GRAINY
I rinsed out the coffee urn and Fish refilled it with a batch of mead from a five gallon glass water bottle Brent had dropped off in the storage room. He was chuckling when I came in to see if he needed any help, and I saw him stash something in the corner. I carried the urn back to the front counter where Lemon had joined Chips and Rooster and Brad. Lemon was no longer wearing his cap. There was a tuft of dark hair from one side of his skull combed across the top. He looked like the picture on the lemonhead candy box: tiny beady eyes and bristly dark eyebrows. The room was sullen. I excused myself to take that shower and read a bit more about blood. When I was leaving Brenda pulled up to the front of the barbershop in her car.
Fish was to spend the weekend at Chips’ hideaway up the beach. Over at the apartment Lemon had taken over Fish’s room, so I kept my couch in the hall. The small bathroom had two doors, one to the bedroom and one to the hall. I went in the hall door for my shower, and the bedroom door was open. Spread upon the bed I could see several electronic devices: microphones and transmitters and tiny speakers—next to neatly stacked clothing and the open carpet bag. I closed both doors and took a cool refreshing shower, scrubbing until I removed what seemed to be grit all over my body. I thought it was from riding in the convertible. Clean and regenerated, after the shower, I opened both doors. The electronic devices and the carpet bag were nowhere in sight, though the clothes were still stacked neatly on the bed. I read and napped until the sun went down.
When I came back to the shop everyone was drinking and smoking cigars, and seemed to be having a good old time. Rooster sat calmly in the barber chair, as good natured insults were exchanged throughout the room. Fish had finished cutting hair for the night. Brent was simply finished, bleary-eyed and burdened. Gastro, Rollo and Evita had joined the gang. Alva was decorating Lemon’s thumbs with lemons as Brenda watched. The room was sour like lemonade, watered down and sweetened with meaningless jokes creating some sense of fellowship, spiked with libations and flavored with cigar smoke.
“The cleanup man’s here,” Fish announced, “It’s time to move the party onward.”
The party soon danced on out the door on their way to the boardwalk. Brenda was latched onto Lemon’s arm and Brent followed along like a zombie. After the dust had cleared, I checked in the back to see what Fish had stashed when I walked in on him earlier. It was an empty bottle of grain alcohol. I returned to the front, had a couple cups of mead, then went next door and went to sleep.
I was awakened by the rumbling of the front door and rowdy laughter. The party had returned, it was time to get up.
“She shouldna stuck it in my face,” Brenda shouted defensively.
I lay still with my eyes wide open, still dressed in expectation of the returning hordes. There was only Brenda and Brent, Fish and Chips and Lemon and Rollo. Rollo was the loudest as they stumbled through the door.
“On the ass! She bit her on the ass!” Rollo shouted, busting his gut with laughter. “We were almost killed,” he laughed.
One after another they filed through my hallway bedroom into the kitchen toward the beer and the booze. First Rollo then Brenda and Lemon and Chips came through. I stayed on my back, still and smiling. Fish followed and paused after catching himself laughing out loud.
“Jesus, you guys going to wake up my building,” said landlord Fish.
I smiled at him. “Sounds to me like the mead was a little grainy,” I said.
Fish smiled like a pixy. “Got me,” he said, then went into the living room to turn on the stereo. He put on a stack of vinyl, all Moody Blues.
Brent dragged his leg in, following behind, grinning from ear to ear proud as a peacock. “Brenda bit a dancer on the ass.”
I got up and got a drink and listened to the stories while the party mellowed out, Fish’s fine selection of music controlling the mood. It seems when the party hit the boardwalk they went right to the infamous “titty bar,” where topless dancers collected money in their thongs. One of the women got a little close to Brenda’s face, so she bit her. After a bit of an altercation, which Gastro and Rooster broke up, they were all asked to leave.
Brenda sat by Lemon, and she was all over him just as Fish had predicted. She got into the butcher’s lap. She certainly couldn’t sit on Brent’s lap with his burnt out knee. Lemon was Fish’s age, about 25 years older than Brent and about 15 years older than Brenda. I know age is relative, and there are other factors like experience and physical conditioning and money, but I still felt better for Brent’s sake when Brenda tweaked Lemon’s nose and called him Santa. I went to the kitchen for a glass of water and Fish joined me there to freshen his mug with Captain Morgan and coke, and probably to make sure I wasn’t drinking any more of his liquor. “Do you see what’s going on in there with Brenda and Lemon?” Fish whispered, half crocked.
“She called him Santa,” I said.
“In the same room with Brent,” Fish said tilting his head for emphasis. “You can have another drink,” he added. “Lemon paid for this stuff.”
Without hesitating I poured myself a double shot of Captain Morgan and belted it down. Rollo joined us in the kitchen.
“Do you see what’s going on in there?” he said.
I walked back into the living room and Chips was on Lemon’s other knee, rubbing Lemon’s belly and calling him Santa. Then the women kissed each other while sitting on Lemon’s lap as Fish entered the room. It was out of control and disjointed, as most gatherings become when everybody has had a little too much to drink, but that was the group minus a few early dropouts.
“Chicklettes forever!” Brenda proclaimed.
Brent sat comfortably in his chair and began to sing, “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus, underneath the mistletoe last night.”
They were having fun.
“Blood,” I reminded myself, “blood,” and I couldn’t join in. Enjoying the party would have meant certain death to my focus. I saw problems ahead for the project. The party ended and I went back to sleep.