Angel: “Have you seen Mark?”
Dreamer friend: “Which Mark?”
Angel (as if there could ever be more than one Mark): “Mark DeAlessandro.”
Dreamer friend: “He’s way over there (she points through about 300 bodies in between my getting to take Lai to see Mark). He has a white baseball cap on.”
I hold Laileigh’s hand tight. “Look for a white baseball cap…” I see him. We thread our way past person after person. “Mark!!!” He sees us. We reach him. There’s barely 12 inches between us and everyone else, sardines…
Mark: “Laileigh!!!!!” he reaches for her.
Angel: “Pick her up…” He turns back to the friends he had been talking to. “Just a sec…” They all pose for a picture. I get my phone ready, camera on screen. (to a lady I recognize, standing there) “Would you please take a picture of Mark, Lai, and me?” She sweetly takes my camera. Mark turns back to us.
Angel (to Mark): “ I want your pic with Lai. It has to be right now. We came in a taxi. He’s waiting for us outside in the parking lot. Pick her up.” I see John.
Angel (to John): “Would you let me take a picture of you, with Mark & Lai? I have one of you and Lai in Oklahoma (2 years ago at one of Mark’s stunt workshops Lai and I went to). John says yes. John was Chuck Norris’ stunt double… and the “6 Million Dollar Man” …and a bodyguard riding in John F. Kennedy’s car when he got shot in the movie “JFK,” …and was in “The Walking Dead.”
John (to Laileigh): “You don’t remember me do you?” She probably doesn’t. But she remembers Kaley. Kaley taught Lai her 2nd stunt that weekend, how to climb a tree. I took pictures. Kaley was Mark’s friend, Lane’s, protogee. Lane did the motorcycle stunt, riding up the stairs, in “Terminator.” These guys, Mark and his friends, know their stuff. Mark is the top though, as Sylvester Stallone’s stunt double. It just doesn’t get any higher than Mark and his buddies. Now they are posing for my picture. But some guy and lady I don’t know are in the shot. Mark says I need to get them too. So I do, later I figure out who they are…oh…wow… Lai loves Mark. Mark taught her one of her first words, “Hallelujah,” AND her first stunt, when she was 4 months old. I’ve taken her to several of his workshops over the past 7 years. We love Mark and vice-a-versa. I never really noticed just how big John is, before. Wow. I take half a dozen photos. “Thank you!”
Mark (to the group): “I have to walk Angel and Laileigh to their taxi.” He does, we wind back through the crowds with Mark holding Lai’s hand. “This is my spiritual goddaughter,” he proudly tells friend after friend after friend. “I have to walk them to their taxi in the parking lot.” I figure out, later, he did that to protect us. He makes sure the taxi guy knows to take care of us. That’s Mark. Now the taxi guy loves Mark too. Everybody, I mean Everybody, LOVES Mark. All 700 people there hope to catch a glimpse of Mark, touch the hem of his Jesus robe. Mark is beyond a Star. See my many, many stories about him.
I detour Mark into Johnny Cash’s house before we get to my taxi. Mark detours US into a picture with Kyle, who we see on the path, outside, of course he does. Kyle loves Mark, this is Kyle’s event, I walk with angels, gods. The title of my current book I’m writing is “Chapelgate: the gods of Mount Olympus.” As we walk people stop Mark (to “This is my spiritual goddaughter”). Inside Johnny Cash’s packed house Mark gets stopped by person after person. He’s still proudly holding Lai’s hand. She’s happy, Mark’s here. (“This is my goddaughter…”) I take as many photos of Johnny’s house as I can while he talks to person after person. It’s always like this with Mark, if not person after person then phone call after phone call. I’ve now met a dozen people Mark has introduced us to. Finally, I pull him away and we make it to our taxi. That was one expensive taxi ride, all the way from our hotel in Nashville, here, and back.
Mark (to me at the taxi as he puts Lai in and finds out the name of the taxi guy and sees his face so he’ll remember): “You made it.”
Angel: “I made it. I was so tired. Like on the cruise.” Mark remembers. “But now I can say, forever, that we were at the 10th Anniversary of “Dinner with Dreamers.”
Mark: “Take good care of them.”
Copyright 2024 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved
Written January 8, 2025 at 11:59 pm
