Astral Andy And The Funny Bear
by James Cage

      Relaxing in the outside cafe of the Excelsior Hotel, on the Via Veneto in Rome, Italy, my cousin Nicky and I are drinking espresso. It is the Fourth of July 1980, a very warm evening. Earlier this afternoon, the communists held a small demonstration marching past the American Embassy. Tonight, we sit and watch the pretty Italian girls walk by.

Nicky says, "They don’t shave their armpits." And then he says, "Northern Italians say Africa starts south of Rome." Well tonight we feel the hot African breeze blowing through us.