Remembering Atlantis

A couple of days ago I found out Facebook would not let me add a stranger as a friend. I decided to see if Atlantis Black was on Facebook. For some reason I googled her and saw a memorial page listed on MySpace. Memorial page? Well she was a singer, so maybe the band was also called Atlantis Black. The band probably broke up, and a fan had created a memorial page. That was not the case. Atlantis had committed suicide two months ago in Tijuana.

No wait a minuet. This must be another woman named Atlantis Black because this woman was in her 30's. Think about it. I said to myself "you knew her 10 years ago. Ten years ago she was 20 something." So, maybe this was the same woman.

According to the biography she was from Pennsylvania. The Atlantis I knew was also from Pennsylvania. She lived briefly in Los Angeles. That was when I knew her. She left Los Angeles, and returned to Pennsylvania. That sounds like the woman I knew.

A few years ago I goolged or yahooed her name. I was surprised she was singing. I emailed her to ask if she was the same Atlantis Black who worked at ATS in the 90's. I never received a reply. I figured there could be only one Atlantis Black.

The MySpace page said she was born in 1976. She was 20 years younger than me. It just doesn't seem right that she should be dead. She sparkled. She was intensely beautiful, and unpretentious. She wasn't stuck up, and she never put herself on the pedestal that all the cab drivers placed her on. It was as if she didn't realize how much she shined.

When I knew her she wanted to be a writer. I don't recall anything about her wanting to be a singer. I only worked with her for two or three months. She lived in Hollywood just like me. We did not live too far from each other. I think she worked with me in the spring of 1997. She suffered from migranes. She told me Atlantis was not her real name. It was such a perfect name for her I guess I should have not been surprised. I mean how lucky could she have been to have her parents give her a perfect name? She said her real name was Susan. Now that sounds like a name mom and dad picked out.

I always thought she would succeed. I think that is the reason I typed her name into a search engine one day. I wanted to see what she had written.

She quit ATS suddenly. That was not unusual. Most people just up and quit one day. The company had issued the employees some shoes. She lost one, and had to reimburse them for the lost shoe. She said her dad was ill, and, I think her sister was going to be a high school senior when the new school year began. She wanted to be home to help her mom. I hated to see her go, although I wasn't surprised. I knew she was destined for something great.

A couple of years later someone said he saw her in Hollywood. I never saw her again after that last day.

It's been 11 or 12 years, but learning about her death was such a shock. I wonder about her family. Is her dad still alive? What about her mother and sister? Did they bring her body back to Pennsylvania? Did someone bury her in San Diego? That was her last U.S. residence. San Diego is a lovely town.

Tijuana. Not a place in which I would choose to die. Today I thought maybe she went there to die. Maybe bought some drug that could not be purchased as easily in the U.S.

Last night I found her profile on Facebook. Add Atlantis Black as a friend? I can only add someone I know. It didn't seem right to leave her there on Facebook unconnected from me. She had 30 friends listed. People she knew. People who had seen her recently. People who recognized the woman in the photograph. In my mind she is still girl-woman in her early 20's.

I am sure a decade has passed since I last saw her. I had not forgotten her, and now I never will. So I added her to my friend list. She will always be a bright shining star that died too soon.

H.Y.P.E

I owe this title to Beck. It comes from a song called "Hell Yes." One of the lines is "hell yes please enjoy."
That's it.