The Bellowing Buddhist

The Bellowing Buddhist. Paul Hansen, the bellowing Buddhist back from China, was holding forth at Café Culture last night. He looks well fed and his shoes were shined. Hansen had the chair by the door, the one the regulars always avoid.

Janet Laurel is making noise. That’s all she does -- make noise. I do like her paintings, but it takes a pretty loud mouth to get Randy and Dave Smailes to be quiet. I wish she would leave.

Kelly walks in. She used to own Chez La Zoom, the famous clothing store. Then she married Martin Hahn, the famous chef. Now what does she do?

Old Fred. I’m Young Fred. Old Fred is Fred Martin who has been running the LaConner Drugstore since the mid-fifties. He buys lattes for his drugstore staff on Saturday mornings.

I’m leaving in three days. I’m driving to California on Tuesday. Everybody will be glad when I’m gone because I have been such a bitch. I figure to start feeling better by the time I reach Mount Shasta – after that it gets warm. I get to Los Angeles sometime on Thursday. By Friday I’m on the beach and the sound of the waves. What’s the word to describe the sound of the waves washing up on the sand?

Things didn’t work out. They never do. Oh, that sounds pretty bleak, but when I write something like that it’s meant to be uplifting. Like – things never work out, so?