Let me see .... how does this work?
(Tape off/on)
Have to do SOMETHING .... I don't know how long he'll take to come back.
Well, let's see...
(Singing): "A capitol ship for an ocean trip Was the galloping window blind. No wind that
blew disturbed her crew, or troubled the captain's mind. So, let the music play ....
And what were the words? What were the words?
(Tape off/on)
Voice sounds funny when you're not used to listening to it. Perhaps ... perhaps I'll find out more about it.
But, nothing to be done may only have a few minutes, may have an hour. Well my name is ...............and, MOST of my life was spent with .........During World War II, there was .......such a time, such a time. And .... perhaps I was at sea more than I was on land. But then, I wasn't very old, so, that's easy to do.
The convoys!
The convoys are etched in my mind, as if they're still out there, as if all the U-boats were still there. As if the dolphins were still there.
I guess some dolphins must still be there, not the same ones ..... some must still be there.
(Pause)
The association with all those ships and all those men going to war, and only some of them coming back ......
(Tape off/on)
many of them not coming back. I came back. I never thought I would come back, it didn't make any difference if I came back.
A lot of the sailors,, a lot of the soldiers they were intrigued by the fresh air. It didn't interest me. I was associating completely with the diesel smell, and the sound of the engines.
The only thing of the ocean that really got to me was the phosphorescence. When I first saw it at night, in the water, I thought that there must be ghosts, must be mermaids, must be some, some silly thing like that. I really believed in mermaids and ghosts. But I don't believe in mermaids and ghosts any more, that's why I don't think that this particular thing is going to work out.
Even if he comes back .... what do I have to sell him? Dreams? Some pieces of paper! It's a ridiculous plan.
But.... I actually have the book. So if I have the book, where did it come from? Not from the phosphorescence, no, that's too long ago, it only came recently.
It came from Grand Central. It came from the central station.
One of the lockers.
But .... finding it there, that's the thing. It's almost as if, uh.... as if some ancient U-boat got into my dreams. Somebody torpedoed the course of my life, and I never really crossed the ocean.
How did I get to Grand Central, what Grand Central was doing, there's no reason to be in Grand Central, I should have been in New Jersey trying to get to Butler. That's where the ship was this time.
But, someone told me Grand Central, and I went and I sat down waiting, and I fell asleep. And I should have never fallen asleep. I could have been rolled, I could have been robbed, I could have been mugged. But, I was worse than that. My life changed. Why my life changed, it might be over.
Nah., I'm not going to let it be over. That was just part of someone else's idea, not mine. Someone else can do that, someone else can be the noble person and end it, not me. I'm not .... going... to ... do that. I'm not going to die for this book.
(Tape off/on)
Charles said he'd be back. Exactly where he was going, I don't know. He couldn't promise me anything.
But the dream promised me. And it told me to find the Center. And so I thought I would. And, that would be easy, just delivery. I mean, imagine delivering a package for a dream!
But.............just by accident, it was just coincidence dreaming, dreaming of a package, finding the key, finding the locker, finding the package, OK? What do you think of that?
It just was a coincidence, just a crazy coincidence. And, hey,
taking it to these people was better than nothing.
I know the lama got involved, but ............that was the Center's doing, not mine. And it was too bad, but, better him than me. That's how it goes.
OK? You understand that?
Yah. What's the word........yah, I guess OK is the word.
So I fell asleep. And in my sleep, I was dreaming. And I dreamt a train had come.... the train that I wasn't even going to catch, it was the wrong railroad station.
And, I dreamt that some of the scum that wandered in and out of the cold, that they came and they were going through my pockets, and not finding any money, they were going to cut my throat in revenge. I dreamt things like that, which might have been half-awake, half-dreaming. I dreamt people came with mops and mopped. That's what I dreamt.
I didn't dream about the book, not to begin with. And I didn't dream about.....the American.....what was his name? Yeah, that was his name. I didn't dream about him. And I didn't dream about his wife .........Mai Chu .......what a strange sound ....maybe Chu, maybe
Tsu ......Mei ......Mei .......OK........must be Mei. Mei ...........like, April,. May.
A capital ship for an ocean .....
What were the words?
Let me see., let me see ......
But...............
Then I dreamt ............I dreamt he came, and he was in the station.
And that he said he had something to show me. So I was in a dream, you just can get up and you can see your body sleeping and you can see your body sleeping and you can go somewhere.
And so I went with him.
And, it was quite a journey .... it was over oceans, and oceans, and oceans, and mountains and there was high tide and low tide,
and there were Chinese junks, and there were little sampans. And,
it was far away.
Hong Kong. I think it was Hong Kong. The buildings were right against the harbor. The air?strip, the airport, was right, like a finger into the harbor.
I remember Hong Kong.
So it looked, it must have been Hong Kong. So that's why I remember dreaming.
So, he had to show me, because he was saying it was up to me, that he was looking for someone else but couldn't find them. That, he had overshot,, he had gone too far into the future. He had overshot.
And......how can you go too far into the future? If you keep living and living, that's a very good.... good, nice, long future. OK? Now I understand that.
Allright. What were we doing, what were we doing ......
Well.... I seemed to go everywhere he went. And, it was as if it was a movie. And,, and the movie,, the movie was about this American.
And this American.......what was his name........this American married a Chinese girl. Her name was Mai. And, she got sick, very very sick. And the father said to the American he thought that she would die. That's how the dream went.
And he was very sad, I could see him. myself, I must have been hovering about.
And, he had invited me, he like said, "Come here and watch this."
And, he was very stubborn. He didn't want her to die.
Then.......so we have to save her.
And there's no way to save her, said the father.
However, they were ......they were both desperate, and even though the father was a very westernized Chinese, he knew where there were some traditional medicine people. And, most of these just burnt little pieces of paper, rattled change, jingled coins, and weren't very satisfactory.
But then, somebody told them that there was one person .......they named, his name was.......um. U1 Tin. Ul Tin was a sage and he lived out far up the coast on one of the rocky islands.
And, he could save her.
Now both....what was his name........and the father took the very sick Mai Chu with them in a boat, to go find that island, but they couldn't go very far because they discovered that the pilot said, "It's into Communist territory, and we'd be blasted out of the water if we went."
So they didn't go with that pilot, they took another one with a motorized boat. And in the rain and fog of an early morning, with the very very sick, almost delirious Mai Chu, they went. And they were trying to avoid the radar, they were trying to avoid the scouts and patrols.
And they found the island, which is like a fist coming out of the water.
And they could see no place to land. But there was a cave, and they managed to stop at the edge of the island, anchor, and climb up to the cave, up these ancient steps that had been carved out of the solid rock.
And Ul Tin was there. And Ul Tin said that he could not help. That they had to go somewhere else.
And they had to go back, to his teacher's time.
And he said, "Are you crazy? How can we go to where your teacher is, when your teacher had died?"
And he said, "Well, you would have to go to this teacher's time."
That's how the dream went. It .... I'm, I'm not telling this is truth. I'm just telling you this is important. OK? You understand that?
My voice sounds strange.
I'm sure it sounds strange.
In .... this cave, it had a big Sign over the door. It was a large sign.
The sign .... the sign said.... something in Chinese. I could see the sign. And even though I can’t read Chinese, even thought I've been in China before, and even, all I remember is diesels, the smell of diesel, but not Chinese ......
Even though it was in Chinese I could understand it.
And it was the Cave of 'The First Tao.
Yes, it's spelled in English T-A-O, but I know better than that. Because I've been around, and, even though I was just down with the diesel and with the brackish water, I knew the pronunciation "Tao".
But maybe that's all I knew, but I knew something.
And .............
It was a symbol. A big..........pictograph...........You know, ideograms.
A walking mind.
A bright consciousness.
I don't know what that means but, ah, it was the First Tao Cave.
And ... Ul Tin said they had to see his teacher. And, his teacher ... um ... was named Wu Tzu.
Wu Tzu was someplace else. And .... they had to go there.
But before they could go back to the boat, because they.... they couldn't believe that they could go ... um...their boat had been located, spotted by a patrol. And, they were warned to come out, by this patrol.
And they just didn't know how to reach the boat quickly enough or how to respond. And so the boat started opening fire.
(Tape off/on)
It was a terrible situation. Um....rocks were flying, walls were collapsing .... and, they could see that their boat was burning. And, that .... uh....they were doomed, that there was no way out.
And, U1 Tzu, Ul .... I'm sorry ... what was his name .... Ul Tin, Ul Tin told the American, whatever his name was .....yeah......why should I forget his name and remember all the Chinese names?
A capital ship for an ocean trip ......
Now ... now, he says "Quick! You must go, see Wu Tzu."
He said, "How can we go to Wu Tzu? Our boat is sinking, it's burning, these walls are cracking, it's all falling down!"
And .... uh...."Two of you can escape," says Ul Tin.
"Uh, how can we do that?"
"You are now going to see Wu Tzu. Say this. Say, I am now going to see Wu Tzu."
And, uh, just say it, this is what the dream was saying.
And, in the process, the American said this. And in saying, this, he, and .... um....Mai Chu...vanished. And, Ul Tin and the father were killed. The whole cave collapsed, the whole cave collapsed.
Tao Cave Number One is gone. It is completely gone.
(Pause)
Yeah, that's what, I think, OK, I think I remember it correctly.
(Tape off/on)
Now, when........the American, carrying the unconscious body of his sick wife, became aware again, he discovered that he was no longer on an island that was being bombarded, and he was no longer with Ul Tin and the dead father or the Chinese, or anybody like that. Uh .... he was ... uh ... inland, far inland.
And he was in this .... uh ... willow grove. And, the branches blew back and forth, and he was in hiding, and he said, "How did we get here? That's very strange."
And, he ... discovered, that in the willow-grove., uh, there was a small., uh, thatched hut .... in the thatched hut .... uh.... sat a very very old man. And this old man, uh, seemed to be asleep, in a seated position.
So uh, uh .... he approached him carefully, and, uh, said, "Please, can you help me?"
Uh .... he knew Chinese, so he was saying this in Chinese, but, because it was a dream, I was able to understand the Chinese. The Chinese, uh, uh, was too difficult for me ever to learn. Only "Bottoms up!" for drinking, perhaps, uh, during the war, with the Americans in China.
Now .... the, the fellow woke up. And, it was not Wu Tzu. It was not Wu Tzu. OK. You understand that. In.......IN the dream, it wasn't Wu Tzu.
And uh .... uh ... the American hoped that it would be Wu Tzu to SOLVE all the PUZZLES he had and his confusion that he just said things and they were there. But ... maybe he didn't tell me the truth, or, I mean, maybe, maybe the DREAM didn't tell me the truth. But this was how it was.
And this Chinese person was quite frightened at the sound of the name of Ul Tin. And uh....and uh ... said something about, "Not BORN .... not born."
And uh .... also.... uh ... uh...Wu Tzu. And he said, "It's too dangerous to disturb him, he would not like to be disturbed."
But upon insistence he was told where he could find Wu Tzu.
Wu Tzu was.....uh.....in, uh.....uh.......one of the inland cities where they were being BOMBARDED by the Japanese. Uh, and uh .... the American....uh .... carrying his sick wife, who
was getting worse all the time .... uh .... uh....made his way to that city.
Whether he carried her in his arms all the way or found a cart or a donkey or something, I don't know, how he did this. Because .... the dream, the dream was very confusing, there were many air?raids, and there were many threats of air-raids, where people left the cities and went up on the hillside and watched for planes to come bomb the cities.
And the people on the hillside almost made it a picnic. And they were watching the city, and sometimes it was false alarms and sometimes it wasn't.
And ... um. .... this is where he found his way. And, in this city, uh, he, uh, had to PRETEND that he was somebody else. Because, EVERYBODY was going about with papers and passports, because of the war.
And he pretended to be a journalist. And, as a journalist, he had some privileges, even though he didn't live in the MAIN city.
Uh .... and... it might have been a little STRANGE, for people to say, why is he carrying this WOMAN? But, I think he must have somehow established a household, and put her there, and had her being taken care of while he tried to find Wu Tzu.
Because, this dream didn't EXPLAIN that ... How did he ... where did he get money, or how did he do this ... just...I think he said ... that he SAID, "I need money," and he HAD money.
Which of course, that could not be true. It must have been he had some entrepreneur.... ah ... gimmick. Some kind of hustling.
And .... OK? OK.
Ah .....
Now .... I almost can smell, I can smell it. Yeah.
Now .... WATER. Flood-waters came rushing up and down RIVERS, and like, none of the rivers like WE know in America. They .... they didn't BEHAVE. They had tidal waves. Tidal bores. And, ferryboats had to be careful when they crossed, otherwise they would be smashed to pieces.
And ... he, he looked for Wu Tzu, Wu Tzu was VERY very hidden. And Wu Tzu was living under the shadow of the, the military commander .... the military commander, this is Chao Fan....General Chao Fan.
Which was beginning of many, many troubles, the dream made it quite clear, there was MANY many troubles. Chao Fan became very suspicious of this JOURNALIST who was looking for Wu Tzu, because HE had been looking for Wu Tzu.
Yeah. OK.
Wu Tzu was known to be a sage and a healer. And Chao Fan was trying to find him because CHAO FAN was ill, and he wanted to... find a cure, before it was too late. Uh .... most of his illness was ... ah ... ah... respiratory. But it was on the verge of, ah, pneumonia at any time.
And, he had other illness ... sadism and mental illness and madness, perhaps. But, that might be normal general. That was not illness at all, might be just normal general.
So the AMERICAN was being followed by Chao Fan's men because he figured .... maybe, maybe American JOURNALIST can find Wu Tzu, if there was a Wu Tzu, because Wu Tzu was so secretive.
And if ... the JOURNALIST could find him, Chao Fan would find him.
(Clearing throat)
So, it seemed that, because of his,...his ... SINCERITY, just RADIATING sincerity, SHINING sincerity, um .... the journalist was able to find .... Wu Tzu.
And Wu Tzu, who was like a mummified person, just like a......like a prune, like a grey lump wearing robes, um, just sitting upon a, a flat platform, overlooking the muddy river.
Um ....
He .... ah .... KNEW that the journalist was telling the truth about Ul, Ul Tin. And he says, "Ah, you must go to the second cave .... ah...I can help you."
And, ah....that is what the journalist did. He got his wife, had her carried, because now he had porters to carry her. And this was secretly, early in the morning before dawn .... to the SECOND cave, which was located.... ah... overlooking the river... ah.....where there was great erosions collapsing. And this was Tao Cave Number Two.
And this Tao Cave Number Two was VERY very orange clay earth surrounding the entrance and this HUGE sign, that said, "TAO CAVE NUMBER TWO."
I Remember SEEING that. It was VERY very clear, in my mind, in my dream.
And it was a VERY funny dream, and I ... I had nothing to DO.... and it was a better dream than having muggers and thieves and murderers. So I dreamt that dream.
And at this cave .... ah... also came Chao ... Chao FAN. Chao Fan came with his soldiers, and they were going to FORCE their way in, except they discovered it wasn't necessary, it was wide open. And Chao Fan waited in the entranceway while the journalist took his wife inside.
The BEARERS of the stretcher left, and Wu Tzu looked at the woman, and said, "Ah," he said, "This is too BAD."
He said something like that. It was Chinese so I'm not sure, but I, I THINK it was like that.
And he said, "I cannot DO anything for her, because,' (clearing throat) "she is ALMOST on the brink of death. And, it's almost too late."
And, the journalist was very very sad, he said,' "Oh, what can I DO?" And he said, "Don't lose HEART," says Wu Tzu. Because Wu Tzu was speaking very GENTLY and being KIND. "We will send you to my friend. I will send you to my friend, and... ah ... his name is ... ah...Kuan Yang. Kuan Yang."
And he says, "Who is HE?"
"Well he's at the third cave."
Wherever the THIRD cave is.
"Where IS the third cave?"
"The third cave is at Peking."
He says, "Peking! It's so FAR! I will NEVER get her to Peking before............ah... she dies, and there's a WAR going on, and there's SOLDIERS in between here and Peking. And how can I get there?"
"Don't worry, don't worry—there is no war YET... ALMOST, almost, but not yet. The Boxers...ah ... are chopping down the telephone poles. And the empress is ... ah .... causing trouble for the AMERICANS and foreign delegations."
And, ah, the JOURNALIST was very CONFUSED because there WAS no empress any longer. And, ah, he couldn't understand what he meant by "Foreign Delegations".
And ... ah ... ah ... he said, "Allright, allright, just, how shall we DO it? How can I get her there without her DYING?"
And he says, "We CAN'T get her there without her dying. So we have to ... do something." And ... ah...........the American began to be very very sad. And he says, "Are you planning to bury her? Let her LIVE till she (buries her?) "
And all this time, Chao Fan is listening. And he's trying to find out the SECRET of how to find the CURE.
Because, if... ah ... the JOURNALIST discovers it, for Mai Chu, then HE can discover it also.
And, ah ... Wu Tzu did something very remarkable. He came and touched the sleeping, feverish body of Mai, Mai Chu. And while the journalist watched, she began to shrink. In a great glow of light she began to shrink and shrink, and became smaller and smaller, and he almost ... ah ... thought she had VANISHED. And she was two or three inches long, and she became an inch long, and she became a half-inch long, and she became a QUARTER inch long.
And ... Wu Tzu put his HAND over her, and she was GONE when he lifted the hand but then, looking carefully he saw that, she was still there but she was in a...a teardrop of amber. And she was wrapped up in this amber, and there was a silver necklace holding the amber. And she was within this teardrop of amber.
He says, "What have you DONE?" He said, "You've KILLED her."
He said. "No, no, no, I've preserved her. Now she will be safe inside this amber until you can find a CURE. And if she comes out of the amber too soon, she will die.
And...ah... ah... "There is ... How can I GET her out of the amber? How can I get her."
"The ... The dragon-wish will get her out of the amber. And ... it's just .... the breathing of the dragon. You have no ... no fear, that this will be the case. And ... ah ... she will be ... OUT of the amber, but don't take her out now. She should not be taken out now."
And the journalist had no intention of taking her out, in fact even if he wanted to he couldn't get her out, because he didn't know what dragon-breath and dragon-wish was. And just at that MOMENT, Chao Fan and his men and soldiers came in, and they said, "Wu Tzu. You are a sage and you must help CURE me."
And Wu Tzu looked at...uh ... the general with INDIFFERENCE and said, "I know YOU, and I have no INTEREST to save you."
"You must save me, or I will kill everyone HERE!" said
And the soldiers all cocked their rifles and they, they were aiming at the journalist holding the amber necklace. And, aiming at Wu Tzu. And, it was a terrifying MOMENT.
It was almost like when the SHIP was sinking once. And, uh...it began to list COMPLETELY over to the port side. And EVERYBODY began to jump overboard, but I, I was too petrified to jump overboard. And I was waiting and waiting for it to SINK, and I said, "Well, if I get in, I will go INTO the water, THEN I will sink," it wasn't LOGICAL, because I would go down with the ship.
But as it turned out, that part of the ship filled up with water, and all of the doors were sealed, and it ... nothing CONTINUED. It just STAYED like that. And part of it smoldered.
And there was only ten of us on board. And we stayed on board all night. And ... uh... clung to the slanting decks. And in the morning we discovered that everybody who had jumped overboard were GONE. They were gone. And there was a smell of diesel and smoke.
And the dolphins were far away.
And then when that night the phosphorescent water .... but there was no stars.
But, they must have thought they sank us, because they didn't wait around to finish us. And next day...ah ... ah... we managed to get warm, and wait. And we were rescued.
I think so, yeah.
OK.
Ah ....
And, Wu Tzu wasn't going to allow them to kill the American. And, ah, he told the American, "Now... speak your way to PEKING, as you did your way HERE, and you will find the next sage."
"The NEXT sage, what do you mean, the next sage?"
"Tai Chi. The sage Tai Chi. Tai Chi Tzu."
"Oh ... wow... I don't know, I don't know what...........how can I find the sage?"
"Don't .........don't be in such a ghoulish state of MIND, you must believe me. Just talk your way, speak your way, state your way .... FROM here."
And Chao Fan was not at all amused. He...he said, he said, "Kill them. Kill them."
And, they started shooting, and even though he was a wrinkled- up mummified sage he was blown to PIECES by the bullets. And, ah, the American journalist, clutching the necklace, spoke his way and said, "I am now walking down the street at Peking, in front of the delegation.' And, he vanished.
Chao Fan was CURIOUS that he had escaped.
And, I should imagine he would be furious. But Chao Fan, even though he was a military, rational, logical man, was still CHINESE and he realized that, wherever the journalist was going, HE was going, and he told his men to follow, but they didn't UNDERSTAND. So he himself said, "I am now walking down the street .... uh ... in PEKING," and he also vanished.
(Tape off/on)
It was not as EASY this time.
When ... ah ... the journalist arrived, he was in PEKING. And, he was at the great gate, in front of the foreign delegation.
But there was great ACTIVITY going on, and, barricades were being built by the British soldiers, by the Japanese soldiers, by the Russian soldiers. He COULD not understand this.
What were they doing here? Why were they in such OLD uniforms?
And he tried speaking to them, and they waved him aside. And, ah, he found some marines and they waved him aside, "Get inside because the Boxers are coming .......
And he saw a huge mob of headband people coming with spears and pitchforks and rushing down the street, and he quick jumped over the barricade while the FIGHTING began.
And he was clutching all this time the little amulet of amber that had ... ah.......the sleeping body of his miniature wife, miniature wife, I said oh she was small as anything, miniature....
And, in the din and firing, he sort of crawled his way back and discovered that there was a hospital where people were being bandaged, and he HELPED. There was, he had no TIME to think about looking for ... ah ... Tai Chi Tzu. And ... ah ... they. wondered, ONE person asked who he WAS, he said he was a JOURNALIST.
And he figured THAT was good as ANYTHING, and, they didn't remember his BEING there, but since he obviously was an American, uh, the American marines accepted.
And he was a little bit CONFUSED by the images. He said, "Where.......what am I DOING here, what is this, what have I stumbled into?"
And, he was SURE that he was, must be in America. Because he was sure that it was a movie. And that they were, this was all MAKE believe, and .....
(End of Side One)
(Tape Turned Over)
.............American found his way there FIRST. And......uh........FIRST, that's a strange way to say. First is where....where is first? Um.........He had no TROUBLES because, there was refugees running everywhere.
Sometimes the armies came and tried to...uh ... conscript him into armies to go fight. But meanwhile there were, there was a rout, there was, there was just hopeless for ... ah .... for the Chinese once .... MORE soldiers came.
So he was running with the Chinese. And eventually, ah......from a......old man, that he helped from DROWNING, because he had fallen into the river with the thing on...all of his POSSESSIONS upon his back. He had......ah....gotten the information of where was ... ah ... Tai Chi Tzu.
And the PERSON quite didn't believe that he was looking for Tai Chi Tzu. But, ah, he told him.
And Tai Chi Tzu was just like the other sages. He was a wrinkled PRUNE, grey wrinkled PRUNE with long whiskers. And he was in a CAVE, and the CAVE said, "Cave Number Three". And Cave Number Three was a yellow earth,. packed hard dirt.
And, ah .... Tai Chi Tzu was quite willing to help him. But before he could help him, Chao Fan came. And Chao Fan had, ah....ah......interrupted when Tai Chi Tzu was telling uh .... the now-disguised Chinese/American where, where ah....he would find Wu Wei Ming. And Wu Wei Ming was in the Cave Number Four of the Brilliant Tao. And, however he would have to...ah... go thousands of miles, and, some to the north, some to the south, but eventually to the west.
And? ah, this was confusing. But, ah, Chao Fan understood it, and he was about to talk himself there by saying "I will go" when the American REALIZED that, ah, ah, Chao Fan was trying to get a cure for himself. And that he would ... ah ... in his madness, perhaps destroy the availability of this cure for others. Not only .... TAKE it, maybe, not have it available for...uh ... Mai Chu.
So he started struggling with Chao Fan. But Chao Fan, despite his illness, was very strong PERSON, and, he WRENCHED the necklace off, ah, the neck .... of the .... of the journalist. And, ah, he talked himself...away. And he left. He vanished, with the necklace. Yeah, like that I think.
OK.
Now, journalist IMMEDIATELY, ah, talked himself to find Wu Wei MING. And even though he found Wu Wei MING, he did not find Chao FAN, Chao Fan was having TROUBLE, Cho Fan could not FIND Wu Wei Ming.
Wu Wei Ming was in Cave Number Four with the BRILLIANT red clay. And, ah, it said "Cave Number Four", had a large sign. "The Walking Mind. The Brilliant Walking Mind."
The Consciousness of the Foot.
Ah .... (laughing shortly)...SOMETHING like that. I guess it's like BALANCING on the, on the, on the ocean. When the decks are slanted, and when the ship is torpedoed, when the smoke is burning. It's BURNING smoke.
And, ah (voice almost a whisper) everybody's sliding off the deck.
And Wu Wei MING said, ah, "You SHOULD not go ON until you have the amulet.'
And, ah .... the journalist had to find Chao Fan.
And Chao FAN, ah, eventually came to Wu Wei Ming, and the journalist was hiding amongst (voice low).........ancient books ... in the dust .... waiting, waiting.
And, Chao Fan insisted that Wu Wei Ming CURE him. And Wu Wei Ming said, "I cannot cure you, you have to go see Li Chan, Li Chan in the cave of the Fifth Tao. And of the BLUE clay. And..." blue-black clay is TRUE color.
And... ah ... THIS was the TRUTH, because Wu Wei Ming had gone beyond ever lying.
And, Chao Fan VANISHED, saying "I am going."
And... ah.....the American immediately vanished after him.
And....ah ... he caught UP to him, outside the cave, the Fifth Cave. And Li Chan was watching as they struggled and rolled down the riverbed. And in the riverbed, there were mud and quicksand and tidal-waves.
And... I SAW that, I REMEMBER. In my dream.
As if I was floating far away.
And.......Li Chan saw Chao Fan, ah......ESCAPE.....ah......the journalist, who no longer looked like a journalist, (voice very low), who no longer looked like an American, who looked more and
more Chinese. So this Chinese man, the HUSBAND of Mei Chu, struggled after Chao Fan, who came to Li Chan (voice normal) and said, "Li Chan, you must tell me."
And Li Chan said, "I will TELL you. You must go to the SIXTH cave of Tag Tzu. And Tag TZU...ah ... will give you the last Instructions of finding Dorje-la, and Lung Ta. And... however, you may never get PAST him. Because ... ah...if you take this amulet with you,......it is the wrong PERSON, this.........
(Tape off/on)
And, Li Chan THREW I'm sorry, not Li Chan, that's the
wrong PERSON. Chao Fan THREW the amulet into the river,
and vanished, on his way to Tag Tzu.
And... ah ... the wife of Mei ... Chu, the woman in the amulet, leaped into the muddy waters and...ah ... it looked like HE would drown and she would be lost (voice low) in the muddy waters.
(Tape off/on)
Tag Tzu ... did not like the looks of Chao Fan. As a SAGE he was not....truly supposed to have likes and dislikes but, Chao Fan was a...a terrible-looking person. And he was obviously smelling of murder.........and .... stench.
And ... ah ... he was very GLAD when the husband, the Chinese husband of...ah..Mei Chu, arrived with the amulet. And he said, "Ooh, how did you FIND it?"
He said, "I just SPOKE my way to it. my way HERE."
And Chao Fanr ah, and... ah...Mai Chu's husband, ah, were about to struggle when Tag Tzu said, "No. You cannot fight here. You cannot fight in the cave, the Sixth Cave. Ah... and there is no answer to this until you all go through the Seventh Cave of the White Clay. The porcelain white cave. The Cave of Dorje-la."
And so they spoke their way there. And when the THREE of them, Chao Fan, Mai Chur and her husband, were there, Dorje-la .... ah ... was NOT wrinkled and prunish, but a, a ... ah..
And I have spoken
HANDSOME young man. And.. . ah....of Mongolian stock. Spoke to them.
"I have a CURE," he said. "I will let you go see the dragon, ah, in the eighth cave. But, ah ... only if someone sacrifices their life."
And, Chao Fan said, "Let THEM sacrifice their life, I am not interested in sacrificing my life."
So the husband of Mai Chu said, "I will sacrifice my life, but she must be saved."
And... Dorje-la, ah, spoke words, and they went THOUSANDS of miles, into the ancient past, into (softly) ancient ... Tibet .... and they found the Eighth Cave .......
In this eighth cave.........was a dragon. VERY brilliant dragon, with scales, and ALL over the scales of the dragon were little images, scratchings like designs, glimmering and shimmering. And, ah, SO bright that no-one could see the COLOR of the cave let alone the sign.
And the images looked like galloping horses.
And his name was Lung Ta ......
And he said, "Ah.......Who will deliver the book?"
And, the husband of Mai Chu said, "I don't know what you mean, but ... save my wife, and I will deliver the book."
And...ah ... the dragon WISHED his breath, and his breath went upon the amulet, and the amulet grew larger and broke open and Mai Chu was well and healthy.
And the husband was quite ... happy and sad at the same since he had promised to ... take her place. And to deliver some book of some sort.
And Chao Fan said, "What of ME?"
He says, "You have not done ANYTHING. I am sending you BACK. I will speak you back," said the dragon. And he spoke.
"BACK, back to World War II, BACK ... to the great conflagration in China, BACK to the air-raid which will kill you." And Chao ran vanished.
And., Mai Chu's husband asked, "What am I to do? What is this book?"
And the dragon gave him a yellow cloth wrapped up, a square object. And there was a book. A book with blue pages and golden letters in Tibetan script.
"This is the Medicine Book,, " said Lung Ta.
Lung Ta Tzu, the dragon. The brilliant dragon.
"Take this .... and.......and .... take it back to your time, take it back to your future. And if you find someone that will ... ah....give it to mankind, so they may just MERELY gaze upon its pages read it or not read it, it does not matter, but gaze upon its pages .... it will cure ... diseases...
illnesses ... or tragedies ....
(Pause)
"However, that person ... ah....cannot benefit from it."
"May ... Mai Chu come WITH Me?"
"No, she will remain here."
And now, the HUSBAND became very EXCITED.
"What do you MEAN? "
"Well.....Let her tell you."
So Mai Chu told her husband. She spoke.
"Husband dear," she said. "I cannot go back to the time where I will die. If I stay here, I will live. If I return, the illness will return. Deliver the book. Find a replacement. Then come back here. And we will live and be very very happy.
And the dragon puffed and huffed and, smiled and snorted and wagged his tail and things like that. That's what I SAW. It was in the DREAM like that.
So the HUSBAND of Mai Chu came back, and he went wandering around LOOKING for someone. And in the dream he found ME.
And I was sleeping in Grand Central.
And he said, "You will find a key. And the key will go to a locker .... a baggage locker. And in the locker, you will find this exquisite book, with golden letters on blue pages but DO not...DO not ... sell this book, do not, do not... ah ... do something like that. It is a MEDICINE book, it is a dragon medicine book, it will cure all the ills.....mental, physical.........of the world.
And .... You'll be rich, rich beyond your knowing.
However, you cannot benefit from this."
And in my dream I was very.... slaphappy. I said, "Sure, who cares. I would be rich. And that's good enough. I will have benefited by being rich."
When I woke up, I said, you know, that's how DREAMS are, you wake up... I said "What a strange dream!" I began to FORGET parts of it. And then I thought about it and I remembered parts of it. And I found the KEY! Right in front of me.
And..I knew it was a locker key, so I opened the locker, and there was this package with all this funny writing on it. Golden letters.
And I began to remember the dream, and it frightened me. And I said, "What does this mean?"
And... I said, "I have to find someone... someone that can help me."
And...(clearing throat) .... then I walked up and down the street, trying to figure out where should I find someone. And I looked at my hands holding the book TIGHTLY as if it was...a LINE that would keep me from falling into the sea.
And on my fingers I could see my old tattoo.
One letter for each finger.
"Hold Fast"
"Hold" on my left hand, "Fast" on my right hand.
And, HOPELESSLY confused as to what to do.
I found ANOTHER surprise. It was an envelope, lying on the street. And on it it had a horse. A picture of a horse. And it had an address.
And, it had been lost.
And it said, "Center of Oriental Studies".
And, I went to this place the next day, which was a Saturday, the first Saturday of the month. And..........people said, "Are you coming to the lecture?" Even though I looked terrible. I must have been really terrible, because I hadn't been very restful in my sleep.
And I met ... I met a person there. And this person said, "What made you come here?"
And I showed the envelope.
"Well .... John's not here right now. But, Charles is here. And ... ah .... maybe HE can help you."
This fellow Charles had a long beard, almost as long as some of these Tzu fellows from China. Ah...he said, "What can I do?"
And, ah... I showed him the book. And I said, I would be RICH because of this book.
They said "It looks like a very valuable book, but we have no money. And.......perhaps we could find somebody because it looks like it would be GREAT for RESEARCH."
And I said, "Well, I'm supposed to get some MONEY," I remember saying, "because that's what the dream told me."
And they ... THEY didn't think it was STRANGE that I was talking about this dream.
And they said, "Well, perhaps in a few DAYS we can get you some money. Where are you staying?"
And I told them I had no place to stay, so.......It ended up that I was on Mulberry Street staying at Charles's house. And... I kept the BOOK ... ah...
ONE of them.......PHOTOGRAPHED the book. Photographed the book. And.... said that they would show it to some people who MIGHT be able to advance some money, so they could
study it.
And, I guess the photographs were just the same image as the book itself, so the dragon wouldn't complain. But ... ah.... I wanted to get some of that PROMISE, say someone was going to promise.
And.... at Charles', Charles came back ONE day and he said, "You'll have to wait a little longer, because.... the Tibetan lama has been trying to read it and," he says, "he cannot read it. It's Tibetan writing, but he cannot read it. But it is a valuable book. And when I spoke about that someone must ... someone must... ah....not BENEFIT from this book, so the book can be given to everybody, the lama said perhaps he would be the one, he would do that. So then this sailor," that is me, I'm the sailor, "can get his riches without paying the price .......
Things happened very fast. Ah, Charles came back another day and he said the lama was dead. And that ... that surprised me and stunned me, and I was very upset, because I thought that perhaps it was a TRICK, and they were trying to get the book for nothing.
And, I said, "What did he die from?"
He says, "He took your PLACE, he took your place, he took the place of ALL the people that would be sick."
And I said, "Oh, I don't know.........it's a trick, it's a trick...."
And, ah... I told him, "I'm not going to give you the book until I get my RICHES that I'm supposed to get." And he says, "The riches have GONE already.''
"What do you mean? "
''The lama said the riches have gone. The riches have gone with ... A ... the choice. You denied the choice, so you've lost the riches.''
''No no, I want the riches. I want the riches. I'm staying here, right here, like this, I'm waiting for you to come back.''
And I've got to do SOMETHING, so ... .OK....this is...the words sound funny....
Well ....That's how it is...
So Charles is gone. And it's raining hard outside, oh God is it raining....
And lightning! What is lightning doing in the middle of winter? Lightning! The building shakes .....
I don't know .... how long he'll be gone........Ah.....
The........the roof is beginning to leak ....
I'm sitting on this bed, and the roof is leaking....
And... ah, push it away ... a piece of PLASTER has fallen down.......PAH! What......a rotten building is this? And... I'm not going to.........let him have this book. I think....let me see this fork .... I think I will ... yeah, chip...I think I will chip.... I will chip... I will chip this gold off the paper. I'll get my riches this way, I'll just chip it like this, I'll--peel it like--I'll peel it, I'll peel it, and ah........yeah, I'm getting some of it
OH, that THUNDER's very loud, that's awfully loud, I can't even hear myself it's so loud.
Oh no, there's someone knocking on the door. Who is it?
Charles? Charles, wait a minute...........I'll be right with you .....
And ... I'm peeling, he's going to try to steal this book.
AH! The window is...broken ... the rain is coming in....
AH!
Ah, the PAGES, I've got to get those pages, they're going to fly around the room....
One is flying out the window! Stop! Stop! AH! AH!
(Pause)
I will get them .......
(Pause)
I will get them .....
They cannot escape me.....
(Silence)