool and follow my lead, ok?”
Now you gotta understand Micky is a friend, but one of those friends you
kinda just know, know what I mean? He was always in and out of my cabs all
the time, I got to know him over the years, but we ain’t never been drinking
or nothing. We do each other favours now and then. He gives me the word, I
give him a free ride once in a while. It’s kinda fair. We got a deal, but I
ain’t never done nothing like this with him before, so I didn’t know what to
expect. So, I played along. What could be so secret about this place anyhow?
“So, Micky is there by the door. It’s all rusted up and chained and stuff,
like nobody’s been in there for a real long time, like people don’t usually
get to look around inside or nothing. The windows are all messed up and
grimy, the usual bars bolted to the wall. He’s there with that great bunch of
keys of his - that’s how we first got talking, he’s in my cab and I says to
him, “Hell, you got the keys to the city on that chain buddy?” He flashes
that lighthouse at me and says, “Might as well have, man, might as well have!” and lets out this laugh, you know, one of those nervous-contagious laughs?
Anyhow, listen up, Micky get’s that door open; it’s creaking like it’s been
closed for a century or so. We both walk inside. Man, that place was darker
than a bear’s armpit, walking in there out of that sunlight. You ever notice
how the dark hitting you all of a sudden is just like someone flashing a
light in your face at night. Well, we fumble around in the dark for a while
and Micky finally hits the light switch. Either those lamps were so covered
with cobwebs or grime, or else they were real low wattage, ‘cos them suckers
didn’t light up Jack in there; just enough to see where we was walkin’. “ Follow me,” says Micky. I was glad he took the lead.
“You still with me on this one? Very good. Listen up. So, this Micky goes
walking ahead, he’s muttering something, I can’t tell if he’s talking to
hisself or singing or what he’s doing, I just glad he knows the way. And I’m
getting more and more glad that I locked my cab. Not that I can see much in
that place, but it seemed like some sort of warehouse or storage place or
something, there was dusty stuff everywhere; boxes, crates, metal containers
and that sort of stuff, didn’t look like anything had been touched in years. “ Is this gonna take long?” I finally ask Micky. You know, I can think of better things to be doing, I mean, like picking up another fair for one thing
- a paying one too. “You ain’t getting scared, is ya?” he laughs back at me.
I gotta admit, I was a little curious as to what all this was about, I mean,
it does sound a little strange, doesn’t it? Tell me, what do you think? Would
you have gone with him?
“Well, before I had the chance to change my mind - hell, I doubt if I could
have found my way out of there alone anyhow - Micky stops and turns to me. I
see him standing by another door, it’s slightly ajar and I can see it leads
down. “Listen up my man,” says Micky. “Now we gotta be real quiet as we go
deeper down inside this place, you ready?” Again, I was happy to give him the
lead and have him go on down ahead of me. He disappeared through that door
and I followed his creaking footsteps, each one down to the bottom of that
cellar.
“To this day I don’t know why I trusted him, but I did. That sure changed me
what I found at the bottom of that place. It sure was secret alright, and I
knows why it don’t look like nobody’s been in there for a while. I’m not
sure I’d go back there with Micky, or even if I could remember the way on my
own. That woke me up for the rest of the day, I can tell you. I can still
hear that Micky laughing his pearly-white teeth off at that look on my face
when I saw. You don’t think that sort of thing goes on in places like that,
but I assure you that it does. It surely does. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
“You wanna know about change? Well, I can tell you that changed my life. From
that moment on I was changed forever.
I heard of people talking about these ‘ life-changing’ happenings in their lives
before, but I never thought something like that would ever happen to me, not
like that anyways. That was some real early morning wake-up call for me, I can tell you.
That whole thing is as clear as day, the whole event, ‘cept what we found down there. I figure
even if I could remember what it was, I’d best likely wanna forget it as soon
as I could. The important thing is that it changed me. I can go back there in
my mind’s eye if I want to, but I forget what it was exactly that changed.
Hell, they’re all freaks what says they’re afraid of change! It certainly
wasn’t the change that scared me, I don’t even think what I saw scared me so
much as woke me up. Now I take special care to notice the trees, and listen
to the birds singing, and the squirrels jumping and those leaves rustling…
singing the Blues…
“And you wanna know what’s overlooked these days…? Listen up… Hey, wise
guy! You gonna walk off and forget my tip? Sheesh! Some things never change.”
