Our Phoenix

Jacin watched George approach him on the Trax platform, a large smile gleaming. He held his arms out ready to hug George, and as they connected George evaporated – a chilling mist engulfed Jacin and his heart plummeted. He pivoted left to right searching for George, then realized the platform was completely empty of passengers and the night air dead silent. Fear overtook him, and as he started to run, he realized he was inside a large, transparent gerbil’s runabout ball. It rolled off the platform and continued rolling along the track until it dropped into an endless green sea.
The sun roared into being and beat down on Jacin, warming the trail of blood trickling from his right temple. Standing barefoot and motionless on the desert floor he stared across a valley of Pinions, the occasional apex of a cabin peeking over the trees.
Silently from behind knotted trunks — like skilled hunters — emerged George, Eddie, Josh, Leticia, Kat and Jody, each in the nude. They grouped and gingerly approached Jacin. Through his peripheral vision, Jacin picked up knee-high black patent stiletto boots filled with a woman’s legs that led to a black patent mini skirt, bare navel and black patent bustier. The full body materialized into pop diva Rihanna. She was holding a large cardboard Publisher’s Clearing House check made out to Jacin Reese in the amount of two million dollars, and was singing an operatic version of "Disturbia." Jacin’s friends, mud swallows, hummingbirds, jack rabbits and mule deer gathered around Rihanna and joined in verse like seen in a Disney film.
Shimmering in a gold leotard, Jacin was being whipped around on Lagoon’s Wicked ride, his head painfully vibrating against the back of the seat. Around and around the ride took him, never-ending, ad nauseam. In the third rotation the vehicle jerked to a halt 70 feet up the 110-foot tower. Jacin peeled open his eyes focusing in on the slate blue sky. From deep within the flat, lingering clouds — looking down at him like mythological gods — were his mother, father and twin brother Jeff. They were whispering to each other, but Jacin could not hear nor understand what was being said.
But what he could hear in the distance was a faint humming, and several seconds later a yellow and red PT-17 Stearman biplane came into view. The pilot — clad in a brown bomber jacket and matching flying cap, goggles and white silk flying scarf — waved at him as he flew overhead. Jacin then realized it was Eddie, and in the seat behind him sat Snoopy, dressed similarly and flashing a MetLife flag. Puffs of smoke billowed from the rear of the plane forming a message. When Jacin read the first few words, he recognized it as a poem that Eddie had written for him several years ago while dating. The sky read:
Reborn again our Phoenix has risen in Magnificent design;
His envious idealism
Color his feathers in boundless elegance.
His wicked eyes
Emulate a renewed youthful humor.
His beak conspicuous,
Yet earnest in character.
This renowned being, unwavering in conviction
Is embodied in the souls passed flight over.
And each year and decade to come,
With each immolation, our Phoenix will rise
Stronger and more beautiful in our eyes.
And in centuries to pass, long after we are gone
Our Phoenix will be reborn in the generations of our kin.
Jacin’s eyes filled with emotion, forcing him to blink — pushing a tear out and rolling off his cheek. The god-like image of his mother reformed, but this time he could hear her say, "He’s crying."
Then Jacin’s chest turned heavy and his body temperature increased to a prickly warm. The bar that restrained him in the vehicle suddenly unlatched. His body, weightless and hot, floated upward. Frightened and uncomfortable, he flailed for something concrete.
From the distance a fiery mass, like a meteor, plummeted towards him. But instead of annihilating him, it enveloped him like a blanket. Jacin suddenly felt safe, revitalized and at peace inside the magenta, gold and red flames. Like a movie trailer of his life, he could clearly see himself and George being legally married in Utah, then a black man in the Oval Office, then himself in New York City taking photos of the Freedom Tower and oddly, then himself accepting a check for an undisclosed amount from Rihanna.
To be continued...