South Pacific

This morning I woke up and was deciding if and when I would remove myself from the bed. Then a strange thing happened. The score from ‘South Pacific’ started playing in my head. Not just the good songs but every song one after the other.  ‘South Pacific’ was my sister favorite musical.  She had the lp and played it for months 24/7.  One day it just disappeared but not before the whole household knew the complete score.  Anyone of the family of five could have stepped in and save the show if anyone got sick.  I was forced to go see it with my sister at least five times.  The tickets weren’t cheap after all in was in ‘Todd-ao’ for Christ sake.  I quickly got out of bed and did the stroke thing in the mirror. Everything was OK.  I took a couple aspirin to be sure.  I haven’t thought about ‘South Pacific’ in a long long while.  When I went to visit my father years later. There it was.  South Pacific in that old tattered cover.  Damn, we couldn’t stand the sight of each other but we had one thing that held us together. It wasn’t the Bible or church, it was the musical score from ‘South Pacific’.  I can’t picture my dad ever singing ‘Happy talk’ ever.  It’s amazing what is bouncing around in that gray matter in the wee hours of the morning.