“Did someone give you a Birkenstock gift certificate for your birthday?”
“Yes, did you find it?”
“Yeah, it was in my sock drawer, with my vacation bag”
“Great, now I can go get another pair. Mine are worn out”
“How long are you going to be?”
“About 30 minutes”
“30 minutes in my time or 30 minutes in JP time?”
“In JP time”
“I will split the difference and pick you up in 45 minutes”
+++++++
I arrive 44 minutes later, and he is not done. I grab my cup and fill it with ice making more noise than I have to scooping the ice. VH1 top 20 Countdown is on the TVs, Delta Goodrem’s “In this life” is blaring. I find the remote and turn off all but one TV. I turn back to my glass. I pour a shot of lime juice onto the ice and then fill the glass with Diet Pepsi. I toss a couple of lime wedges in for good measure and top it off with a maraschino cherry. I move from behind the bar and sit at the table right in front of the TV.
Shortly I hear him walking around the fire place. He jumps back as I scream loudly to scare the shit out of him. It worked and we laughed, he continued to putter around, doing this and that. I kept looking at my watch.
“I want to get home before my song comes on bitch!”
“Which song is that? It better not be my song”
“Who said you can own exclusive rights to a song?”
“I did”
“Oh, I see, if you say it is yours, it is yours even if it is mine”
“Sure”
Eric Hutchinson’s “Rock and Roll” starts playing.
“He is cute in a goofy white boy sort of way”
“Yeah, I know how you like big ears and goofy smiles”
“Yeah”
He leaves and goes about cleaning some more as I drool over Eric Hutchinson.
When the song ends, I get up and refill my glass. I am going to have a full bladder soon. What is he doing?
Natasha Bedingfield, Alter Bridge and O.A.R. come on and still he is not done. I should have kicked it another 15 minutes.
“Come on! I am going to miss Katy because you are taking so long”
“It isn’t like you can’t watch it on Yahoo!”
“Yeah! Well… Hurry the fuck up!”
“Can’t think of a comeback can you?”
“That is beside the point. Hurry Up!”
Pink’s “So What” video comes on. He hurry’s to watch it.
“I thought you could watch it on Yahoo!”
“Yeah, but it is on now”, he smirks.
He starts singing the song really loud and off key.
“Who sings this song?” I ask him
He stops singing and looks at me like I am the stupidest person on the planet, “Pink” he says incredulously.
“Let’s keep it that way”, I reply.
He looks at me for half a second before he shakes his head and says “What”, then stops himself and says never mind, I get it.
I don’t argue with him because I like the video too. We watch as Pink disses Carey Hart, or does she?
The announcer comes on and starts talking about Pink’s new album. An annoying woman, I only half listen as she says “Pink was asked what she misses most about being married. She answered “My husband’s penis, it was just so cute”. I look at him and smile a giant grin.
“I like Pink, we share the same priorities.”
He laughs, “Isn’t that the truth. Let’s go, I am done”
I shut down the final TV and check the doors to make sure they are locked as he logs out at the time clock and gathers his stuff.
+++++++
I walk out the door as he sets the alarm code. I get into the truck on the passenger side and wait. It seems like forever before he climbs into his side. He starts taking off his shoes.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? You are slower than shit tonight, old age catching up to you?”
“My shoes and socks are wet. I am taking them off. Why are you in such a hurry?”
“I don’t know, I just have this urgent need to be home. It is almost 2, I am tired. Some of us worked today.
“Bitch, I worked two jobs.”
“Yeah, and how does that benefit me?”
+++++++
Finally the desert nights are cooling off, the thermometer in his mirror reads 59 degrees. It will warm up as we move from the desert into the city, but thankfully the 100 degree days seem to be over for now. I have the windows down on his truck enjoying the cool breeze that have been missing for the last few months.
He rolls up his window; I leave mine down, sticking my face out the window, enjoying the cool air.
“It is a little coolito, tonight, he says.
“I love it. I think we will sleep with the window open tonight.”
I love when it starts getting cold. We can cuddle without sweating to death. He doesn’t know that I have pulled the winter sheets out and bought a new comforter. His blanket lies across the end of the bed, he loves the heat, I love the cool. Opposites attract.
We hit Baseline and the temperature has hit 61 degrees. The year of his birth. I don’t say this, because it will start a discussion on my weird fascination with numbers and ages and spaces and shapes. It is a conversation we have had for years, and will continue to have. Just not right now.
He is singing again. He does it loud, as if by singing loudly will make it sound better. I don’t care. It shows me he is comfortable with me.
We are traveling north, and even I have to admit it is a little cool. I roll up my window half way and pull back into the truck. We hit the light at Southern. He notices what I don’t.” How can gas be 2.63 here and 2.97 over there? That is a 34 cent difference.” Don’t know so I just shrug.
Less than a block from my house, “What is that?” , he asks, breaking my daydream at night.
“It is a really bad accident. It’s a cop. And a truck.”
We pull to a stop at the light behind a small car.
“There is a guy in the street”, “He is still alive, I can see him moving.”
“The cop is gone”
“How do you know he’s dead.”
“Look at his car, no one could survive that.”
The police car is a crumpled mess, the front end and the back end almost meeting. There appears to be smoke coming from the car. The white truck has t-boned it. The truck is not recognizable as a truck any longer. I only know it is a truck because it says S-10 on the back. The guy in the street looks young. The guy in the truck looks old. I can’t see the police officer.
“There is no one in the car in front of us, you are going to have to go around”.
“ I can’t”
More cars have pulled up and have started parking in the street.
I jump out of the truck, and he starts yelling at me. I look back through the half open window.
“Look, we need to get out of here. In about 5 seconds, this place is going to be full of cops and paramedics, if we don’t go now, we are going to be stuck here and in the way.
I run across the street, against the light, but it doesn’t look like anyone is going anywhere, so I guess it is safe.
I get a closer look at the carnage. It is not something I want to see.
“Yo!, Who’s car is this?” Pointing to the one blocking us.
One guy steps forward, he is tall with his hand over his mouth in horror. He looks as if he is in shock, his hand shakes and his eyes are welling with tears. I look at him again.
“Is that your car?”
He nods.
“You have got to move it”
“ But I am a witness! I saw it all”
“Look, you have got to make room for the police and fire. They can’t get here if there is a back up. Now pull it over to the side and park it.”
“But he is dying” pointing to the kid in the street.
“He is going to be dead if the paramedic’s can’t reach him because you were blocking traffic”
This shakes him. He hesitates, then starts digging for his keys. I guess he realizes that they are in the car. And he moves. I see the cop now, he is off the side of the street, someone is sitting over him talking to him. He moved his hand, he looks like he is trying to talk, but there is a lot of blood. Another person approaches the kid in the street. Others are milling around.
Someone needs to direct traffic. I realize I say this out loud.
A kid runs over to middle of the street and starts pointing people in opposite directions.
I see JP pulled off the side of the road and getting out of the truck. With his hemophobia, he doesn’t need to see this. All I need is to have to drag him back to the truck after he passes out.
I stop him, and start running over to him.
Time has slowed down, but it seems like forever. Where are the cops? What about the paramedics? Has someone called 911? What do I need to do?
“Go on home, I will walk from here”
“No, get into the truck and let’s go. They don’t need any more gawkers.” There were people coming out of their houses now. They were lining the streets.
I knew he was right but, I hesitated. There had to be something more that I could do.
Where were the police. It was taking so long. I grabbed my cell phone. Surely someone called 911. But what if they didn’t. I started to dial, when the helicopter arrived. Then I saw the police lights.
We drove around the block and got home. Still no sirens though.
In the house, I hear them in the distance. In my neighborhood, we usually tune this sound out. But tonight, is different.
+++++++
The cop was 25, he left behind a wife and a 3 month old daughter.
The passenger in the truck is still unidentified, hospitalized.
The driver, who was drunk, is a known criminal with 4 warrants and two different aliases. He was treated and released to police custody.
