Five Hundred Miles is from the Kingston Trio
This collage is Acapella and emotive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Trio
It was October when Ben had fronted a local paper hoping his issue would be made public, and those who were responsible for the death of a school boy, and for the bungled pedophile investigation would be held to account through public scrutiny.
The paper hadn’t called Ben, but Ben had called them, to see how their ‘investigation’ was going. They asked him to come and see them at their office.
Ben did so, and kept them appraised of the things he had been doing, including activities unrelated to his issues. He was promoting the work of Vu and Vu’s friends, who did a substantial amount of non profit community work on no budget.
In bringing the issues to the newspaper, Ben had included material about himself, Dee and another girl he had never dated twenty two years before. Ben had included that because the issues he brought forward were serious, and would probably warrant an investigation into his personal life. The information would be humiliating for Ben, but was intended to make it less painful for anyone who Ben called a friend. Including Vu.
The issues that Ben was fielding were so serious that Ben was being smeared, and Ben felt that by releasing the truth early on the smear campaign would be derailed.
The paper decided that the story was unprintable. They claimed they were concerned that they would be sued for printing it. The journalist also asked Ben if he had told Vu everything.
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Ben felt he had told Vu everything. He had given her his old autobiography, which had been written before many of the smears became known, but which included the important detail of his loves, which the journalist was unsubtly referring to.
Vu was busy. Vu was in regular contact with Ben, but Ben felt it wasn’t wise to pressure her at that stage, and he told Vu he needed to discuss some things with her, but didn’t say what or why, accept it was about the issues he had with work.
None of what followed was Vu’s fault. She was busy and the private time where the issue that Ben wanted to discuss never came around.
Ben was a recluse. He has never dated. He is old and has physical limits. He liked Vu, and wanted to support her work. He also had those old man fantasies which he felt he could discipline into being useful for Vu.
Ben failed. Not only did he not talk with Vu about the issue for many months, he convinced himself he might be more for her.
Finally, Ben got a chance to talk with Vu about Dee, but he didn’t discuss what that meant, for what the journalist had been hinting. A third party had been present, and Vu was keen to let Ben know that the Dee relationship was inappropriate, “damaged permanently.”
When Ben had the opportunity to discuss with Vu everything, he tanked. He wanted to get things on a ‘were just friends’ footing they had had, and which had seemed successful. Ben thought he would finish off the journalist discussion another time.
But Ben was wrong to lie to Vu about his feelings for her, and the result was he wasn’t going to discuss the journalist thing, because she was busy.
Pick the adjective. Lame. Stupid. Foolish. Sick. Old.
Add, ‘Sorry.’
If you miss the train I'm on,
you will know that I am gone,
you can hear the whistle blow
a hundred miles.
A hundred miles, a hundred miles,
a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
you can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord, I'm one, Lord, I'm two,
Lord, I'm three, Lord, I'm four,
Lord, I'm five hundred miles a way from home.
Away from home, away from home,
away from home, away from home,
Lord, I'm five hundred miles away from home.
Not a shirt on my back,
not a penny to my name.
Lord, I can't go back home this-a way.
This-a way, this-a way, this-a way, this-a way,
Lord, I can't go back home this-a way.
(Interlude, repeat first verse)
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
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