Last night I dug a drunken hole in the sand, just deep enough to keep the wind off me. It was late, I was lost and didn’t care anymore. I woke to a sunrise over the ocean. I laid there for over an hour, paralyzed by the beauty.
As the blinding late faded though, the ocean became green. The sand turned out to be a sand trap on a golf course. I was relieved. I don’t live anywhere near an ocean, but there is a golf course just down the street. Hoping that’s where I am. Which way is East?
Due to unforeseen circumstances there was a beautiful young woman sitting next to me at the bar. She was smiling and talking to me. She wasn’t a meth head. She wasn’t a hooker. Just a strange woman who seemed to like me. Freaked me out, so I left.
Yes, me, George. The guy who always complains about being alone, when presented with a romantic opportunity, ran for the hills. Look, she was way out of my league. What did she want from me? What can I offer such a woman? How could she love a loser like me? Like me?
I saw those eyes across the bar. Those velvet eyes. Was there a flicker of recognition in those eyes? I remembered her of course. She was special. But me, I was just one of hundreds, if not thousands. She walked over and sat beside me. “Hello Jack.”
“Hello Ruby,” I replied. She laughed and explained that wasn’t her real name, but did not offer up her real one. I asked how she remembered me. She said it was my goofy smile. I thought she was going to say it was my Minnie Mouse belt buckle, and how it wouldn’t unbuckle.
Once a week George and I would go down to the tracks to watch the coal train go by. George would put a coin on the rail hoping to derail the train. It never worked.
When the train noise faded we would sit there a while and talk about everything. One day he asked if I knew what a blowjob was. I didn’t. He explained it and offered to demonstrate. I declined, but a few days later he got caught showing our neighbor Andy.
Soon George’s family was gone. Mom said they HAD to move away. Wouldn’t tell me why.
