| |
Some people are drawn to squalor and decay, choosing to congregate squiggling and
sliding beside each other like maggots in a wound and Big Ed's Frolic Room and Pool Hall
was their special haven.
Big Ed's Pool Hall and Frolic Room had nothing over the Scorpion Cafe. It was a good thing
that we went there in the evening because I suspect that had we gone there in the day the
sheer dinginess and pathos of it would made me weep.
The pungent aroma of piss and cigar smoke immediately stabbed my nostrils on the
sidewalk outside. And once inside, in the belly of the tacky beast, there was an odor so
unusual as to be blessedly indescribable.
There wasn't a red vinyl barstool in the house that wasn't torn and either gaping or
patched with some off-colored tape. Even bad paintings would have helped, but there were
none. Only crackling paint. Every corner of every nook had some grungy pile of crud in it.
Oh, and the people. They were apparitions of the final days of humankind, bleak omens of
end times. Whatever broken spirited beings on two legs within a ten mile radius had
dragged themselves to this bar to hang themselves out on the wire of indifferent
abandon.
The large fat roach that I saw boldly parade across the wall behind Big Ed's neon beersign
could not be mistaken for anything other than a direct message from the Insect King
himself saying, ruin lies herein. But Jimmy had walked right into this cozy place with the
comfortable tooth-sparkling air of a celebrity, ordered us beers and ushered us to pool
side seats. Pool tables that is. And as if on cue a man grinning a grin unredeamably
thin walked up to us and stood staring down at us like we were potato bugs.
And Jimmy caught his eyes and they stared at each other both grinning so wide you could
see how sharp their teeth were. The silence between two men as they look into each other's
eyes is a curious thing and that moment taught me plenty, the most articulatable being that
this man was obviously the Creeper that Jimmy was seeking.
What can I say about rapture that hasn't already been said. Or sorrow so deep that it
sings for rain. Or Lazarus meeting himself on the street after having risen from the dead,
surprised as anyone else to see himself there and back with a vision of beyond the dead in
his head that will never heal. These two men knew each other to the bone. I saw that
and more. They seemed almost like lovers but as the moments passed and time bled slowly
out I wondered which would draw the gun first. This was a showdown for sure. And I knew
that whatever all this really was about, money had very little to do with it.
The first words that slipped out sounded more like a hiss until I was able to disentangle
the vowels and consonants, "Sssooo, here you are." And the answer was,
"Yessss" And even thought I thought that I was watching I had not idea who had
said what. I did notice that the area around us had grown suddenly still. I
heard a
humming from some appliance nearby. The moment stretched out so tightly and quietly that it
hurt. And suddenly and more horrifyingly than a drawn weapon would have been they threw
their arms around each other and hugged. I could see the taut sinews of their arms locked
in their embrace and it was then for the first time in my life that I realized that
death was the shadow of every living being and all one could do was wonder when.
Chapter 7 - Coming Soon
|
|