I was letting john drive the car as usual. I was sitting in the back seat with a girlfriend. playing with her tits and licking her tonsils. she was such a slut. I loved her for that. she was just 15 and i was already 17 but she knew where it was at. she had started smoking by the time she was 12. she was wearing a tight white t shirt that made her boobs stick out with a short black hair cut with a devilishly cunning smile. she was sexy. I'd tried to date her sister as did everyone but to no avail so I went for her instead. She was good enough. actually she was damn good as i'd come to find out later.
we were going to the bad side of town. across the bridge. where only gangsters and hoodlums roamed. pawn shops ,liquor stores and graffiti. the place we were headed was the first turn once across the bridge though so we didn't have to wander too far into the jungle. we were smoking grass and living life. headed to this girls house to get even more grass.
john parked the car and we all got out. me holding hands with my little love bird. I don't know why but in the ghetto everything always looks gray for some reason. Like there's just an ominous ever impending invisible fog. Maybe its smoke from all the gun fire. we got to the door. I was kissing my girl every 5 seconds and grabbing her ass. John gave a few gentle knocks. a girl quickly answered. her name was kelly but she insisted we call her kella. She was large. wide and thick. her clothes were from the dime store. long straight brown hair and a plain round face. She had a friend with her and his name was michael and he also insisted we call him mika. he was a gangly looking fellow with long curly blond hair. a face that looked like it had been drug across the pavement. he had a long chin, big wide open eyes, and a shark tooth smile. he stood about 8 foot tall it seemed. sporting an 80s rocker hair do ,tight gray jeans, and a long sleeve t shirt that had faded red stripes and hadn't looked like it'd been washed in months. he was truly odorous.
he was from a different time. a time that had died. and he'd died with it. and he stood there like an 80s rocker zombie. still living and breathing but wilting with every step away from the sun.
we all hopped in my car. John elected himself to drive and the big girl got in front to navigate. the rest of us piled in the back. i rode bitch so my girlfriend didn't have to sit next to the freak. Nirvana came on the radio and john turned it up. kella quickly rolled a joint and started passing it around and we all got merry. I made out with my girl some more. she liked that about me.
when the song was over i asked the freak sitting next to me if he liked nirvana.
"they're alright. I'm more into metal." he proudly stated.
"you play any instruments?" I was always asking people that. its a good judge of character.
"yea i play guitar."
i sat up a little in my seat.
"right on me too" i said.
"Mikas an awwwsome guitar player. you guys should hear him play. he can play anything can't you baby." kella said in between taking hits.
"How long you played?" i asked.
"oh bout ten years or so."
"cool cool. you got a guitar?"
"yea but its in the pawn right now. trying to save up so I can get it out"
"my guitars in the trunk. we should jam."
kella was sending john on a wild goose chase. goin in all different directions at once. I could tell he was getting agitated. the thing about driving around in the ghetto is there's cops everywhere. and since john had warrants and no license and we were smoking grass we were putting ourselves at high risk.
"its just right up here." she said.
we finally got to the place. it was deep deep in the ghetto. pale pink and neon green houses. toys and garbage. diapers in the street. me and my girl sunk into our seats. high and paranoid. kella took our money and went inside. John waited anxiously. looking down the street and then back at the house. like we were pulling a bank robbery and the alarm had been triggered. "chill out dude." I said from the back. "I got warrants man. it aint cool bunch of white mother fuckers sitting here in this neighborhood. cops aint stupid" he said in a nervous tone. "Yes they Are. cops are fucking retarded dude. you Look suspicious as hell right now looking as nervous as you do. We're already here so lets just get the shit and be on our merry way." i leaned up and scratched his head a little which annoyed the shit out of him. "mother fucker". he turned around like he was gonna punch me. I fell back in my seat.
she finally came out with the shit and got back in the car and away we went. she pulled it out and lifted it up so we all could see it. John quickly batted down her hand. "cut that shit out." he said driving cautiously with both hands on the wheel. "oh jesus christ I know these streets. aint nobody gonna fuck wich you. these are My streets" she said with gleaming pride.
we got back to her house and looked at the bag. it was crap. shake and seeds and stems and dry as dirt. we all looked disappointed. a whole ounce of this crap. oh well. we started rolling up joints and we all sat around in her room up stairs. she lived with her parents and had dumped her kids on them in the down stairs while we got high. we sat around in a circle smoking grass and talking shit. "go get your guitar dude." john said sounding excited. "ah fuck its all the way out there in the car. you get it." i rolled over and laid my head in my girlfriends lap.
I tossed john the keys and he ran outside to fetch it. when he got back up stairs i was half asleep. too stoned and my girl was petting me. he opened up the case and shoved it into my lap. "play some shit." he said and sat down and turned to me like he was suddenly an audience member. "alright alright." I said begrudgingly raising up out of her lap and gearing up to play. I strummed it a few times to see if it was tuned. not really but close enough not to have to fuck with it. I started in on one of my own songs. sort of grungy and old school type of stuff all played in drop d. it sounded jangly because we didn't have an amp. I went through the motions and played all the right notes. got into it on the heavy parts and so on. I quickly finished the song and said "there now leave me alone" a sat the guitar down on the floor and put my head back in my girls lap with a smile on my face. she went back to stroking my hair.
"mind if I play on it?" mika asked.
"sure go right ahead." I said dangling my hand.
he picked it up and immediately went to tuning it. I always that. tuning. when he finished we all sort of sat there waiting for a moment. and then he started in. it was bach. note for note. I recognized it immediately. with finesse. I sat up slowly staring at his guitar. the most beautiful music I'd ever heard coming from my own guitar. he was playing bass notes with his thumb and finger tapping the high notes. it was like he had three hands. playing the entire orchestras parts all in one instrument. it swam and it sang and it flowed effortlessly. this music like I'd never heard before. sounding more beautiful then the sweetest song bird could ever sing. I stared my mouth gaping watching his fingers fly around the strings. his eyes glued to the fret board looking like a mad scientist putting the final touches on his most greatest experiment. duuuh, du ,du, du, duuuh.
he looked up. all of us staring at him with wondrous eyes. he gently rested my guitar against the stereo.
"thats a nice guitar" he said.
"yea thanks...man that was fucking awesome. where'd you learn to play like that?"
"ah I used to play in bands and stuff" he said begrudgingly.
"Mika used to win battle of the bands every year at cherry diamonds when they used to have those dima-a-dozen festivals"
cherry diamonds was a titty bar that was in a bad part of town. It sat right next to this milling factory that had a giant silo that was shaped like a giant breast. nipple and all. you could see it from space. that one boob.
he took the opportunity to whip out his photo album. my admiration soon began to whither. it seemed that was the only thing he owned. the only thing he'd held onto over the years. Like it were his bible. He sat next to me on the floor and started going through the pages. newspaper clippings and press photos from the 1980s. and Sure enough there he was. he had lipstick on and tight leather jeans. his hair was all done up and hair sprayed. and he wore a ripped up tiger striped muscle t shirt. he was playing a V shaped guitar and aiming it straight up as if her were the god of thunder and calling upon the gods to bring lightening down from the heavens. It was ridiculous. I tried my best to act impressed. I think he could see through my act but he kept showing me more pictures anyway. was like looking through a fashion magazine. every picture more flamboyant and over the top then the next. he finally got to the last one and sealed the book of his past.
We all packed up and decided to go back to my house. my mother was out of town and so I was always quick to invite anyone and everyone to come over for some fun. I elected we go there so I could fuck my girl friend. which I'd been wanting to do all damn day already. So away we went. as we approached the car Mika asked if he could drive for some reason. "sure" i said as I tossed him the keys.
my house was outside of town about 40 minutes. out in the woods. we drove our way down the highway and made our way back home. we travelled along the steep and curvy hillside on the last highway there was before we'd reach my house.
"COWS!" Mika started screaming. kella sat up. she was sitting next to us in the back.
"what?" she said rubbing her eyes.
"oh my god COWS!" he said in astonishment.
I looked over at kella in a what the fuck manner. she calmly explained. "Oh Mikas never seen cows before. this is his first time outside of the city"
he quickly slowed down the car and rolled down the window in a panic!
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUN COWS RUN!!! THEY'RE GONNA KILL YOU ALL!!! RUUUUN!!! RUN YOU STUPID COW! YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!" he started to drive slowly. still with his head hanging out the window and screaming. "RUUUUUUUN!!" john grabbed the steering wheel to keep us from going into the ditch. eventually he stopped screaming and started driving again. he rolled up the window as if nothing had happened.
we finally got back to my place at which point I quickly chased my girlfriend into my room. through her onto my bed. john yelled from down the hall "you wanna smoke a joint". "Go ahead I'll be there in a minute." I said closing the curtain I had hung up for a door. I layed down with my girl and quickly went to work.
after we were through everything seemed right with the world. we had grass. we had sex. and there was food in the cupboard.
