FIRST LOOK AT A PERENNIAL STREAM

The setting for A Perennial Stream flows between India, Europe and the US.  For a first look at the book, here's a passage that takes place in the US.  We hope you will enjoy. Please let us know what you think.  Any thoughts and discussion would be very welcome.  Thank you.

The Welfare Queen

He started dreaming again. A good-looking older man came into focus. This man was making a speech inside a packed chamber, addressing a crowd of men in business suits sitting on classroom type chairs. AJ could only hear bits and pieces, straining to make sense of what the man was saying. The man was well groomed and not only exuded confidence, but also seemed to be inspiring it in his audience. The man’s words travelled in slow motion to AJ’s ears. He heard something and then the words “welfare queen.” Next he heard “shining city on the hill,” and then he heard “government is the problem,” followed by “the evil empire.” Light bulbs went off in AJ’s mind and he recognized the man. It was Reagan. As soon as he realized that, AJ suddenly found himself sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, watching the sun rise over the Capitol. The sky was cloudless and it promised to be a lovely day.

Its morning in America again, thought AJ, as he looked at the red button he was holding which said “Reagan/Bush 80.” He had saved this one button from back in his college days when he volunteered for the Reagan/Bush campaign.

  In a flash, AJ was driving a large black Cadillac through the streets of Washington. He was in the northwest section. The buildings all seemed to be shiny and located on top of a hill.

With no warning, AJ found himself in the southeast section of the city. Dilapidated buildings falling apart, trash everywhere, abandoned lots, boarded up shops, and young black kids soliciting drug sales attack the senses. AJ started looking for Welfare Queens. He didn’t know what or who to look for, but he just started asking around—for Welfare Queens. One kid said he didn’t have Welfare Queen, but he just got a new shipment of some mind-blowing Hawaiian.

 AJ shook his head. He didn’t think Welfare Queens were Polynesian. The kid did promise to inform his supplier that street demand for Welfare Queen was heating up. 

AJ was getting desperate now. He started frantically knocking on doors, one dilapidated building after another, looking for the Welfare Queen—just one Welfare Queen.  No such luck. 

*****

AJ now saw himself in Camden, NJ.  He had just arrived from downtown Philly, where he had spent the whole day searching for Welfare Queens. Why could he not find any Welfare Queens? They must be very cagey, these Welfare Queens. They must be hiding. Hiding from whom, though? President Reagan? Why? Why would anybody want to hide from a kindly old grandfather who brought morning in America again and put all of America on a shiny hill? Or was it the shining America on a hill? Whatever… Anyway, AJ was very confused.

 He kept running from city to city, coast to coast, one inner city area to another inner city area. The entire time he just couldn’t shake the lines from a song he had listened to a lot as a teenager:

 And in the master’s chambers
They gathered for the feast;
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t locate the Welfare Queen. Just as he was about to give up he saw a black woman driving an old junker of a Cadillac. It stopped in front of a pathetic looking row house. The woman got out of the car, went around and started pulling at the passenger side door. After a few tries the passenger side door gave way and a young Asian man, probably Chinese got out. The woman was wearing fake fur and smelled of cheap perfume. There was a halo around her head. There she is, AJ thought. Finally, I have found the Welfare Queen. As he moved towards her, she disappeared inside the house, with the Asian man. AJ waited outside the row house. After a while, the Asian man came out. AJ started to go in, but he felt something hitting him at the back of his head with a heavy thud. He blacked out.

*****

When he awoke, AJ was lying on a filthy bed. He saw a little black boy and a little black girl running around, laughing. They were wearing cheap t-shirts and shorts. The room had junk everywhere, and an old refrigerator in the corner of the room was open and almost empty. He looked to the other side, and lo and behold—there was the Welfare Queen! Shangri La! Her clothes were cheap, but her movements were elegant and catlike, and she had a natural elegance, which she wasn’t even conscious of. She moved forward and offered AJ a cup of black coffee.

“How do you feel now, Hon?” asked the Welfare Queen.

“All right, I guess,” said AJ. “My head hurts, though.”

“You will be fine. You are lucky it was not a hard blow. You should be careful in these parts, you know,” said the Welfare Queen. 

“You are the Welfare Queen, right?” asked AJ.

“I can be anything you want me to be,” replied the Welfare Queen, “but you best rest right now and when you are all healed, you come back, you hear. I will be your Queen and it will be on the house. Okay, Hon?”

“You lied to me,” said AJ. “You are not the Welfare Queen. You are the Queen of Hearts.”

She turned around and smiled the prettiest, warmest smile he had ever seen. He felt the warmth of that smile envelope his body as he slipped back into deep slumber.