Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Girl in a Fountain


This post is a mixture of dream images, hard truths and wild speculation.

Dream Images will be color coded in blue text.

Hard Truths will be color coded in gray text.

Wild Speculation will be color coded in pink text.

I no longer worked for Science City at Union Station but that didn't stop the nightmares.
I should have fixed the fountain before I was laid off. Dave Kramer my boss wouldn't let me outsource the fix and I couldn't do it in shop without risking my own life. I tossed and turned in my sleep worrying about the children. I had the big two inch thick sheet of plastic on the table saw four or five times but if it bound up it would kick back and possibly kill me. I should have paid out of my own pocket and had it done with a wet saw.

In my dream I was at the fountain floating above it. A little girl fell through grid floor and laid dead of a broken neck in the water beneath the floor. A floor held up by two tiny blocks of plastic too short to be safe.

"It's not my fault, I don't work there anymore."

The three angels came to me.

The Child Angel couldn't tell the differences between life and death.

The Injured Angel had no emotions and had trouble speaking.

The Old Man Angel seemed to be the leader.

The Old Man Angel spoke to me; "Only you can stop this."

"How can I stop this? I couldn't change anything when I was there."

" You moved the picnic table and the bike rack when parents tripped over those obstacles and got hurt."

Said the Old Angel.

"You got the ladder removed from Space Station exhibit when children fell from it and got hurt."

Said the Child Angel.

"The car, the doors, you closed down the car exhibit when children fingers were smashed. You stopped that."

Said the Injured Angel.

"You ask too much. I know these ego mad people they care for only being right and nothing more."

I said this but my words were hollow.

"Only you can stop this." Said the Elder Angel as I fell into hell.

I fell deep into the darkest pit of my soul. Designer Demons created from my own sins swirled around me waiting to feed on my deepest fears. I fell faster and deeper as the Child Angel came near me.

"I am you as a young child. Let me be one with you again and I will give you purity of imagination to do battle against great evil."

With those words the Child Angel became one with me and my decent into hell slowed.

Then the Injured Angel came to me and spoke.

"I am you in a moment of death. You may search for words you can not find in your broken mind but with me you have infinity imagination to do battle with great evil. Let me be one with you again."

The Injured Angel became one with me and my decent into hell stopped.

The Old Angel came to me and spoke.

"I am you in old age. I can give you wisdom to know when to use purity of imagination and when to us the imagination of the infinite. Let me be one with you for the first time."

The Old Angel became one with me and I became a being of pure light. The demons around me burned in the the light and returned to the nothing from which they came. I ascended to the upper heights of my soul to look down on the dark vision of the Girl in a Fountain. For that moment in my dream hell owned no part of my soul.

I floated above the old waiting room of Union Station Kansas City and a family of three came towards the fountain. The little girl of two or three ran towards the fountain but the fountain with its dangerous hidden defect disappeared and she ran on pink marble floor where the fountain once was. I had chanced the future in that moment and the little girl would grow up and know love and marriage and have children. She would have a full life and know her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

In a moment I would wake and doubt would fill me with fear. These ego driven elite would fight me in a secret war of wits but in my dream I was a being of pure light. I would win all the battles but lose the war. If I could save only one child then whatever happen to me would be worth it.

Next on this post is the true story of my war of wits with the power elite of Kansas City Mo.
More to come....

I had made a vow to myself never to go back to Union Station Kansas City Missouri but I knew I had to break that vow if I was going to get the fountain removed. There were 17 dangerous exhibits beside the fountain and I knew it would be easier to get these exhibits removed before the three million dollar fountain. At the time my friend Richard Hirsch was still working at Union Station and he was feeding me information about what was going on.

Richard told me about a couple of artists running something new called Project InSECT.

"I'm not going to set foot in Union Station Richard, nothing good can come out of that place."

"You've got to see this Robert, the artist is painting a giant praying mantis and her partner is like magic to the children."

This was my reason to go back but how was I going to force Union Station Inc. to remove that fountain? I thought about Mike Smith a former manager of mine, telling me about two children falling through the fountain floor on two separate days. One of those children was taken to Children Mercy Hospital and given stitches in his leg from a nasty gash from falling through the fountain floor. Children and adults could enter the lower level of the fountain and the streams of water through the entrance would shut off as people walked into the center and start up again in a few seconds.

Children thought you could start and stop the water streams by stomping on the rubber mat floor but in truth all this did was shift the two tiny plastic blocks over that held the floor up. An electronic beam tripped the fountain jets.

I walked into Project InSECT on the parking level of Union Station in the old Nature's Critters storefront. It was pure magic! As a adult I seldom saw the soul colors around people but Jessa had a yellow glow with streaks of blue and James a blue green glow that turned yellow on the edges when he was around children. I told them both how great they were and how they would be world famous someday. They were a free exhibit and the children and the parents loved them. Science City was part of Union Station Kansas City and was a multimillion dollar exhibit space but it could not compete with two artists pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

"Mommy, I don't want to go to Science City. I like it here."

I heard this hundreds of times and saw many of these children return in 20 minutes with their parents.

"They didn't like Science City and begged to come back here."

Said many a parent that returned with their children not only the same day but keep coming back. For a time I believed I was wrong about the fountain, after all it was only a dream. I was happy to be in the beautiful glow of Project InSECT.

Then the folks at Union Station got jealous and started playing dirty tricks on the folks at Project InSECT. Turning the lights on and advertising they would be at Union Station when they were at the Kansas City Zoo instead of Union Station just to name two things. Along the same time Phil Kline of U.S. Toy Magic shop fame asked me to help him work on a movie about corruption in Kansas City. After saying no a hundred times I said yes. A video camera was going to make that fountain go away.

In a town hall meeting where Turner White CEO of Union Station was explaining why new taxes were needed, I asked questions and choked when the CEO racked me over the fire of his superior intellect. The man was smarter than me but I had the truth on my side and the public turned against him. A few days later he resigned and left his office at midnight.

With Richard Hirsch I organized a protest against Union Station and with a little help from a local TV station most of the dangerous exhibit were removed.

Then I put the icing on the cake and found a honest man that talked to the bully billionaire of Kansas City and the fountain was removed after a couple years of face saving by the power elite.

I wish I could tell you this hero's name but I gave my word to keep his identity a secret until after his death.

More to come.....I was going to go into more detail in the hard truth part of this post but I felt the story would go on too long.

Well this is the wild speculation part of this post. I believe Union Station Kansas City Missouri is under a 200 year lease. My Grandmother English knew the owners of the property at one time.
As this is hear say, I have no proof. Perhaps my Grandmother was told a lie.

One of my bosses at Union Station, Mike Smith told me that Donald Hall owned Union Station.
When I asked him what he meant by that he said he couldn't say anything more except that my salary and all of Tech ops was paid by Donald Hall. Again all this is hear say and I have no proof.

The friend that introduced me to the honest man said the power elite wanted a hands off policy when it came to Union Station. Still hear say.

After I faced the CEO Turner White in a town hall meeting a man named Mark Funkhouser investigated Union Station for a year. He found no misdeeds at the old landmark and then became mayor of Kansas City. Did a billionaire with plans for Union Station help him become mayor? I don't know, just a thought.

This is my question; If you ask for States, Federal and Local taxpayers to pay to rebuild a landmark do you have the right to leave it to your family in the future? Of course this is all hear say and sometimes where there is smoke, no fire is to be found.

Next Post; Birthday Boy and the Coughing Game


4 comments:

Lottery Girl said...

Hey Robert!

Just getting back to blogging after spending a month off. LOVE all your new stuff! As always, the drawings are awesome! Had to click on them to make them big so I could really appreciate them.

Especially liked the Icicle story. My dad used to let me sit in his lap and drive his car on our street when I was little. We lived in a very small town, so it was safe to do this. Just yesterday I was trying to think if I had any memories of actually being small, and today when I read your post and thought of that memory with my dad, I figured out I did! Thanks!

Robert A Vollrath said...

The hardest part of writing any story is remembering what really happened. It made my day that the Icicle story helped jog your memory.

I'm fond of the Icicle Compass because its so honest in the fact I don't remember the story I told my kids.

Thanks for the Comment.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

So sorry Robert I have not commented of late. Been wrapped up in family matters and then spent 5 days with Anita painting at different venues. Since I got back its been hectic with paint projects. Loved the image you did for the brain rewiring post. Could'nt get over the icicle compass story. Like the colour code idea - but there werent any pinks!!??

Robert A Vollrath said...

To Joan

After the car wreck I see colors different. I see pink but it may not be what you and the rest of the world see as pink.

I don't think I'm color blind but I think I'm color enhanced. I lost my sense of smell but I can see patterns in flowers other people can't.

I guess I see the world more like birds do. Slightly in the ultraviolet. I hear slightly in the ultrasonic. My world is very beautiful but very intense.

Hard to sleep as I see colors in the dark.