Into the Fire

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Back in the last millennium

I sang a young man’s song

Didn’t matter much to me 

if I did right or wrong

All the time before me was 

Forever waiting there

Young as life’s adventure

Wild, and free, and fair

With two cents in my pocket

And the clothes upon my back

I made my way toward Mexico

In a stolen Cadillac

As I crossed into Arkansas

‘met a girl with a pretty smile

said she’d like to stay with me

‘least, for a little while’

Eeew weee! 

To live a life that’s free

Is my desire

but then I stepped into the fire.

Said the law was chasin’ her

Told what her daddy’d done

How she’d shot him down in cold blood

Then she showed me the gun

Stealin’ cars was one thing

Murder another still

My how things get turned around

I felt a sudden chill

One foot through the floorboard

put miles ‘tween us and them

She spit three times over her shoulder

and she never looked back again

We took a left near Hot Springs 

And drove all day and night

Pulled off before sunrise

The boarder just in sight

Eeew weee! 

To live a life that’s free

Is my desire

but then I stepped into the fire.

Her sleepy head in my lap 

I lay back to catch some “Z’s”

dreamed about her perfect smile

how her hair blew in the breeze

It seemed to be so perfect 

to float without a care

when I woke up with start

and realized she wasn’t there

Policeman tapping at the window

And the gun there on the floor

He asked to see my papers

And I felt that chill once more

The judge he found me guilty

Of crimes I did and didn’t do

Gave all the time before me 

And even more before he’s through

The trial was quick, and they say fair

The first is surely true, 

So they locked me in a cell here

With some other worthless fools, 

At night as I lay down to sleep

I see that young girl’s face.  

She keeps me such good company,

As I rot here in this place

Eeew weee! 

To live a life that’s free

Is my desire

but then I stepped into the fire.

I don’t know if she made it 

to that golden ocean shore

It’s been so long since those days 

I can’t see her face no more

but in my dreams at night

I see the sunshine of her smile

and taste a little bit of freedom

at least for a little while

Eeew weee! 

To live a life that’s free

Is my desire

but then I stepped into the fire.

©2019 Lance Harrison

It all started out so innocent. Well, maybe not so innocent but nonetheless it wasn’t as bad as it turned out. Sometimes the stories take you to places you never imagined you would have to go.

In this particular story, I would write a line and ask where it went next, it told me and I would follow. This went on for a while and then it moved very quickly to the resolution. As the character understood his fate, he resolved to just accept it. What else could he do? Life doesn’t always go the way you think it will, or in your opinion, should go, but it does tend to move around the choices we make.

I needed a banjo on this song, and while I have a fretless banjo, I didn’t feel I did it justice. As it happens, I wished for a talented banjo player to show up… and he did. The magic of the 4000 islands or just my good fortune manifesting, again. Joonas Taneli did a great job on this track!