THE BERKELEY INN

Excerpt from the working draft of Memoirs of an Artist: My Life in Transition

Penned by Charles Burnell 201
!leeping solid" #hen$ sitting straight up$ in a cold sweat" %here was my mother& ' knew something
terrible was happening" ' was so worried about her( %hat was wrong& ' looked around the room" #he
clock said 2)*0 am"$ e+erything else was as it should be" Except ' was awake$ and positi+e that my
mother was in danger"
' li+ed with my father" ,y mother li+ed a half hour away in Berkeley" !he li+ed right off #elegraph
-+enue in one of those .esident /otels$ called #he Berkeley 'nn" ' lo+ed going to +isit her because
she0d gi+e me money to go downstairs and across the street to the ,et1o to get her tea and ' would get
a hot chocolate or a mocha" ' felt so grown2up being in the city and going into the cafe on my own" '
would go to the park and talk to people who were hanging out" %alking down the street$ ' would learn
all about the world from the poets on the street corners" 't felt glamorous" 3i+ing with my father$ was
going to school$ coming home and doing my chores$ going to my room$ and going to bed early" ' was
always depressed or bored or lonely"
' looked around the room again" #ook a deep breath and told myself out loud$ 4't was only a dream"
5ou were only dreaming" 'ts ok" -nd you need to go back to sleep now$ because you ha+e school in the
morning"6 ' straightened out the blankets$ pounded my pillow around a little$ and laid back down"
,y alarm clock was set to auto" E+ery morning 78E% woke me up with the news" #his morning they
were reporting 4#his morning at about 2)*0 am$ the Berkeley 'nn .esident /otel$ home to se+eral
people$ burned down"6 ' sat bolt upright again in my bed" #his time$ ' knew ' wasn0t imagining it" ' was
so worried$ ' stopped listening to the report" -ll ' wanted to do was call my mom$ and ' couldn0t
because of course her phone wouldn0t work if the building wasn0t there any more(
' know that she got a message to my dad and subse9uently$ to me$ later on that day" !he was ok" ' had
been so worried" :nce ' knew she was ok$ ' didn0t pay much attention to the rest"
#he memory of the extra sensory perception of the e+ent$ the knowing that ' was gifted with$ is the
most important part of the memory" #he part that ' don0t think ' will e+er be able to forget"