March and Pennyworth

Hello Dear Readers!

People have been telling me lately (apparently I’m starting to get a reputation!) that if I want to see something strange, I should stand at the intersection of March St. and Pennyworth Lane.  Known as March and Pennyworth. Also known as the place you can conduct all sorts of illicit business.

Specifically, stand at the corner of March and Pennyworth, with my left hand touching the street sign pole for four minutes and thirty-six second and then look across the intersection between the two mulberries growing there.

March and Pennyworth are in what the locals call ‘Treasure Town’.  Supposedly it is ‘not a good part of town’.  So I took the bus in the middle of the day and carried no money.  Like always.  I tried to blend in by wearing old, worn clothes, nothing flashy.  Like always.  So essentially I went as myself and no one bothered me.

On my way to the intersection, I saw several interesting pieces of graffiti.  That part of town has an abundance.  I saw two Jak-Jak signs.  One said 'Jak-Jak was here’ and the other said 'Jak-Jak ate my balls!’.  The last one was confusing.  Also, I saw the finger over lips sign spray painted on the side of post office box.  Very ominous.

I did as I was instructed.  I timed it out and everything.  And then when the stopwatch on my phone hit 4:36 I looked across the street.  All I saw was a chain link fence with two scrubby mulberry trees growing close together.  Then there was movement.  I squinted but couldn’t tell what it was.  The trees and the leaves were obscuring the view.  As I continued to stare, with people on the sidewalk giving me a wide berth, I could make out an enormous form moving behind the trees.  It lumbered as if it were walking on the other side of the tree trees.  It was walking!  It was some titanic animal moving passed my tiny viewing window.

Once I figured this out I began to be able to pick out small details, an ear here, the curve of a back there.   Never enough to get an idea of what the whole beast looked like.  I saw the occasional tuft of hair, but I also saw patches of dry, scaly skin.  I started to think there were many different animals, but just a  single one.   It was difficult to be sure since my view was so obscured, but a dozen giant creatures must have walked past.  I glanced at my phone again and saw that forty-five seconds had gone by.  

I took a step closer to get a better view.  I felt my fingertips almost slipped off the edge of the pole.  My body froze.  I quickly took half a step back and firmly wrapped my fingers around it.  If I lost contact with the street sign, the event would have supposedly ended

The seconds ticked by.  It was maddening how vague such an amazing sight was.  There were plenty of little details.  It was the big picture I couldn't make out.

There was a seemingly endless line of dinosaur-sized animals walking on the other side of some trees and a chain link fence across a busy road.  I was the only one seeing it.  Maddening!

I began to get the feeling that I was being watched.  Not by the animals, who seemed completely unaware of their surroundings.  But from somewhere else.  As I said, this was not a good neighbor and I began to become concerned that someone might be staring at me with nefarious intent.

I looked around only to find that the world around me had become blurry.  It was like I was seeing everything through a layer of Vaseline.  I almost panicked and let go of the signpost.  But I didn't.  I looked back across the street at the hidden animals and could still see them clearly.  I looked around again and the world was fuzzy and indistinct.  The feeling of being watched was still there, but I could not see who it was.

It seemed like I was being drawn into this strange world that I had discovered(in the same way that Columbus discovered North America).  So I decided that I had had enough for today and let go and stepped back from the street sign.

There was a moment of sudden and severe disorientation, like right after electroshock treatment.  I struggled to keep upright but the effect wore off quickly.  I shook myself and took a peppermint out of my pocket and popped it into my mouth to steady myself.  I glanced across the street between the two trees.  Nothing.  They were gone.

Then I looked around to see who was spying on my admittedly bizarre behavior.  I saw no one.  At least no one that was paying any attention to me.  Most of the residents of this Treasure Town seemed have no interest in anyone other than themselves.

But the feeling I had was so strong.  Had it merely been part of the experience?  I couldn't be sure.  Until I looked further down the block and a familiar tabby cat looked at me around the corner.  I couldn't read it's tag, but it was diamond shaped.  As soon as I moved to pursue the ‘not a real cat’ it disappeared around the corner.  I contemplated chasing it, but running after a cat in a bad neighborhood seemed unwise.

I decided it was time to go home.  I had a confident feeling that I would see the ‘not a real cat again’.  Before heading back to the bus stop I ran across the street, repeatedly getting honked at, and looked at the other side of the trees.  Nothing.  Just a pair of mulberry trees grown through an old chain link fence and a trash-strewn path on the other side.  I suppose giant footprints would have been too much to hope for.

So back across the street and on my way to the bus stop I popped into a corner store and bought an Arizona Ice Tea and bag of Combos.  The snack of champions everywhere.

What a day!  A genuine encounter of my own.  Hopefully one of much more to come.  I’m left to wonder if touching the street sign makes otherwise invisible beasts creatures visible, or it allows a person to see into another world inhabited by giant beasts.  I plan to come back to March and Pennyworth to experiment further!

I’ll keep you updated!