When the light of the world becomes unbearable, Jed retreats into the dark room and dwells in the shadows
There he finds his holy place and performs his sacred ritual
Training his demons like dogs
Dressing monsters in drag
Making sense out of the anarchy of existence. 

One day when Nothing could lift his spirits from the grime of the daily grind.
Nothing could kill the busy buzz of business.
Nothing to drown out the hustle and bustle of city life and shut down the terror of domestic mire, a face he had never seen before in his life appeared before him. It glowed in the dark. 

“Knock knock,” the face said.
Out of the blue a door formed. 
Who’s there? Jed answered.
“Lucifer.” It said. 
The face glimmered like gold. 
It burned brighter and brighter 
until it hurt Jed’s eyes.
Lurching towards the dark to take cover,
Jed suddenly remembered something he read somewhere. 
“If you had the rare opportunity to speak with the devil, do not forget to confront it in all seriousness.” 

Jed blocked the blinding light with his hands.
“Knock knock” he told the light.
The door lit up suddenly like a Christmas tree and the shining eyes of the devil grew dimmer.
“You may enter” said the face. “Under one condition.”

“The souls in hell are not burning bright enough for me,” said the face “and I need more radiant souls to feed my dazzling em-pyre.”

Jed had a dark side but his heart was light. He had a willingness to empathize with suffering souls.
A feel for life’s hidden contradictions.
And a healthy suspicion that things are not what they seem.
He had audacity and a stone faced calm when met by ridicule. 

“What's the deal?” Jed asked. 
The devil danced, 

“Well, it’s one for the money, two for the show
Three to get ready now go, cat, go
But don’t you step on my blue suede shoes
Well you can do anything but
Lay off of my blue suede shoes
Well, you can knock me down, step in my face
Slander my name all over the place
Do anything that you want to do
But uh-uh honey, lay off of my shoes
Don’t you step on my blue suede shoes
You can do anything but lay off of my shoes
Now let’s go cats (oh walk the dogs)
You can burn my house, steal my car
Drink my liquor from an old fruit-jar
Do anything that you want to do
But uh-uh baby, lay off of my shoes
Or I’ll set your soul on fiiiiiiire.”

Jed looked down on the devil’s shoes and felt rapture. It was the most sublime otherworldly beatific pair of shoes he had ever seen on anyone with his own pair of eyes.

He made the pact and all the lights in the room went out. Every glimmer / gilt / spark / shine / flick was gone. It was the blackest of all black. He made his way around the dark room taking care not to step on the devil’s shoes. Fumbling around he found his camera.
Suddenly he heard the door creak open. There on the far side of the room. Very dark and very deep. As dark as it can get. Where the deepest darkness no one would follow. An angel glowed. 

Jed followed the angel and entered the door. He came upon a barricade. The signs read do not enter no trespassing caution warning keep out danger stop under construction! One after another. 

Jed and the angel came upon a brick wall a wire fence a concrete wall a picket fence a bamboo fence and a wooden door a glass door and a steel door and chains and plastics and iron grills and doors made of candies and another made of flowers and of rocks and of bones and of excrement and of clay and pillows and coins and bills and dust and clothes and poison ivy.

Day turned to night darkness into light and back again round and round they went. More walls and doors made of underwear; ice; worms; rats; creepers; fireflies; roach eggs; bats; scents; olfactory elements; graveyards; webs; caves; whisky bars and on and on until Jed and the angel reached a barrier of light. 

Jed noticed the angel’s shoes were gleaming like neon demons. But something kept the light from shining as bright as it should. He looked closer and saw his own tracks. His prints were all over the shoes. 

“This way.” Said the angel, looking him square in the eyes and pointing towards a funnel. Jed knew he was lost and had nowhere to go. It was time to take a leap and go all the way dooooooooooowwwwwwnnnnnnnnn.

Ploink! Jed landed on cool ground. Gray and dry like the surface of the moon. He stood up and found out his shoes were gone. So was the angel. He spotted a campfire nearby and walked towards it barefoot. 

Oooomph! Jed stubbed his toe and fell down. There lying on the ground were a pair of blue suede shoes. Boring and drab and offensively uncool. He wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them. But he had to.

Gathered around the campfire were his dead idols. Dead poets dead painters dead musicians dead writers dead photographers dead sculptors dead inventors dead sages dead philosophers dead saints

When they saw Jed they all called out to him: 
Save us! Save us! Please save us! Moaning groaning whining and tormenting him. 

Jung Huxley McKenna Leary Kerouack Barthes Sontag Cocteau were standing directly behind Jed, waiting to hear what answer he will give to them, and what answer to destiny.

Jed was surprised because he always thought they knew more than he did and were the possessors of great knowledge. 

“We know only what we knew at the moment of our death, and nothing beyond that.” Said Huxley. 

“Please share with us your knowledge of life.” Said Leary. 

“We came back from Jerusalem, where we found not what we sought!” Said Jung.

Jed felt his heart beating and calm wash over him. He sat down with them around the campfire and told them stories about the people he knew the places he’d been and the things he’d seen. Stuff he’d heard and felt, tasted and smelled. The good and wonderful things he’d done. His loves and pleasures. His failures and sorrows and shame and frustration and pain and worry and fear and hate and anger. 

“What brought you here in this gray zone?” Sontag asked.

Jed looked down on his shoes feeling self-conscious. “I think my soul is in peril.” He said, clutching his camera. 

“Catch a falling star and 
Put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away
Catch a falling star and 
put it in your pocket
save it for a rainy day. 
For when your troubles 
start multiplying,
And they just might
It’s easy to forget them without tryin’
Collect our crumbs and eat them.
So that you may find the way.”
Cocteau sang Jed to sleep and they all carried him off to bed. 

Jed woke up the next day in his house. It was a bright new morning and he was late for work. 

What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? Jed thought. It is too heavy. It will always show.

That night Jed felt himself growing gloomy again. He was well aware that to live on earth a man must follow its fashions, and hearts were no longer worn.

He looked around the room. And there they were. The blue suede shoes. Way uglier than before. Soiled, ratty and beyond repair. Embarrassing to wear and cramped his style. But weirdly they were glowing.