Ana, over her shoulder, as she stomped away said "Brian. Angus right?"
"Yep"
As soon as she disappeared through the employee door Maria started giving me a hard time. "You come around here sniffing for food. Boy, you are stupid aren't you." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. I thought "What the hell? Why is she attacking me? What did I do?" What I said was "Huh?"
"You know that girl likes your sorry homeless ass. Don't you?"
I said the first thing that came into my mind. "Why?"
I heard Tina snort and then laugh. Tina was definitely a snorter. Maria stared at me, opened her mouth to say something, then closed. She waved her hand in the air and scattered cigarette ash on her smock. She didn't bother to brush it off either. "Never mind. Don't matter. She has bigger problems."
Tina, over at the next table chimed in "Yeah. Like a job." She muttered something to herself and crossed her arms.
We sat there in silence until Ana returned. I got my Angus! Everybody else got yogurt parfaits and double cheese burgers. Tina looked at hers, looked at Ana, then tossed it over her shoulder. I made a mental note of where it landed. "Thanks Ana!" Then I dug in. I got about half way through when the Hurters arrived. As soon as I saw them come around the corner I wanted to stuff the rest of my Angus burger in my day pack. The only reason I didn't was it was too late.
Shit. My luck sucked. It was the Hurter twins. They weren't twins. They didn't even look the same. I still saw them as twins in my head. They went every where together and every where they went no one wanted them to come back. Ana said under her breath "Shit. It's Beevis and Butthead." I laughed. That was pretty good. My timing could have been better.
The big one said "What's so funny dickhead?" His partner, Shorty, he was short too, chimed in, just as I knew he would with "You laughing at us?" I was getting a sick feeling in my tummy. I knew where this was going because I had been there before.
There are echoes of early AA here in what seems to be becoming a story of redemption.
ReplyDeleteI hope Beavis and Butthead meet Mr. Trowel.
ReplyDeleteRedemption, even if vicarious, is a wonderful thing. To experience it personally is the ideal, but if this is the only option at the moment......Hell ya, give me more!
ReplyDeleteDoing good to good people is nice, but there is a deep satisfaction in giving assholes an extra large serving of what they have coming to them. And if you get them before they reproduce, you've improved the species. Think of it as 'un-natural selection'. ;)
ReplyDeleteBobn, think of it as self-selection ala Darwin Awards, with some assistance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tom. It's on pace to be a story of redemption, like G. in AA 1. But this guy seems to have more burdens to bear than Gardner, or at least, more difficulty carrying them. Good luck to him, may he fight the good fight, but until he straightens out his mind, his worst enemy will be himself. He's a Don Quixote in a parallel distopia, living in the ruins along with others, but never seeing what they see, or feeling what they feel.
ReplyDelete