Shakespeare Jumps To Earth

An Acid Trip

SHAKESPEARE JUMPS TO EARTH

By R. A. Merritt

(EXCERPT)

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The music was intoxicating and thus far his mate’s advice had proven to be as near to prophecy as saying he could go more than a fort night without sending Ortega into paroxysms of disputation.  A preposterous predication to be sure.  And that was exactly his present predicament fulfilling a penance for his most recent infraction.  

Ortega had wanted to impose an even greater penalty on him than what he suffered, but he had testified on his mate’s behalf declaring his infraction merely the consequence of journeying all night to be back at his station before the next muster.  

Alas when arriving he collapsed with such a burden of weariness that he fell into such a slumber that not even his mate could arouse him to his duty.  Additional to this knowing he had ingested a legal substance that aided his perception during the hazardous passage back then one may understand that he could not recover consciousness once its power ebbed.  

He had been within their chamber the whole time and produced a note he had composed that morning addressed to his mate attesting to the fact that he had endeavored mightily to alarm him to his necessities. 

He had not imparted this to his mate’s immediate superior not having similar obligations being in possession of a profile and thus exempted from any similar duties.  And so upon that time he went about his day unmolested by anyone free to come and go as he pleased.  When he became aware of it upon his return he went with his mate and put on record the facts of the matter whether for 

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good or ill as far as his mate was concerned.  They were merely acquaintances due to the fact they being the two senior of the personal in that enclave entitled to the accommodation of the chamber.  

His original residence was nearby in this duplicitous and rather sanctimonious region full of contradictions and yet often a very friendly place full of rustic charm and yes esthetic and inquisitive minds.  The naivety of his lilting dialect also had an endearing quality to it and for the most part his fellows enjoyed his company.  And thus unlike his northeastern roommate who was in his own way an equally likable character full of mischief and ethnic charm he was admired and appreciated. 

His roommate despite his admirable qualities also in many ways had a brusque manner very much in stark contrast to his more courteous provincial tone.  Rather than using overbearing obstinacy to better another he chose glibness and droll profundity to disarm them.  

And he was in his own way a colorful individual, but such as it being so close to his departure from any further obligations to those in the depths of the Pentagonal edifice and at the same time suffering a physical ailment that emancipated him from most responsibilities all their superiors taking note of this and his having always performed beyond expectations concluded to award his roommate the benefit of the doubt and Ortega was directed to give him a minimal punishment.  

Ortega had looked askance when the time came for him to express his opinion and expert witness in the matter.  And though those taking the testimony determined his statement was most what swayed them in the rendering of their decision Ortega remained mute around him.  

However upon the morrow when demanding they remove the lock from the chamber door told him he had been disappointed in his testimony and certain he had perjured himself.

He assured Ortega his testimony was true (it was not) and that only his mate and God were present when it occurred and he thought the latter was not a potential witness no doubt being to busy what with creation and the firmament.  

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The punishment Marciano got was naught more than inflicting him with a day of boredom.  “What do I care, it is nothing new with me.” he said as he was preparing to set off.  And then he came to him.  “Are you determined to do this without a guide, the jump to earth is perhaps one of the most dangerous things you shall ever do my friend, to do it without a navigator is throwing caution to the wind.” he had pronounced.  

“See here Marciano I've journeyed this way before, I've sailed upon the stars.” he informed him.  Marciano had whirled about before his exit and looked at the rectangular portal wherein streamed the brilliance beyond the structure.  

“I know you have lest I would have determined not to deliver it to you for lack of experience.  But take my heed this preparation is beyond anything you might have experienced in times past.”  “How so?” he asked.    

“It may take you on a journey beset with terrors and melancholy, to places from which you may not be capable of returning from.”  Marciano proclaimed his face growing quite solemn.   “I will be judiciously cautious I assure you, I have met hazards on my previous journey’s and prevailed upon my inner self to overcome them.” he said and encouraged him to depart before he once more be judged imprudent. And off Marciano went and he as well.  

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The music was engaged and he awaited the coming departure.  It wasn't long in coming either moving up stealthy at first, but as the moments passed becoming more pronounced.  Yes it had not been long at all.  

As the music moved about like a flitting butterfly trailing a rainbow of mellifluous colors he set upon his way, set upon his trip to jump to the earth.  And the music was soon all encompassing the accompanying colors moving like ivy at first with the insistence of that vine whose legend began in the Orient and now inflicts this whole of the domain in its grip like a cancer upon a body.  And often it seemed to him as if they were the entrails of some monstrous beast astride the land charging and burrowing and inspired to do evil.

The whole half of the room where was its origin soon was shimmering in a ghastly display of these colors.  The door of the place offered no retreat the colors to prominent to allow escape by that way.

This was the moment and so he made his way toward the rectangular portal where the yellow brilliance held sway.  He moved cautiously now through a veil of the colors as they took up the whole volume of the chamber.  

In it he saw faces, strange faces and those most familiar.  And now there were voices among the changing chords of the music coming from the stranger Floyd on the dark side of the moon.  A whirring noise took hold from whence it emanated and at a mere interval in that that was sounding before came an entirely different cacophony of sound of a Superstar named Christ.  What manner of journey was this to be?      

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And there he was at the portal his eyes affixed to that which lay beyond as the seemingly sentient colors engulfed him.  Dare he think it to take him prisoner and expedite him to some region where he would be denied any longer the sanity he had before embarking upon this way.  

Outside was brilliant golden light and a canvas of blue, the sound of fowl upon the wind.  

But suddenly it all turned dark and a dark that would rival the blackest of onyx the darkest of things one might imagine.  And too some great distance away and close by as well the twinkling of lights the vision of dreamers, the tempting of stars, the threading of comets across the heavens.  

Seeking clarity he focused his mind and tried to avail himself of what was now before him the perfect circle of a horizon arcing there back lit by unseen lights beauty made manifest.  He lifted up the lattice barrier of the portal as high as it might go so that he might have access to this darkness with its distant glowing eyes and gaseous bodies of unknown terrain.    

And then he was outside perched upon its ledge.  The curvature of the earth was what he was viewing now as certain as he was in this structure that lie above it.  He made his way with caution further out onto the ledge of the portal. The music still played behind him the colors more stable now, more inviting. 

And then beyond the horizon of the earth the halo that was like the outline of a brilliant painters stroke now expelled the light like a mushroom above the curvature and then an explosion coming in its wake.  A bomb was dropped some where, a great and terrible bomb.  Now was the time now was the time one made the jump to earth.  Voices came to him from the surface discouraging and otherwise.  He did as Marciano had proposed he was doing throwing caution to the wind.  He pushed off from the ledge and went into the dark emptiness of space and jumped to the earth below.  

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October 14, 1973 Womack Army Hospital Fort Bragg, North Carolina 

NOTES FROM COLONEL JOHN F. BULLOCK MD PHD US ARMY

Re. Psychiatric evaluation of patient Specialist Fourth Class Mordecai Shakespeare -  The preceding third person narrative composition is the explanation given by patient Specialist Shakespeare for his present disposition and the source of his inclination to use such verbosity. He has suffered exceptional and definitive mental incapacity due to his ingestion of a lysergic acid diethylamide hallucinatory drug known colloquially as JTE (Jump to Earth).  Those who have consumed it have been known to propel themselves from great heights thinking they are in space and able to land on earth safely below sans the use of a parachute.  Many have suffered serious and fatal injuries and some like Shakespeare have survived.  On or about the previous weekend Shakespeare ingested said hallucinatory and convinced he could see the curve of the earth from his third floor barracks building jumped to the ground below.  He suffered a severely broken leg and a tragic case of OL (obnoxious loquaciousness) having been convinced during said “acid trip” he is in fact been transformed into the real William Shakespeare rather than Mordecai.  He has subsequently been physically assaulted on numerous occasions for driving people to distraction with his language.  For his own physical well being and the sanity of those who might have to serve with him in the future I and as well his Company Commander Captain Jorge Ortega 82nd Airborne Division heartily recommend he be given an honorable discharge forthwith.   

   (EXCERPT)

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As he went to the earth so far below he remained rigid like an arrow shot from some hunter’s bow toward some prey in flight across the expanse of green that spread out from the structure he was previously within.  He landed and rolled as was his instruction when coming from a great height.  At the same time a pain beyond description took precedence in his right leg.  He screamed in terror and lay in desperate straits looking above from whence he came.  

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(ACTUAL)

PFC Winston poked his head out of the window.  

“Good God Shakey what have you done?  Don’t move you damn

fool.  Carlton somebody call for the paramedics.!” he shouted to one of the soldiers below and turning back to those in the room behind him.

That afternoon when they were all at chow it was the main topic of conversation Specialist Shakespeare had dropped some JTE acid and jumped from the third floor room he shared with Sergeant E-5 Marciano.  “Why not?” said Specialist Hosteller.  “After all we are in the goddamn airborne?” he continued.  It was fifteen minutes before the laughing stopped.  Rumor soon spread throughout Company D of the Third Brigade of the 82nd Airborne that Specialist 4th Class Mordecai Shakespeare was as mad as a goddamn hatter.  To paraphrase the bard.  “What suffereth a man who f***s with his mind?” 

Author's Note

Around this time at Fort Bragg during the Yom Kippur War while restricted to base because of the DEFCON Alert I dropped some "Window Pane" acid by myself and hallucinated that I could see the curve of the earth from my second story window. At one time during it I was convinced I could jump to the ground below without injury. I probably could have but wondered what other affliction might beset some fool named Shakespeare and subject to mind altering verbosity. The music reference of course meant I was listening to "Dark Side Of the Moon" by Pink Floyd. Once while it was playing I heard the music change and played the entire chorus of "Jesus Christ Superstar" only to have it go right back to the last lyric I had heard from "DSM" and proceed on from there. Therefore I had heard a whole new song in the less than a mere moment. It freaked me out big time. I am often nostalgic for those days when I felt truly free despite the regimented life I was living.