Under orders from the wonderful Katie Kunar, I went deeply in to character, and became a peacock. My body now not my own, but a foreign animal in my possession, my consciousness wandered the grounds of the Motorway.
What should an electric peacock, finding himself all alone at a Vegas Carnival, do?
Go stare at the giant diamond of pulsating light was the obvious answer.
"It’s fantastic being an electric peacock," the peacock thinks as it lays watching the Pretty Lights dance to the music. "No one to entertain, no one to align my will with but my own – I am living art."
Now, two Mexican men see a lone peacock and decide it’s an exceptionally strange thing to find at a Carnival. They lie beside the peacock on either side and make the West Side hand symbol for a photo.
After the first five photos aren’t good enough, they insist on yet another.
The peacock laughs as his view of the diamond is obscured by a furious Mexican man, tired of being a photographer for a silly peacock, giving his friends the finger.
“Chinga tu madre!”
What happened to Peace Love Unity and Respect? The peacock wonders.
The Mexicans leave and a bear approaches the peacock and settles beside him.
“I’m from Michigan,” the bear tells the peacock.
“I’m from Ohio,” the peacock explained to the bear, “But now I live in Las Vegas.”
“Would you like some molly?” the bear asks.
“I am Molly,” the peacock answers.
“I don’t fit in, in Michigan,” the bear explains to the peacock. “Is that how you felt in Ohio?”
“Yes,” the peacock, feeling very friendly now, answers.
“It’s better out here,” the bear says.
“Yes,” the peacock answers.
A line of white clad dancers walk by carrying glowing umbrellas. The peacock and bear stare after them in awe.
“They’re so beautiful,” says the peacock.
“You could be a dancer,” says the bear.
“Yes,” says the peacock.
The bear tells the peacock, “My mom said that she’d be fine with me getting a piercing. Isn’t that crazy? My dad said no, but my mom said it be fine.”
“Super crazy,” the peacock answers.
Together the bear and the peacock watch the glowing diamond.
The peacock decides it’s time to wander… until… something is good enough… to catch its attention. Something. Worth. Stopping. For.
A carousel! The peacock evaluates the carousel animals to find The One.
The peacock sees a beautiful ostrich! That’s it! That’s mine! The peacock runs to the ostrich before anyone else can take it from him.
Sitting on the ostrich, the peacock feels great. He strokes the ostrich’s head.
“Out of all of the carousel animals I could have had, I knew from the moment I saw you, that you were The One that I was meant to have.”
The electric peacock is cheesing.
It’s nice to get exactly what you want. Passing gypsies, candy kids, and animals see a peacock riding an ostrich and smile and wave and point. The peacock waves back.
“This is groovy! A peacock riding an ostrich!”
The peacock never uses the word “groovy” anymore, but that’s the only word that aptly explains the situation he’s found himself in.
“So nice, I’d like to ride it twice,” the peacock decides as the carousel stops.
A silent statue of a man turns from his horse to the peacock.
“You like riding that don’t you?” the man leers.
“What?” the peacock is perplexed.
“I can tell you like riding your horse.” The man seems to think the peacock is going to giggle and talk to him – possibly in a high-pitched baby voice.
Damn it. A peacock can’t tolerate this sort of innuendo-laden talk on his night off. A premature farewell to the ostrich and the peacock is off into the day glow dark as the man yells after him.
The peacock tries to ride a Ferris wheel.
“The Ferris wheel is only for the VIPs,” a ticket taker says. The peacock is sad. It seems cruel to deprive a peacock of a Ferris wheel ride simply because he’s not a very important person but only a peacock.
The peacock sighs and walks away.
Music comes from a stage where thousands dance. That’s where I belong next, the peacock decides and goes to join the dancers as ATB DJs.
Fireworks begin, and the peacock is mesmerized.
“Nothing has ever been so beautiful as this,” the peacock realizes.
The peacock remembers the past as the light falls towards him from the sky.
“All of it, even the bad, was fireworks,” the peacock sees now, tears streaming down his face.
All of it was a burst of light that I couldn’t catch. A flash in the night, and the temporary nature of the thing is what made it so extraordinary.
Watching the fireworks, the peacock finds peace for the first time in a long time.
The peacock thinks of the friends he’s known and wishes that they could dance with him Now, but tonight the peacock is alone and not alone but with everyone at the Carnival, and the peacock is more than content for things to be this way.
Two soldiers ask the peacock for a photo.
“I hope we’re not bothering you,” a soldier says.
“Not at all,” the peacock replies.
“Can I see your face?” a soldier asks.
“This is my face. I’m a peacock,” the peacock explains.
The peacock wanders to a fun house and talks to two lovely girls.
“You can come with us to the fun house,” the girls say.
The girls and the peacock navigate together through a labyrinth of mirrors. They watch distorted images of themselves dance. Then they slide back down to the carnival.
The beautiful music of Afrojack beckons the peacock forward. Images flash on the screen. “Before one thought is over, the next one begins. One thought interrupts the one before,” the screen explains the importance of Being Present to the peacock as he dances.
“I wish this could be real,” the screen sympathizes with the peacock.
The peacock spends his night dancing, wandering, admiring the art, and the beautiful people. One of the best nights ever experienced on the planet Earth.
As the peacock sits on a bus, headed home, he watches the sunrise over the Las Vegas strip and smiles.
