Oi Oi!!!! Ladies and Lads!!
I know I've been prett off lately, it's just that I am internetless at home. But that is none of your business. The text below IS. So read it and comment. Luv ya all!!
THE FIRST PART OF THE JOURNEY
(MORE OF A TRIP, ACTUALLY)
I open my eyes and I recognize the place, I have been here before. Not strange, not at all. There are even familiar faces. I’m in a club, a bar in New York, I’ve come here with my friends, now I’m with Rob and Amy. One of them yells at me over the music. Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” is on, the bass line makes my feet feel funny and my heart picks up on the beat, I’m going with the flow. Amy says we’ve got to get out of here, too mellow she says. I say it’s cool. Rob’s nodding rhythmically, he does not want to leave either, besides, there is this girl checking me out from the counter, she is wearing a red top and a pair of lovely black leather pants. Her hair is all in a messy pony tail. I see no piercings or tattooes and I mark that down on her favor. Her smile is cute, and she’s kind of dancing while sitting on the barstool, it also makes me think of having sex.
Rob grabs my arm and says “let’s go to the rest room.” I deny with my head, “Why?” He comes over to me and is going to whisper in my ear, this has to be about drugs, there is no other reason not to yell it over the tunes. “I got coke” he says to my ear and does it a little loud, trying to tempt my brain if he fails with me. I nod. I tell him I’m coming with him but only to check out the doors while he’s at it. I’m not in the mood for it, I tell him. I’m lying but he doesn’t know it and it’s ok. Amy looks at us and her eyes tell me “I got coke too, why isn’t any of you a girl to come with me and watch over me?” She still wants to leave. Her eyes tell me so too. We make our way through the crowd and I say hello to a couple of people who I don’t remember where I know them from. The bathroom is a mess, three more guys are sniffing and one is sitting on a toilet. The door to the booth is closed but I can see his feet, his pants are not down and there is smoke going up, a thin line so it is not a cigarette or weed, I don’t ask, I know very well. I just feel sorry for that guy and move on the next booth. Rob locks up and I stay outside, he could sniff it out here, the other guys did, but we were kind of private about it. They must think Rob is some kind of minor rock star because I look like a cheap bodyguard, my hands are crossed over my crotch like I am a defense player at a soccer field and someone is going to kick the ball right in front of me, my feet are a little spread so I look more like the gorilla at the entrance of every club in this city. “Mfmfmfmfmfm!!” comes from the other side of the door, the guys already know that Rob is a rookie, they don’t know that I am perhaps way noisier. From behind the other booth door comes a crispy sound and I hear the guy curse. He rushes. I hear three clicks that are very violent, he’s going to break the damn syringe, it also sounds like a desperate thief arguing with a safe. “Mfmfmfmfmf!!” again, this time the whiff is a little shorter and then come the “mfmf, mfmf” of an itchy nostril. Rob comes out of the booth, his eyes are red, he’s rubbing his left index on his gums.
We’re out of the bathroom, I see that the lady on the counter has a friend, a lady friend and they look pretty close, almost intimate. I cheer up, this might get good and lead somewhere this seemingly pointless night. I stare at her and when she looks back I let out a little smile, her smile is wider than mine so I know she’s interested too, her friend looks at me as well. This is good. Ménage a trois I’m thinking, a cheap hotel, a dark room, this night is going to be good. “I’m going for a beer” I tell Rob but he vaguely marks my words he’s elsewhere, rabid for motion and I know the drugs are taking hold. Tricky’s “Girls” starts with the guitar everyone here seems to know, even I do, there are a couple of scattered “Whoooo!” from people trying to bring a little joy to their table. I could say I know what Rob’s thinking because he’s looking straight at the discrete disco light: a black sphere with rectangular gaps covered with colored crystals, inside a light bulb is moved around by a little engine. A Hawaiian warlike mask representing a god, that’s what he’s seeing. I don’t know why I know this, I just know he’s focused on the god’s apparent infinite eyes moving across the bar. He dances. On and on, I know what he’s thinking: this a fascist god that is making him dance. I leave him, Amy is chatting with a good-looking guy, good for her I think, maybe now she will want to stay. I walk to the bar and stand next to the red-top girl, I don’t look at her but my arm touches hers and it feels nice. “A beer!” I shout and the guy behind the counter is quick at it, quicker than I wanted him too, I think. He gives me the beer and I pay it. My pockets seem to be full with cash, but they are only five-dollar bills, to pay individual beers. I turn around and I am suddenly facing the lady, her eyes are nicer than I had been able to see from my table. I smile, no restrains this time, “Hi” I say in a may-I-help-you? Voice. I ask her if she wants to dance, she does. And stands up, just as tall as I am. The song is soon to be over so she knows this is just an excuse but it doesn’t seem to bother her and that is good. Not too easy, not too tough. Her name is Lois and I make some stupid joke about her looking for Superman in the wrong place. She doesn’t laugh as hard as expected and that tells me she has been told the same joke too many times. The wise me in my brain pastes a post-it note to one side of my mind saying “Don’t mention Superman to this chick.”
She whispers in my ear so I have to make a great effort to understand what she is saying. However, I only catch bits in pieces: my friend... share... room... parents... Barbados.... next week. I don’t need to understand the rest, I nod enthusiastically, a little too much to be honest. She tells me I could finish my beer but I don’t want to. I do, anyway. Amy left, I didn’t notice when. But the guy she was talking to is gone too. No problem there, ride on, Amy! I think. I am happy about my very own luck. Rob is dancing, his rough moves and transfixed face seem to have attracted a couple of women. One of them is gorgeous. “HOT!” screams my brain, but I don’t say it, it could be hazardous for whatever may happen later on with Lois and her friend.
Sometimes I pray, I don’t do it too often and none of my friends know this, but it’s ok. My mother taught me how to pray when I was a child, she said “mark a cross from your forehead to your belly, the nails in the hands go in your shoulders, the son of God has every shape we need.” That night the son of God had the shape of a discrete disco light in the bar, I don’t even remember the name of the bar. What I do remember is what I saw last before Lois, her friend and I left: I saw Rob dancing and being observed by the endless eyes of God and people dancing around him. He was preaching with his body and I did not fully understand what the gospel was about. It had something to do with redemption. That I presume. Lois kissed very nicely and her friend was shy at the beginning. Lois didn’t say a word, she just pulled her towards the bed from her thick belt and I kissed her too. Two hours later we were soaked in sweat but it all smelled sweet and pure, because we didn’t speak, I guess. The room had a window looking over a street, the cars went back and forth and their light reflected on the ceiling and our bodies. Somehow I felt those were too the eyes of God watching over every child of his. Overprotective I thought. Rob could still be dancing and he was too looked after by those illuminated and restless eyes. We were the same, I thought, the girls and me, and Rob. And Amy and her good-looking guy, wherever they all were. We are all the same. And I damned those eyes.
I wipe my eyes, it’s already morning and we’re still on bed. Lois’ friend is hugging me and Lois is hugging her. I’m looking at the ceiling. My head starts to beat, this is going to be a royal headache like no other. Her hair smells great, but I really feel like taking a shower and leaving. I take Lois’ hands and write my name and phone number with a marker I found on the night table next to me. I take a shower and I’m off. They are not up yet. Maybe at noon. See you. I close the door carefully, not only out of sympathy: I just don’t want to talk to them. It’s ten in the morning I presume, the city is boisterous and I think: that is a pretentious word, boisterous.
I get home and my mother is worried about me but not too much. Dad isn’t home. He’s working. “Someone’s got to pay my beer and coke” the evil me thinks and I grin. I take breakfast and go to my room. Pop in a random tape and I find Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”. I smile as I drift off and fall sound asleep.
FEDERICO AC.
07.01.2K3.
