TERPSICHORE'S FIRE
PROLOGUE
Where were you and what were you doing, during the summer and autumn of '84? I will tell my story as accurately as I can remember, with all the important and relevant events included and described. I would very much like to tell this true story, to everyone, to the world, to whosoever may be interested, for posterity. It's high time to get all these things written down and recorded before they fade away completely from my memory. Also I want to convey to the reader the essence of what happened and how I really feel, for my life has never been quite the same again. Make of it what you will, because I'm darned if I can make much sense of it. How did it happen? Why did it happen? And much more importantly; why did it have to stop happening? I feel like a student of ancient history, an unknown and unregarded scholar recounting fond memories of a long lost Camelot, whilst living through some interminable Dark Age. It has been said that we can't return to Camelot. The silence and the stillness of the lonely present being broken only by the faint tapping of the computer keyboard as I labour into the night.
This is a story of obsession, for you see I have an obsession. It must surely be the mother of all obsessions. An obsession with someone, the events that happened and with the long lost times we shared together. Obsession is incurable, this I have found from first hand experience. It depends upon your point of view as to whether an obsession is a good thing or a bad thing, and on what the obsession is I suppose. But one thing is for sure, you never forget. When I get to heaven the obsession is the first matter I intend to discuss with The Man upstairs.
As Charles Dickens once put it; "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.........." To which I would add that it was the happiest of times, it was the saddest of times, it was the most jovial of times, it was the most solemn of times, it was the most heroic of times, it was the most frightening of times, it was the most heart-warming of times, it was the most heartbreaking of times, it was the most adventurous of times, it was the most loving of times. I am taking you back in time. Back to a time the likes of which I have never lived before or since. A time as no man has ever lived greater. When fantasy and reality were one and the same. Back to a Golden Age in my life that barely lasted some fifteen months or so. Back to the summer of 1984 and the glories that year bestowed. Back to my memories I shall go.
Back to a wild outrageous time..........
