On the main street in Deal nearly opposite the Landmark Church one will find a handsome redbrick house which was between 1936 and 1939 the home of the composer John Ireland

But it is not the house and its associations to the composer that interest me but the space that can be seen next to the building.

My pet Zebra who has since turned into an elephant tells me that this vacancy was caused by a German shell which was fired from France some twenty-five miles away

I tend to believe this story as Deal was heavily bombed during the war and for many days each year France can be seen from the town

But the proprietor of the Sad Cafe who is a direct descendent of Dorothy Phillips who married John Ireland in 1926 begs to differ and notes that the space was the result of a later friendship with a student named Helen Parkin who later moved to Australia.

Zoo Zoo told me that there had always been a space next to the house and although it is not well know it is the last resting place of George Gurdjieff

In view of this I decided to research Gurdjieff and his near fatal car crashes in 1924 and 1948

As my fatal car crash occurred in 1973

I was a well read red butterfly and had studied his theories that most of us do not possess a unified consciousness and really live our lives

In the state of the hypnotic

It is termed a waking sleep

As I sat there enjoying my coffee cheese I began to see how beautiful the world really was

People passing oblivious to the music of dogs

Dogs passing oblivious to the music of people

And music passing was oblivious to people and dogs

I carry a photograph of GG in my wallet

It was taken shortly after he died

The photograph is extraordinary

The flower in the foreground

Was placed next to George

By a former me

I have produced a number of copies of this photograph

Which I distribute freely on Saturday mornings in Deal

 

This will be my one and only short story

As I do not care for short stories

This is not a short story

 

 

Stephen