Message from Nine to the Universe

If Six Was Nine

Baby Child as a man

as a living grain of sand

Sitting on the ever changing shore

Greeting the sunrise...

As a child, my daddy told me that I was going to be a Voodoo Chile. He'd always tell me stories about the gypsy woman and her mythical powers. He told me that there was a group of specific people who had come from Saturn to teach the people of Earth about their ways of life. Turns out, my dad was right. But there was a secret that he was keeping from me...

I was one of those kids that was always considered weird at school. I was a social outcast. I always had my headphones on listening to jazz, cosmic music, hip-hop, and future soul. Sun Ra, Hendrix, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Kamasi Washington, Flying Lotus, John Coltane, Alice Coltrane, Hiatus Kiayote, Kendrick, J Cole, Gambino, Tyler, the Creator, J Dilla, and so on. I collected records and old jazz concert posters. I was into outer space and Afrikan history. I watched, read, listened to, and studied any and everything that had to do with the two. I was only other vegan next to my girlfriend. I went thrift shopping almost every weekend. I wore dahsikis, British military jackets and Hendrix-style shirts, hats, shoes with no socks, 50s glasses and sunglasses, and I had the biggest and curliest afro in the 11th grade. I played guitar. And on top of that, I had the most unique name in the school. While some were walking around with names like Michael, John, James, and others with names like Tyreke, Malik, and Jay'Quan, I was walking around with the name Nine.

Nine.

That's just my first name. My full name is Nine Satune Ghana Washington. My father told me that my first name comes from the nine planets and my middle name is a portmanteau of Saturn, Neptune, and Ghana (his two favorite planets and his favorite Afrikan country). It's weird because everyone at school would try to make  fun of it, but my name was is so unique, that no one could say anything about it and I would always have quick, witty comebacks about their's. At first, I wanted to change my name and my quirkiness, but I've had to come to accept both. I've had the same friends since kindergarten and we've gone from kindergarten to high school together. And we're all musicians.

Mark "Ringo" King. He was a drummer who was OBSESSED with the 60s. Everytime we had a conversation about music, he would always bring up how Ringo Starr was the greatest drummer ever and how the Beatles was the greatest band ever. And it would get on his nerves when I would argue back that Jimi was a better guitar player than John, Paul, and George combined. I would also told him that Art Blakey could beat Ringo in a drum battle and he would get livid. But he was cool. 

Malik "Cool Breeze" Little. He played almost every instrument, but his main two were piano and trumpet. He was more into jazz than anyone I knew. We also called him "Little Miles" and "Ahmad Jr." cause he studied Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal religiously. He played like them too. He was the coolest out of all of us. He even talked like he was a jazz cat from Harlem that time traveled to 2016. He called everybody "doc" and "cat". Every girl was a "chick". If he liked something, he'd say "I dig that". And if something was good, it was "crazy" or "real gone." 

And last but not least, Ms. Alexis "Dolly Dagger" Wilcox, my girlfriend. She was the most beautiful and eccentric girl I'd ever laid eyes on. She reminded me of myself, which is why we clicked so fast. She kinda looked like Devon Wilson, one of Jimi Hendrix's girlfriend, who he wrote the song "Dolly Dagger" for. She had dreams of being an artist and she was talented. Her paintings were very abstract and reminded me of all the music I constantly listened to. 

We became known as the Odd Squad at school because we were so weird. And we loved it. We had our own special table in the lunch room. We got permission to take off four of the eight seats to fit our accommodations and later, Dolly got permission from the principal to paint the table. It had our own special sections. My section had the planets with Hendrix on the moon, Sun Ra on Saturn, Coltrane on Neptune, Pharoah Sanders on the Sun, J Dilla and his MPC on Earth, and Miles Davis on Mars. Cool Breeze's section had the Blue Note logo with Thelonius Monk, Jackie McLean, Clifford Brown, Herbie Hancock and Charles Mingus painted on it. Ringo's section had a big Marshall stack painted on it with logos from famous rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Doors painted on the speaker. Dolly's section was like this psychedelic heaven with hippies and images of painted acid trips. Of course, it was next to mine. No one ever sat at our table except us and we had that table since 9th grade. 

Every morning, we would sit down and talk about the dreams we had the night before. Ringo's dream was the same every time. He was at the Beatles' Ed Sullivan show concert and he was asked to come on stage with them and do a drum solo. The thing about his dream was that the band changed every night. This particular day, it was the Stones at Altamont Speedway. Cool Breeze's dreams were really cool, somewhat similar to Ringo's. He was in all these legendary jazz musicians' bands. One night it was Duke Ellington, the next night it was Benny Golson, etc. Dolly couldn't really remember the specifics of her dream, but the one thing she remembered was that she was flying through a rainbow and "Bold as Love" and "Little Wing" was playing in the background. 

 My dream was the weirdest.

Like it always was.