WEBVTT

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OK, I'm going to read
a couple of pieces

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from a series of fake dreams.

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January 19th-- no
contact this morning.

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The Pope and I were going
to have lunch at what he

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said would be the Waldorf.

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We walked there
through a somewhat

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sub-aqueous New York, sweating
walls, women in Hawaiian shirts,

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men in aprons with beads of
perspiration on their cheeks,

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suggestion of mold
on most walls,

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almost all the stone
grainy gray to tan,

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to smooth black, purple,
carrying hints of blue, green,

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silver.

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Some low lintels
even had seaweed.

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The Pope was wearing
his full outfit.

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His mitre, of course,
made him look quite tall.

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And his robes puffed
him out sideways too.

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I asked him how he was
handling the humidity.

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He said it was all Gore-tex,
gesturing toward his robes

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as we strode along.

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We laughed.

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But I didn't hear the
swishing sound Gore-tex makes.

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His clothes were quiet.

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We got to the Waldorf, which
was a Greek place, the Wharf.

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It really was
something of a wharf.

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We sat at a table made
from a large wooden spool,

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the kind for holding
miles of phone wire.

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The ceiling was low,
decorated with fishing net

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and red and green
colored lights.

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We looked out at some dark
view that had water in it.

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He ordered fried
calamari, and so did I.

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So now the time had come.

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"What about Jesus
Christ," I asked him.

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"He supposed to have
come down from heaven,

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and I'm not interested?"

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The Pope finished
squeezing a wedge of lemon

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onto his sandy curlicues.

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He kept looking at what
he was doing, as he spoke,

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although in fact, he
had finished doing it.

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"The file cabinets were
ordered a long time ago.

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They thought they were
very big at that time.

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Nobody's allowed to
look in them anyway.

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Look, I'm enjoying my
squid, how's yours?"

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Yes, mine was pretty good too.

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I noticed his English
was unaccented.

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How come no hint of Polish?

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"I'm universal," he said.

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We laughed.

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