I'm
leaving Astoria now, walking along the New Young’s Bay Bridge,
feeling the shaking each time a lorry passes by, and also,
continually being honked, coz, apparently, it's forbidden to walk on
this bridge, anyway, I do not care about that, I just keep advancing
by the guardrail, staring at the sky, staring at my feet, staring at
the flow down there, some barges actually moving through, mainly
downstream, approaching the outflow of the Columbia river, a river
actually coming from the northern Canadien lands, I got to know...
and then, once a I make it to Warrenton, just on the other side of
this bay, I keep moving in the direction of the sea, actually walking
along the so-called Delaura Beach road, a road surrounded by some
green pines, some salal, some huckleberries, and then, once I make it
to the beach, there I go, washing my feet, collecting some stones,
some shells, and, as it goes, once I hit the Sunset Beach State
Recreation Site, I'm actually coming back to the main road again,
say, the US101 highway, and thus, as I keep walking by its main
course, there I go, showing my thumb, or, just waving it around
without really looking back, and so, in this fashion I walk for a
while, eventually getting a ride with some surf guy that actually
ends up dropping me just by the entrance of the Cannon Beach town, a
touristic place, and then, once I pass the last Cannon beach
mansions, I'm actually getting a new ride, this time in a van with
some local guy that, accordingly, takes me Manzanita, a small town
located on the northern shores of the Nehalem Bay... and so,
eventually, I get lost while following the trails around this bay,
and then, when I manage to come back to the main road, it's already
night, and so, I'm not hitchhiking now, say, I'm just walking by the
road, making some figures from time to time, like, flapping wings,
wriggling, or just, looking up at the stars... wondering if that is
Orion, or Taurus, the Canis Major, or the Canis Minor... and then, I
don’t know how much time after, deep in the night, there's actually
a big flashing on my back, and so, in the meanwhile, as the thing
passes by on my side, even honking several times, then it comes to a
stop a bit further. And, well, as it stops, the passenger door is
promptly opened, as if automatically, and, accordingly, there I go,
already approaching the thing, but, with no rush, just walking on my
rhythm, and so, when I'm in fact reaching the front cabin of the big
rig, “hellow hellow”, I'm already hearing, even before I see
anything, this because the voice is coming from up, not from the door
level, and so, just then, when I actually turn my head left and up,
I'm actually spotting this character mounting up there in front of
the big wheel, staring at me now, say, a man with some kind of a toad
smile and muscular shoulders, now bouncing his head up and down while
actually staring at me, and, “allowa-allowa, all good?”; I say,
as a way to break the ice, and he, “all good... heading south
yes!?; “yes-yes” I say; “south is good, but, need to know more
about it... I can actually take you further if you give me the
trust...”; “oh really, what you want to know?”; “simple
things, like, who are you and where you really wanna go...”; “oh,
my name is Shem, and, I'm not from this country, that's why I'm
traveling around, say, I wanna reach the California state and then,
will probably head to the desert...”; “oh, that's explicit, but,
can you for example show me the content inside your backpack, you
know, just for precaution... one must take care when picking
strangers from the roadside nowadays...” he says, and thus, “Can
I come up'”; “go for it!” he promptly answers. Therefore, after
climbing up, straight away I open the top of my backpack and invite
him to look inside... but, instead, “just dump the stuff here... if
it's ok for you...!” he says, while actually waving at the free
seat on his side, and I, well, without thinking too much, there I go,
already turning the big bag upside down, pulling a handful of things
out, mainly clothes, and, as the stuff falls on the seat, he actually
shows me some kind of tricky smile that, I do not know how to
interpret, even so, then, there he goes, actually rummaging through
this bundle of clothes where he actually comes to find some gadgets,
some stones, some shells, and well, as he's actually staring closer
at some of this shells, “Can I keep some?” he asks, and, “sure
thing!” I'm promptly answering, thus, after actually throwing some
of those stones and shells over the dashboard by the windshield, he's
already saying, “this clothes are not quite smelling good ma man,
just take that back inside your backpack and all will be ok... let's
go...” And so, said and done, with the vehicle's engine already
rumbling, we take off. And further, after recounting a bit about some
of the characters he has actually been giving ride through the
times... we make some silence, say, by now he's just driving while
actually playing with some kind of beaded necklace, and me, here I
stay, constantly closing and opening my eyes, as I'm getting in that
mood... even so, in those time intervals between the opening and
closing of the eyelashes, I become aware that at this point, he's
actually rummaging under his seat, picking something from there,
something that in the meanwhile is already landing on my lap, and
say, as some lights are actually being turned on inside this cab, now
I see, this fat book with a totally black cover here standing in
between my legs, and well, as I touch it, our driver is already
asking me to read some passages from it, “aleatorically”, he
says... and me, I, in this moment, as I'm actually looking from his
face to the big book, and from the big book to the road, in the
meanwhile, I even see him actually touching the holster of what may
be some kind of pistol, a holster in fact standing just on the side
of one of the shift levers, and well, as I look at that holster,
“...choose a page and start reading a text of your choice...”,
he's already saying, “but, read it well, you understand!? I want no
babble...” he adds. And so, taking that holster as granted, here
I'm, already opening the big book, leafing through it, and, "When
any man from the Israel house...” I'm already reading, “offer a
burnt offering or a sacrifice... and do not bring it to the entrance
of the assembly place...” I keep reading “this same man have to
be cut off from our people... and, if you are proud of your God, if
you know his wills and you approve his good things as you are
verbally instructed by the law... and, if you are equally persuaded
that you are a guide for the blind... a light to them in the
darkness... one who corrects the unreasonable, an instructor of the
little ones... and having the structure of knowledge and truth in the
law... to you will come the very glory of Lebanon, the juniper, the
ash and the cypress...” and here, at this point, the chauffeur is
already shooting that gun against the passing trees, and I, making as
ignoring, I just continue the reading, “so, in order to adorn the
place of your sanctuary, you will have to glorify what is under your
feet...”; thus, “you see,” our driver says now, “men ought be
declared righteous by works and not only by faith...'' and then, I
just keep reading “in the same way, wasn't also Rahab, the harlot,
declared righteous by her works... after having received with
hospitality the messengers sending them off through another door...
just as the breathless body is dead, faith without works is also
dead... and the priest will have to return on the seventh day and
see, if... the plague has spread on the walls of the house...
eventually, stones have to be removed from that wall and carried out
of the city, in order to be cast away into an unclean place... and
Solomon should have one thousand horses and ten thousand horsemen and
horsewomen... and these servants should provide everything for the
king Solomon, and nothing should be missed… the offerings plus the
barley and the straw for the horses... all should be brought
according to their
commission... and God will continue to give Solomon wisdom and
understanding to a very great extent, as well as broadness of
heart... just like the sand that borders by the sea...” I read, and
then, after a couple of hours more reading thing like this, as we are
eventually reaching the neighborhoods of Eureka, the chauffeur says
“Heil heil heil Solomon! We will make a stop here, I will
pay you the lunch my boy coz I very much have been enjoying your
readings!” And so, once at the restaurant, the driver goes and
installs himself on the bar, just side by side with other lorry
drivers, and there they stay, leaning against the counter, some
looking at their phones, others sharing some short stories about the
road, about women, about this or that car accident, about creatures
wandering through this or that highway disturbing the drivers, about
this particular lorry failure, about this or that traffic inspection,
and as they talk about these things, they are actually drinking big
glasses of beer and then, even laughing at stupid jokes about the
wives of Solomon, and well, as I hear all that, here I'm, installed
at the opposite corner table, supposedly staring at some TV screen
down there, the screen actually displaying a continuous shaking of
flopping bars and burning dots, but then, when the waiter comes by,
actually a fat woman with a fluff, and asks what I want to eat,
instantly, “bring me some pudding”, I say, and well, “but which
kind of pudding?” she asks; “it doesn’t matter the sort, any
pudding, big If possible...”; “hum, and, any drinks?”; she
asks, “no, no drinks.” I say, and well, as she actually leaves,
bouncing her fat buttocks, a guy in a blue suit with a small bow on
his neck is actually appearing swinging on the screen, say, swinging
in front of all that dots and passing bars, and in a while, distorted
images of huge brains are actually appearing around the man, and
then, there he goes, already starting some kind of speech about...
“Human beings have an autonomic nervous system that is actually
comprised of three separate subsystems...” he says with a stupid
smile, “the parasympathetic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous
system and the enteric nervous system...” he keeps saying, now
being hit by all that distorted images of bumping brains, and then
continuing like this, “the enteric nervous system has been
described as some kind of second brain, which communicates with the
central nervous system through the parasympathetic via the vagus
nerve and sympathetic nervous systems...” and then, “however,
vertebrate studies show that when the vagus nerve is severed, the
enteric system continues to function... and so, we now know that the
enteric system is not just capable of autonomy but also influences
the brain... In fact, about ninety per cent of the signals passing
along the vagus nerve come not from above, but from the enteric
system... and that is why many consider it as a backup brain centered
in our solar plexus... this is, our gut instincts are not fantasies
but real nervous signals that guide much of our lives...” and while
I hear this assumptions coming from the TV set I’m also aware that
there is a big mess on my back, there in the opposite corner of the
salon, the truck drivers laugh and yell because of something I'm not
interested to know, and so, as I turn back my attention to the big
screen, it continues like this, “this, it is our vagus nerve that
provides the gateway between the two parts of the autonomic
systems.... thus, the vagus nerve actually acts as a
bio-informational data bus that routes impulses going in two
directions... and, since the vagus nerve acts as the central
switchboard it should be understood that, impaired functioning on
this nerve can also lead to many kind of different problems.... like,
for example, some neurological diseases actually come up from that
guts spreading to the brain via the vagus nerve... and” in the
meanwhile, “you see, you see...” one of the truck drivers is
actually shouting down there on the opposite corner, “you see, it's
scientifically proven now... yes, the SHIT you may have in your bowls
will produce some part of your thinking, yes-yes, think about this
ladies and gents...” and so, as he actually shouts this things, a
whole conversation about shit is actually coming up in the
restaurant, all around. But, I just ignore it, again turning my
attention to the big screen, this is, to that blinking blue guy with
that peculiar bow on his neck, now saying, “actually, the autonomic
nervous system is composed of two polar opposite systems that create
a complementary tug-of-war which allows our body to maintain
homeostasis inner-stability... this is, the sympathetic nervous
system is geared to rev you up like the gas pedal in an automobile...
it thrives on adrenaline and cortisol and is part of the
fight-or-flight response… and, the parasympathetic nervous system
is the polar opposite... this is, the vagus nerve is the command
central for the function of your parasympathetic nervous system...
and so, the vagus nerve reflexive responses can backfire and turn it
from comrade into saboteur... therefore, that’s why the vagus nerve
is known as the wandering nerve, because, it has multiple branches
that diverge from two thick stems rooted in the cerebellum and
brain-stem that wander to the lowest viscera of our abdomen...
touching our hearts and most major organs along the way... it
meanders all the way down, into the belly, spreading fibers to the
tongue, pharynx, vocal chords, lungs, heart, stomach, intestines and
glands that produce anti-stress enzymes and hormones like
Acetylcholine, Prolactin, Vasopressin, Oxytocin... influencing
digestion, metabolism and the relaxation response... so, the vagus
nerve uses the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine… and if our brain
cannot communicate with our diaphragm via the release of
acetylcholine from the vagus nerve then you will stop breathing”
and as he says that, now, at this point, the face of the little man
is actually getting red, like, choking with his own assumptions. And
then, he just keeps going, now stuttering a bit while saying, “Botox
is a toxic substance that has the power to damage the nervous system
and shut down the vagus causing death... and, it's interesting to
note that... the heavy metal mercury blocks the action of
acetylcholine, say, the neurotransmitter that passes the nerve
impulse from the vagus nerve to the heart muscle... and, both
acetylcholine and the nerve receptors in the heart muscle contain
thiol proteins... and so, when mercury attaches to the thiol protein
in the heart muscle receptors and in the acetylcholine, the heart
muscle cannot receive the vagus nerve electrical impulse for
contraction... and the result is that... mercury actually accumulates
in the heart muscle and heart valves, causing damage by attaching to
thiol proteins. And so, now we can say, that, the frequently observed
rocking and swinging behaviors in autistic individuals may reflect a
naturally occurring bio-behavioral strategy to stimulate and regulate
a vagal system that is not efficiently functioning... and so, I may
also say that, nowadays, people have been highly contaminated with
the mercury used in dental amalgam which dentists routinely place
only inches from the brain...and, say, more than three thousand tons
of mercury are actually put into the atmosphere each year
contaminating the entire biosphere of our planet, but the government
and the people, nonsensically, seems to always worry more about CO2
emissions than about the huge amount of neurotoxic mercury actually
present in our atmosphere...” he says, with a distorted mouth, and,
as he actually says that, the screens turns into a disturbing reddish
sky with a lot of dentures actually dangling all around, and then,
some publicity about toothpaste follows. Thus, I leave it now, and
instantly, there I go, through the gambling area, where all the truck
drivers are actually installed now, still talking about the vagus
nerve, the vagus mind, while playing on that stupid machines, and me,
well, as I go through, I'm actually covering and uncovering the mouth
with the palm of my hands, making this sound like the Indians used do
in the westerns movies, and so, as I advance doing it, they keep tell
me to shut up, but I don’t stop, I keep turning around the flipper
machines doing that sounds, and, as it goes, at some point, some of
them are already coming to me, trying to block my way, and, say, in
order to defend myself, I even have to do some acrobatic steps, some
skidding, and so, in the meanwhile, there I go, already jumping
through one of the big windows, now running through the parking lot,
in between the many trucks, and while I run, I'm actually being
chased by a bunch of street dogs, shiny street dogs actually
displaying a continuous effervescence of burning dots, and then, as I
reach the shores of Arcata Bay, the bay actually standing on the
northern banks of Eureka town, I just jump into these waters...
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