2.
That memory from the bar, a memory he became witness to, was one which had taken place at the bar, and it was one which actually occurred a few weeks prior to Samuel and Delia's wedding. That evening had been a celebration, a hoo-rah between friends before a change was to come. No one could fore-see just exactly what change was to come. This change would be a difficult one to explain if it could be explained at all.
All that really was or could be known at this point was that a change did indeed come, a change which probably and ultimately saw to the fact that in the here and now ... Delia was gone; she had vanished off the face of the Earth and a notable change in Delia's behaviour was clear and obvious just a mere few months after her wedding to Samuel occurred.
With it being clear already that during the remembered moment, Samuel and Delia had sat together, Sam begins to remember more of that evening not far from a wedding day. He remembers more of what had happened after the visual memory ended. They, Sam, and his bride to be, were inseparable despite being out with the friends who had of course inadvertently brought them together.
Owen Barnes worked the bar that night and had kept an eye on the evening's activities. He watched as a comment was made, a comment that became a toast to the happy couple and that toast was 'may you both forever follow the yellow brick road'.
Glasses clink together and the 'follow the yellow brick road' toast is spoken by all members of the group of friends. Sam remembers as if once again he is witnessing it enfold before him. That toast leads them all to sing in unison 'follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road ... we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz'.
It would not quite be the Wizard of Oz that Samuel and Delia would be heading off to see, maybe not quite to see exactly but more so to come into contact with and the path they were to travel ... well that is the thing really, isn't it? And just whom it may be that Samuel will soon be off to come into close proximity with for as far as the present moment is concerned may not at all be what he would be expecting to come into any sort of proximity with.
Again, if only he could remember what came after that night, after his marriage to an incredible lady. The prior memory or thought of having to follow a yellow brick road ... there is something more than coincidence in that, it means something ... but what? ... this is the thing.
After having spoken with Owen Barnes at that closed down bar, Samuel heads towards where that night club used to be. That dance and the 'crow's nest' DJ box weighs heavy upon his mind. As it is ... things move on and so often change. What now exists in place of that night club is a large square out-door area which stands in between two apartment blocks.
The center-piece to this large out-door area just so happens to be a full-grown oak tree. It stands in a large square patch of dirt right smack down in the middle of a grey bricked street. This oak tree has a look about it that suggests that it has always stood right where it currently is, though of course this is impossible. There would not have been a full-grown oak tree standing within a night club ten years ago, no matter how such a thing may or may not appeal to those in any kind of power that relates to any kind of night club.
Samuel arrives to this oak tree and almost straight away notices the presence of a crow's nest high up among the branches of this tree. How strange it is that in a position approximate to where the Crow's Nest DJ box once stood now rests an actual crow's nest. There is something else here too, Sam can feel it just as if it is something which has drawn him to come to this exact spot at this very moment.
Walking slowly around this oak tree Samuel becomes a little confused. Yeah, the confusion towards the reason he feels that this is where he needs to be in this very moment is very real. He was sure that this is where he is supposed to be. Why he needs to be here he does not know.
'I don't get it ...' he says to himself as he begins to get frustrated. 'There is nothing here. There is supposed to be something, there has to be something, or at least a someone'. A sudden feeling of dejection hits and Samuel speaks again though in a quieter and slower tone than before. 'There is supposed to be something here.'
Samuel moves to sit on the near two-foot-high wooden base that surrounds the dirt at the base of that oak tree. He is in that spot only a matter of seconds when something falls from above and lands next to his right foot. What it is that lays on the ground next to his foot are keys, three keys on a key-ring to be more precise. Samuel looks down at these keys and then immediately looks up. It would appear that the keys had fallen from that crow's nest.
As he looks up Samuel can see there is a single crow within that nest, and it caws at the moment he sees this bird. The crow takes flight and Sam watches it depart. Samuel picks up the keys and oddly enough he has a fair idea as to where and on what these keys can be used. His thoughts turn to Delia and fairly soon he moves away, heading off in the same direction to which the crow flew off in. Maybe he has found the reason why he was supposed to come to that rather large and singular oak tree.
In the moments he spent by that tree, Samuel had been more or less alone. There had been people out and about nearby but no one in the immediate vicinity of that tree other than Samuel himself. There was that crow of course, but that was just a bird. Huh, just a bird. As soon as Samuel does moves on, a man steps out into the open and moves close to that tree. Samuel does not notice this man at this particular moment though this man is someone with whom Samuel has come into contact with before and he most certainly is observing Samuel.
