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Flash in the Pan
A Quarterly Posting at Tiny Lights
Abilene
by Mary Ann Mcguire Mccomber
My son is a drama king. Answering the phone Tom told me if he stayed at UCD he would have a nervous breakdown. "Mom why I am going to the same school my family attended, majoring in Ag Econ when I hate farming? I want to make movies." Transferring to UCLA he produced Abilene, starring Ernest Borgnine ten years later.
On set I watched the character Jarvis die of a massive stroke. The critics praised Abilene. Tom called, "I'm coming home Mom I want to be a farmer." Abilene, a 20 year old DVD, collects dust.
Last week Don and I retired for the evening. First in bed I dozed off. Groggily I wondered, "Where is Don?" Then I saw Jarvis dying in Abilene.
I yelled, "Oh my God!" and ran to Don's dressing room, finding him collapsed, having a stroke, words slurring out a misshapen mouth, "I can't move!" 911 sent an ambulance and paramedics who rushed him to the hospital. MDs said, "Early intervention saved his life." I forgot to mention Abilene.
Mary Ann McGuire-McComber is a Sonoma County writer who, with The Venerable Gyatso Rimpoche, exiled Prime Minister of the Tibetan Nation, founded the retreat center Ari Bhod in the Tehachapi Mountains 6 years ago.
Eighteenth Flash
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