The sounds inside his head became muffled as he tried helplessly to pin down the melody. He heard waves of sounds being distorted by some natural or unnatural contraption. He concentrated harder. Was this tone being omitted from instrument/human vocal chords or both? He kept at it and suddenly as clear as day, as large as life it came through and entered his understanding; "Shoo-wop-do-wopppppp". Slow at first, but ever so clear. How could he confuse it. He remembered driving around in his grandfather's old rusted pickup truck, down the gray dirty streets of the immense metropolis. The trucks broken speakers spitting out the "oldies but goodies", the mellifluousness melodies, the broken hearts. That was part of his upbringing, part of his innocence. Always wondering what that phrase meant. He tried to find it in in his cartoons, the books he read, daily conversation that the adults used but he never could find a connection, a correlation to the phrase. It had existed exclusively in abuelito's sound system. And now, it had re-entered his mind and revived those early childhood memories. Better times we say. Simpler times than this weight he felt. Not only that burden but a sudden realization that the spinning lights in front of him were coming into focus as all at once in the dreariest of speeds. Was he dreaming? He felt hard concrete below him and spinning faces above him. The pain in his knees suddenly rushed into his being and they felt as they had been damaged with some time; sore. Like a developing photograph in the coldest of dark rooms, the images in front of his face came slowly into focus and the strung up Christmas lights began to slow down their two step dance. The melody became stronger. It sounded like it was playing inside his cerebral column. "Shoo wap de bop." Like a friends familiar voice, like the melody that welcomed you everyday of your primary school experience. The melodic phrase echoes all around and the images came to a sudden stop and like with some great equalizer, everything came into focus. Sprawled out on the concrete, he knew he had passed out. He never knew when it was about to happen, only that confusion of the aftermath after it happened like a forgettable memory that fought ever so ferociously not to be forgotten but somehow, sadly, it would always drown back down in the subconscious.