Frank Georgalis – Writer

The Barefoot Evangelist: (Book; Part V)

Bar scene The Angry Man

He drove around for a long while, searching his soul, but he found nothing in his surroundings which could respect or could be attracted to. He felt terribly sick at heart and sensed a craving for a conflict, so he parked his car and walked into a saloon. Much to his surprise the place was crowded with early seekers of some sort of excitement, in the pursue of vile amusement. Ηe went and sat alone at the end of the bar, feeling shame for thinking that he had failed in some unknown point in life. The feeling of failure, which was often brought up by his wife’s comments in a nagging fashion, did not desert him even after he gulped down two whiskeys, one after the other.

Finding nothing of great significance to anchor his thoughts, he went on surveying the crowd of mixed young men and women, feeling idle and out of place, seeing the crowd which seemed to him to be lingering about without a purpose. While the men looked as if their outburst of passion had to be accompanied by violence, the women remained constrained. It looked and sounded to him, as if there was nothing to prevent those men from treading on other men’s toes, particularly if they were convinced the act would inflict a lot of pain on their victim. He basically sank back from their notice. He was not afraid of them; he had an abundance of courage but more so he had an abundance of pride and integrity that barred him from getting involved with that class of people. They all looked to him as if their deeds and sayings were only delightful to themselves. Erik’s eyes fell upon a man of over six feet and three inches in height, weighing over two hundred twenty pounds, who was roaming around the room with  a drink in his left hand, and his right hand waving and stirring the air extended outwards with stretched out large finger as if they were longing to grasp on to something concrete. He moved around the crowd followed by two sidekicks, a little smaller than he and both looked as if they were escorting rather than following him. He pranced around like a stallion and made way to nobody even those who were a cut above him. He walked straight at everybody as though there were just an empty space in front of him and carried himself as if he were thinking that he was marveled. Erik gloated spitefully as his eyes followed that big man, thinking how that conceited member of this two legged arrogant species would react if he were pistol-whipped, hard in the face, making his hat to drop on the floor.

Suddenly occurred to him the thought, which felt like a brilliant idea; to go and stand up in front of the big man’s lane and not step aside to let him pass as the others were doing. The brazen thought took such a hold on him that his hands trembled as he lit a cigarette. Erik went as far as to plan that he would not only refuse to step aside but he thought of pushing the big man out of his way as he was doing to others. As he sat there he toiled with his thoughts, at last he made up his mind to challenge his marked foe. He thought, before he would challenge the man, he might take one last good-look at him; so he did. A sudden peculiar thought entered his mind that man whom he had marked as his foe, something bad might have occurred in his life that caused him to maintain his mucho image. Erik thought the man at times did not know if he were abusive, because his mind was too occupied showing off. Such a man, he thought, was in need of pity. However, Erik was not the one to make any piteous contribution to this untamed loose animal, resembling a human. Erik found it nearly impossible to fathom the fact that no one challenged the man, thus, the last thought that came into his mind was that he would go up to the man, complement him at first to put his mind in the idling gear, then he would try to enlarge his mind with some Greek philosophy and if that was rejected, of which he thought certain it would be, he would then take his pistol out of his shoulder holster point it at the man straight into his belly and before pulling the trigger he would hit him on the face, tell him to get down on his knees and apologize for being so arrogant and rude to everybody; but Erik thought again that type of challenge would be too extravagant to match his own character. At any rate his mind was firmly made up to challenge him one way or another.

Erik had no clear reason to hate that man except that his actions looked more familiar to him than just bad and perhaps similar to other men like him. He went ahead without a plan at hand, other than not moving out of the big man’s way; although he had decided to challenge him any way by what ever method would come in his mind at that time. Although he found it difficult to chart a course, it occurred to him to have another drink with a hope of finding something clearer in his mind. Seeing and guessing the big man’s character, and believing that if he’d lived in the old days, he would never miss a guillotine-day, he would cheeringly follow the cart of the ill-fated man; uttering words of condemnation mixed with threats, so Erik thought that any sort of challenge on him could not be done without a careful preparation; it had to be done skillfully and without hurry. After having finished the last drink everything became a lot clearer in his mind. He would simply tempt to excite the big man into attacking him, so it could had been called a self-defense reaction. The final thought was that he would go up to the big man, and stand steadfast and if the big man reacted with violence, Erik would stick the gun at his belly, pull the trigger and walk out and go home as if he had just killed a perfect nuisance to society. He suddenly thought that Jesus was sent or came down to teach men the difference between right and wrong, but he was taking away before he accomplish that, because, he thought, many men don’t know the difference, between the two. With that final thought in mind, and with the hope of doing the right thing, Erik stood up, moved the inside of his elbow up and down to check the whereabouts of the pistol that was concealed under his dress coat.

However, it must be noted that Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction might had been absent at that moment as a young woman, like an angel from above, rushed towards Erik and sat next to him, beckoning him to sit. Not being completely certain of his plan at hand, Erik obeyed and sat next to her without any consideration. The young woman remained there in a perfect silence for a long minute looking away with a lot more agitation painted on her fair face that it was on his.  Then she suddenly broke the silence.

“The reason I came and sat near you was to stop a killing,” said the young lady, still looking away from him.

“How did you know that there was going to be a killing?” asked Erik coolly, although he should have been astonished hearing her words which could very well referred to his own plans.

“Oh, I know, because I would have been the killer. If I had stayed there one more minute, I would have killed one of those arrogant and ignorant creatures they call themselves men, and who have no idea what a woman is, besides a playmate in bed,” she said revoltingly, looking at him now from the corners of her eyes.

Being pleased to learn that his plan was not revealed as he had at first thought, Erik smiled with relief and stayed mute with his eyes on her. His gaze was a simple act of routine without searching for anything beyond what he could see, which was her long blond hair, her blue eyes, astonishing figure and the kind of face even though it seemed disturbed at that moment, it still projected a smile and beauty.

“What’s a woman to you, cowboy?” she asked, with a serious look.

“Me? I am just a misplaced cowboy who is having problems trying not to fall off my saddle,” responded Erik, throwing a glance at her way.

“Giving an opinion of women ain’t going to make you fall off your saddle, unless you are riding a wild horse or you are not a very good rider.”

“I think neither but others around me think both,” he replied.  “But if you insist on hearing my opinion, first, I must tell you that the men discover sex before are introduced to women and after that, some, if not most cannot separate the two. A woman to me,” he started after brief pause, “is like the star where love lives and it shines in the early hours of the morning before dawn. It can be exciting, delightful, tormenting, but at times it can be very boring. They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I am going to take a chance and say that I think you are all of the above without the boring.”

“My God,” exhaled the young woman. “I have finally met a man with common sense and a sense of humor.”

“Were you looking for something like that?” asked Erik.

“Aren’t we all? Every woman is looking for a man with common sense and a sense of

“I don’t think every woman is looking to find something like that,” replied Erik, “I know that from first hand experience. I must tell you that I have to ask eleven women to unite with me, before I find one to say ‘yes’.”

“How do you mean unite?”

“I mean exactly what Jesus meant when he told Maria Magdalene to unite with him so she could see the light otherwise she would live in darkness.”

“What did he say to her? I know I am putting my foot in my mouth, for all I know you may be a preacher of some kind.”

“I really don’t think I can pass for priest. He told her that there is only one time that one and one does not make two; it is that when one man and one woman are united, it does not make two, it only makes one.”

“Please, explain to me how one and one makes one, this I must know even if I am headed for hell asking that because I think we are speaking of God.” she said.

“This is very peculiar,” continued Erik, “When Maria Magdalene heard that, asked Jesus the same question that you are asking me.” There he stopped, took a sip from his glass, turned his entire body to face her and said, in a low voice, “Jesus replied, ‘When you remove your garments of shame and you tumble on them like a child at play and then you come to me and unite with me, we shall become one, you will see the light, otherwise you will live in darkness,’ said Jesus”

“I see, according to you, Jesus had a line for women too. Where did Jesus learn all that? I thought he was an innocent Son of God,” she asked extremely fascinated.

“I don’t know. All I know is what he said; and that is according to the Bible, which promotes sex, it says, unite and multiply,” responded Erik humorously.

“You mean to tell me the union you are talking about is about sex?”

“Of course.”

“I can see at times you are also a wise-ass,” she mumbled. “Tell me, who do you think was Jesus?”

“Jesus was like me.”

“Do you think you are Jesus too?”

“No, I don’t think I am Jesus. He was the Son of God like I am the son of God.”

“Oh, yes? You really think you are the son of God,” she asked, squeezing her eyelids and wrinkling up her nose.

“Wait a moment. You look at me as if I am crazy,” he said.

“Aren’t you?”