Spirits

Some places have spirits. The Islands are one of those places- or so it is said. The sky, the water, the earth, the creatures. At the Luau, you party with your friends, family, the community - the spirits. It was a beautiful plate of shrimp, fresh from the ocean. The evening sun set was on and I was hungry - ready to party with the spirits - consume the spirit of the ocean - the beautiful shrimp. I ate one, two, a dozen went down. But, so many more. In respect, I consumed. I went to bed with the spirits. Later that night, the spirit began to move within me, and I felt it settle in my foot. I heard it as a whisper to begin with - "getout, getout". It sounded like "get out". Then, I felt the spirit pinch me, pinch and not stop. Again, "getout, getout, getout". Finally, it got louder and I understood - GOUT. Terry, you know what I mean. My big toe was killin' me and all I could think about were those shimp and how they transferred the spirit of the Islands to my foot - bad spirit - "get out". Surfed with my bad foot the next day and had fun, ate some food, and thought "maybe tomorrow the spirit will leave me". Later that night my foot was throbbing. Today, it looks like the swell picked up, but I'm hobbling. Hope the crew is scoring some surf - something to even it out. Earthquakes, torrential rains, Gout. See ya.  ¶ 2:02 PM