An Old Refrain Played by the Book

By Al Lucas

This is a book of Paul Undres, protagonist of the Step Series and still at it. It is fictionalized by name only with the author's take on reality as he has plowed through the years of polarized politics and low self esteem. It is at this late juncture that he is proud of what he has had to fight through and hopes his character shows it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312132597

Al Lucas

This is the original 1st person version called High Steppin' off da Crack, first submitted as a 3rd person account under the name of simply Hi' Steppin' years ago. This 1st person version is more in keeping with an autobiographical style while still using fictional names as characters and was created before the 3rd person version, but lost, only to be found later after the 3rd person publication. It opens with an emaciated man standing on the day of 9/11 in the VA lobby, awaiting hospitalization for crack usage. One bizarre incident after another occurs leaving his sanity no longer in question. Being a Vietnam-era vet, he is screened and then followed up by two psychiatrists of Oriental persuasion who treat him rather realistically, to his chagrin. He is discharged with a nursing plan to attend Avon Park, a renowned dual diagnosis center in Sebring, FL, but first must go to SafePlace, a transitional housing facility in Tampa to protect him from the dealers while he awaits an opening in Avon. First, however, Paul decides to go home and have one more bout with crack, to get the high he never had, using his car as leverage. It doesn't work out so well. He thus attends SafePlace without a car. It should be noted, he has read to one of the psychiatrists his ongoing novel and continues to read or have read to any and all its contents. One person, a roommate, at SafePlace is so moved, he blows his brains out. At Avon, he is assigned a class coordinator, Manfred Mundane, an ex-military pilot, who is unsympathetic about Paul's writing skills. Getting kicked out for bumming cigarettes, Paul comes home with new verve. He will in fact attend AA and does. He fights his way out of bankruptcy and foreclosure blindly with no help from family or friends and miraculously incurs twelve years of clean time. The book ends with a surprise, reserved for the reader. It should also be noted, the narrative weaves between Paul's acid days in Morocco and his current plight. His journal is in the past tense; the book's outcome, in the present with both coming to an end in Paul's bedroom where reality merges in a sexual farce.

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An Old Refrain Played by the Book

By Al Lucas

Copyright © 2023 Al Lucas

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-312-13259-7

Imprint: Lulu.com

The Step Series:

The First Step, Hi’ Steppin’

The Second Step, A Step Down

The Third Step: The Smoking Gun and the Coughing Nails, a Real Read Herring.

The Fourth Step, Running on a Big Dream.

The Fifth Step, The Last Job, To Sweep the Heavens.

The Bon Mot Series:

Mister Bon Mot and the Election of 2016

Mister Bon Mot and The Meanings of Wife

Also:

Pan and the Pandemic

Al

Force Feed, Colors of the Cerebrum

?@intellience.com

Dwindling Supply, the Art of Aging

The Parrot and the Parakeet,

The Baby Formula with the Silken Approach

The Midterms

The Underlying Meaning of it All

An Old Refrain Played by the Book

Visit: https://lucaslore.com

Table of Contents

Amateur Hour      6

His Theme Song      8

The Best New Artist      10

The Jammy      12

The First Mistake      14

The Second Mistake      17

The Third Mistake      19

Sociosis      20

Death      22

The Principles of the Spirit      24

Wounded      25

Meaning      27

Funny      29

The Nagging Sensation      31

The Social Club      33

Looking Straight Ahead      34

The Properties in Play      36

The Multifaceted Elvis      40

Spot On      42

The Path      44

Sincerity and Seriousness      46

More Maybes      48

Putin or POTUS?      50

The Savings      52

The Guiding Light      54

Fluctuation      56

Being Smarter      58

Blackness      60

The Nitty Gritty      62

Helping      64

Hopelessness      66

The Con      69

The Artist      70

Sexual Music      72

The Company      74

God Damn      75

Unfriendly Life      77

Family      80

Aftercare      82

The Best Life Has to Offer      83

Incipient Consciousness      84

The Hum and Drone      86

Fair Weather and Foul      88

A Happy Ending      90

The Highest Form      92

Memories      97

Bubble Bouncing      99

The New Man      101

The Silent Treatment      103

2023      106

2024      107

Amateur Hour

Life is not a song until all the chords are played. The chords must be known before any combination is realized. Understanding this, Elvis made ready to contribute to the Christmas spirit by giving away two, not just one, but two dollars to every available vagrant on the street. This was sweet music to his ears.

The light that sparkles in a vagrant’s eyes when the sight of two, not just one, of Uncle Sam’s bills hits the palm is a fascinating spectacle, a sight to see.

Still, there was the family to consider. What have they done? Where did they spend Christmas? Instead of holing out in a forsaken, dungy studio apartment, all of Elvis’s relatives were high rolling it, whether on a plantation in Summit, MS. or a fancy home in Pinellas Co. FL or a rustic lodge in Sacramento, CA., they were all living the life, a life Elvis could only imagine.

So, Elvis imagined. He saw himself giving to beggar after beggar until the VA replenished his stock at the first of the month.

You see, Elvis never worked like his relatives or his neighbors. He never put in an eight hour day in his life. What was the purpose he asked? Surely, life had more to offer!

And it did! The VA gave him an outstanding disability rating hitherto unheralded by any other that went before the Board. The fact that Elvis had to wait until he was 76 before being granted, diminished the treat somewhat, but it would make the next twenty years of lassitude pure utopia. 

Just who is Elvis? He is an identical twin to Paul Undres, a character perhaps more familiar to readers, being the protagonist of the Step Series. The interesting thing about both is that they live in parallel universes and have made the same mistakes. Both lives are exactly the same. So, in discussing one, it covers the other.

Elivis, who was 76 but couldn’t perform at a manly rate, decided instead to give to charity, also known as philanthropy. He would marry a crackwhore in fact. After all it had been the crack which had really ruined things for him. The crack being the crevice in his thought process. All his thinking had poured down the crack, so to speak.  Alack, crack was back he used to say. But the stipulation was that she stop using it. Knowing that it is impossible to outrightly change a person into a demure, domesticated individual, Elvis recanted his New Year’s resolution of 2022 and decided instead to not get married at all, but to live the remaining years in cerebral wonder, wondering if there was any redemption for a playboy of high class like himself.

That was the thing about Elvis. He really had an inflated picture of himself. He was low class actually. He had done things to animals that questioned the validity of humanness. And he had shown license in adult peep stores much later in life.

So, in addition to the vice of freeloading, he had the vice of gray colored liberality.

How bad was that? It felt like amateur hour with him as the star. 

His Theme Song

The VA had said in no uncertain terms, Elvis, you are an alcoholic. Your brain has been corrupted. You are a villain to your own well being.

Elivs peeked his head through the Shroud between him and Paul. Did you hear that? I’m a villain to my own well being.

Paul could only nod. Was that the reason you beat me up so badly in our youth? You wanted to die?

Ask God that question.

And what did he see in Him?

The Lord.

I was afraid you'd say that.

It had been twenty years of AA. Fifty years of VA, but just twenty of AA. Twenty years past the peep shows. My, how forgetful a man can become with AA spirituality!  And the dogs? The cats? How many years back were they?

How could he look at himself and not recount horrors? Plus, had he failed in the workplace.  He might have toiled for the rest of his life paying God for his transgressions, had not the VA gifted him.

No, this is official. He gets a check. He played the chords as the melody kept going on and on. He was one man, who insisted on getting the tune right no matter how out of key. Karma made up his reality, and wrote the book on his song. 

It went something like this:

Yea Yea A A

Thoughts come and go

Whether the wind blows

Or the snow.

It’s an old refrain

And time for something new,

I’ll grind out a refrain

Until I’m blue.

Blue, blue.

Yes he could be a candidate for the Grateful Dead with lyrics like that! Or perhaps a cutesy pop song ala Carole KIng. The earth moved under his feet and the sky kept tumbling down.

No he could paraphrase and often did. The sand shifted under his feet and he lost his foothold, but did not fall. Something kept him up. 

The Best New Artist

Elvis had been doing