Chapter 3:

Day 1: Ray Manzarek

The Stairway To Heaven


I couldn’t wait for the adventure to start. I was very curious with who will I spend the first day of this Rock N Roll adventure. When I was told that  the first day I will be with Ray Manzarek, I was very excited and happy to hear that. The sound that “The Doors” had, wouldn’t be the same if Manzarek wasn’t playing keyboard for them. That would be a very disappointing for the whole Rock N Roll fans worldwide.

I was out of their room and a man dressed all in white came to me and said: “Follow me”. I didn’t know what was happening but I listened to him and went after him. He took me to a room that was called “The Deaf Room”(because you can’t hear anything from outside), there  was noting inside except one chair. The man looked at me and said: “Go inside, sit and wait for the first man to come. You will spend your next 24 hours with Ray Manzarek”. When I heard that I couldn’t stay calm. I was about to jump from happiness, but I must follow the rules. I entered the room and sat on the chair.

I was waiting for Ray to come. As I was waiting, I was wondering if all this is just a dream and if my wife would come to wake me up and feed me, because I couldn’t feed myself without help. Also I was wondering if this is all real, would he teach me how to play some of the amazing keyboard solos from the songs of “The Doors”. While I had these questions in my head the doorknob moved down and the door opened. Then he appears in front of the room.   

I waited to see what will he do. He entered the room extended his hand to me and said: “Well, it seems like I am the first in the line to spend one day with you child”. I got up, shook hands with him and smiled. He asked me: “What do you want to do first?”. I answered: “Let’s spend all day by teaching me how to play keyboard”. He laughed at me and said: “Oh kid, let’s do something more interesting than that”. I asked what did he want to do. He said that he hasn’t played basketball in a long time, so if I wanted to we could start with that first. I got confused. A rock star like him want to play basketball? I said: “Sure why not”. And then we went to play basketball.

As we walked down the street I noticed that everything was in a Rock and Roll style so I asked Ray: “Ray, why is here everything in the style that we have?”. He said: “Because this the Rock N Roll part of heaven”. I thought: “Wow… Is heaven that big so there are special sections for each music genre?”. When we were near the basketball playground, I saw Elvis Presley coming out of the football playground. I was so exited to meet him. The king of Rock N Roll. When we get closer to him, he was the first to speak: “Hey Ray, who’s that?”. Ray introduced me to Presley, because I was petrified and couldn’t believe that I would meet him. He turn to me and said: “Elvis…. You know? The Rock N Roll King”. All you can see on my face was excitement and will for staying with Elvis and not with Ray.

“Where are you two going?”. I gathered courage on this question and answer it: “We’re going to play basketball? Do you wanna come?”. He said: “No… I am better at football, but basketball….”. I was waiting if he was going to change his mind and come with us. But that didn’t happened. Oh whatever, now when we’re here, we’re gonna see each other very often.

It had been some time since we started. Maybe like 3 or 4 hours and I must admit that Ray really knows how to play. He beat me 113-52. At the end, we shook hands like a true friends and packed our things and went back to our “house”. When we got back in, because he knew what I was going to ask him to do next, Ray asked me to take a break from basketball first and then teach me how to play the keyboard. I agreed with that idea and we went to rest. While I was resting, I was imagining: “If the other days are like this one, I won’t know which one to choose to be my leader. Yeah I must admit, Ray is very good at basketball but he surprised me, because you can do everything in heaven and he decided to play basketball. I won’t lie, it was fun especially when I fell down because my sneakers were untied”. While I was deep down in my thoughts, Ray came in and said: “Come on buddy, it’s time to teach you”. I couldn’t believe that’s already the time has come. I said to Ray: “But Ray, I just went to rest”. He replied: “You’re coming or?”. I shouldn’t miss this chance.

5 hours have passed since Ray started teaching me to play the keyboard and I already knew how to play “Riders on the Storm”, “People are strange”, “Light my fire” and few more. But something isn’t clear to me so I asked Ray: “You know when you came to let me know that is time for keyboard classes. I was just lying down then. There were literally no more than 5 minutes. Why is that?”. He smiled and said: “It seems like no one told you. Here time is faster than on Earth. Here 1 hours passes like 2 minutes”. Oh, now that explains everything. He said: “Come on, we’re going to be late for practice hours”. Practice hours? Are we gonna join the others of “The Heaven Band”? Maybe… who knows.

I was right. We were going to meet the others and they would have practice hours. We entered the room when I first came and the others were already inside. I greeted everyone and sat in the corner. They were professionals in their job, so it wasn’t hard for them. And after the practice hours we all went to sleep.

And those were the 24 hours with Ray Manzarek. I wonder who is next.

-june-
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