Session 10 | Fielding With No One

in which we meet Dr. Dobbs

I’m out in the open, unprotected and vulnerable. No one will strike me because the magnetism repels all attacks. I’m like a cloud on the coast, moving way too fast to hit.

So let me teach you how to float like me.

Start with a talisman. Choose something concrete. Retrieve an object from memory, or better yet, locate something with your imagination. It needs to be something you can picture vividly. Choose carefully because you’re going to meditate on your talisman like you’re staring into a flame.

Next choose an emotion. Pick one that’s hard to sit in at first, but that you’ll eventually acclimate to. It should feel something like a bath that’s just barely to hot.

Slowly lower yourself into the emotion, and place your talisman a few inches away from your eyes.

Hold that position.

****

I’ve been telling everyone how bad it is to let me have time on my stupid hands.

“Don’t leave that time there,” I keep saying. ”Put it on my intelligent hands. Those ones are just for bad ideas. Can;’t you see they’re already full?”

I can’t carry any more time. Part of the problem is I don’t have an appropriate vessel. I’ve been searching all over town, in the flea markets and second-hand stores, and I can’t seem to find a bottle that holds the amount of time I’m trying to carry.

****

This kid left his backpack on a chair at my work. I waited until the end of the day, and when I was sure he wasn’t coming back for it, I brought it into my office and emptied the contents onto my desk.

Going through his possessions, I could see that he was a very organized young man. Each object seemed carefully placed in its designated location, and there wasn’t a single questionable item. The only thing I found that piqued my interest was an envelope buried at the bottom.

The envelope had a local return address, and it was destined for an apartment in Boston. I tore it open without hesitation.

Inside the envelope there was a letter to the kid’s older sister. He was telling her about someone he met at the farm where he was working. An old man who a big scar on his forehead, and no possessions aside from the clothes on his back. He had shown up at the farm in the middle of the night, and he told everyone his name was Doctor Dobbs.

****

Doctor Dobbs didn’t have any possessions, because he gave everything away freely.

“I don’t like to be tied down by things,” he said. “If I’ve got something someone wants, I let them have it. That’s they best way to live in places like this. No one can steal anything from you that way, if you’ve got that kind of reputation, the reputation of a man that gives everything away.”

“You never got your shit stolen?”

“No,” he said, his eyes mapping the fields. “Can’t say I have.”