{"id":2144,"date":"2011-12-15T00:27:43","date_gmt":"2011-12-15T00:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/?p=2144"},"modified":"2011-12-15T00:32:08","modified_gmt":"2011-12-15T00:32:08","slug":"captured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/captured\/","title":{"rendered":"Captured"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Muhammed\u2019s Bill at my pal\u2019s 60th birthday earlier this year. He was growing suspicious of the woman he lives with then. Now, he has been captured by Nazis. Photo Socotra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My pal Muhammed has a father who is on the same road as Raven, only not quite so far down it. He called me up as I was peering out the glass windows of my eighth floor office at the sun sinking into the Arlington heights under thin salmon-colored cirrus clouds.<\/p>\n

\u201cYo, Vic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYo back at you. Wazzup?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGot a story for you. My Dad Bill has been falling a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRaven just had one, too. Freaked me out when the nursing home called.\u201d I know his Bill pretty well from when we were teens, a couple centuries ago. He was tough as nails, and was a navy gunner on merchant ships that did the Murmansk Run in the Big War, the one that was in waters so cold that death was the only outcome of going in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that and thought you would be interested. So here is the deal here. His Doctor placed him in a Physical Rehab facility in Southfield.\u00a0 He is in a single room with TV and a bed, kind of like a Hospital room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just described Raven\u2019s roost at the Bluffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Bill got placed there Friday, when they moved him from Beaumont Hospital. I went to visit him earlier today on my way to work.\u00a0\u00a0 He and I discussed the Temple win over Villanova in basketball and he asked if the community college where I teach\u00a0\u00a0was near this facility, and whether I had to work today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds like he is still with it,\u201d I said. \u201cDoesn\u2019t he have Parkinson\u2019s or something?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but here is what is interesting. He began to tell me that he has been in this facility and has not been able to escape yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny, that was Raven\u2019s last sentence to me when we put him in the home. \u201cI gotta get out of here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Dad told me there is a plot afoot and he is trying to figure it out.\u00a0 But, he told me that spies are everywhere and they are assembling files and dossiers.\u00a0 He then said that Bonnie, the Head Nurse, is a leader in the conspiracy.\u00a0 He is worried that they eventually will get information out of him.\u00a0 So he told me that he is clamming up and will not talk to these people who could be spies.\u00a0 He is refusing to “talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds like he remembers the Code of Conduct pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, in the middle of this, Bonnie walked in. My Dad and I stopped talking.\u00a0 Bonnie talked to me about his physical condition and when he will be released.\u00a0 Then Bonnie says to me that Bill is confused and mentally cannot follow what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not what was going on, was it? He was trying to not tip the Nazis off that he knew what they were up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. So, Bonnie tries to prove to me that he is out of it. She asks Bill who I am\u00a0 My Dad ignored her.\u00a0 She repeated the question.\u00a0 He looks at her and mumbles:\u00a0 “Evelyn Mae Muhammed, my Mom\u2019s full name.\u00a0 Bonnie, thinks Bill said\u00a0“Brian.” So Bonnie looks at me and says.\u00a0 “Well, is your name Brian?\u201d So she says, \u201cSee, he is confused and does not know who you are.”<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah but you knew he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYep. She sat there, as if she had proved her point.\u00a0 I said nothing. I knew that Dad had not said Brian.\u00a0 To me, it was like he was stonewalling her and giving his Serial Number but was not gonna tell this potential spy my real name.\u00a0\u00a0 He didn\u2019t want them knowing who I was, since I could help him solve the case and help him escape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am glad that Raven doesn\u2019t have any confederates to break him out of the home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, my Dad may have one. So then, Big Nurse says\u00a0\u00a0to him:\u00a0 “Bill, he looks just like you, he has the same shaped head as you”\u00a0 She seems to be prompting him to make the connection on who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he is not going to give it up, is he?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he just looks at her and says:\u00a0\u00a0 “That is not my problem, that is his problem.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a hoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, so when Big Nurse leaves.\u00a0 He starts discussing the plot again, how Bonnie is a ringleader and how he wont give her any information.\u00a0Then he asks me if my brother can visit today because he needs to know about this and may know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t he still living in California?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. I tell Dad that I will call him and let him know the details and report back to Bill tomorrow. Then he says to me: “The food here is lousy,\u00a0can your wife cook me some food and bring it tomorrow?”<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he knew who your wife was and that she is a great cook?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHell yeah. He not only knows my name, knows who I am, he knows what my brother\u2019s name is and who my wife is. Then he asks me some for some details about the Lions win over Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazing. Maybe he thinks you are with the Red Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCould be. I dunno how long this goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has more in common with Big Mama than Raven. Raven is just out of it. She is mixing up the movies on TV with reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it is pretty amusing how these things work.\u00a0\u00a0 I guess this is why we may not actually need LSD as we age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood luck with this. There is no instruction manual with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTake care, Vic. I will keep you posted,\u201d he said and clicked off. I shuffled some papers on the desk and watched the last light of the day reflected in the clouds. Then I turned off the computer, slung my briefcase over my shoulder and went down to the street.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if it is better to be held by the Nazis or just be out of it.\u00a0Honest to God.<\/p>\n

I walked up the block and crossed the street and walked into Willow.\u00a0The Lovely Bea was planning a surprise birthday for Jon-with-no-H and all the usual suspects were there. Jon-without is turning 50, I thought, and that means there is around thirty to go until the Nazis capture us all.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I suppose we may as well drink up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Lovely Bea at Willow, holding a montage of photos she created for Jon\u2019s 50th Birthday. Photo Socotra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Copyright Muhammed and Vic 2011
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My pal Muhammed has a father who is on the same road as Raven, only not quite so far down it. He called me up as I was peering out the glass windows of my eighth floor office at the sun sinking into the Arlington heights under thin salmon-colored cirrus clouds. \u201cYo, Vic,\u201d he said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2148,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions\/2148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}