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Bastille Days II

Nic Bernstein

bastille days ii

the sequel

the story

i know that i should go home as i leave the echoes of yesterdays angry young men in the distance over my shoulder but garys profound innocence in wolfs clothing disguised as a do nothing drunken burnout has reminded me of my own humanity and that just wont do on a cold and dreary night like this with the weather so inhospitable that the rain drops dont even want to come out and play that i decide that a brief westward jaunt to the safe house of last resort is probably in order to allow some careful ministrations over all that i have experienced in this evening turned night in an establishment where i can be assured of paying too much for a drink which i could just as easily as had at oconnors but there is no freedom and peace of mind in that so westward i walk

the safe house is only mildly crowded when i arrive but the scotch bottle is crowded with aspiring hangovers to be and only several of them will be the lucky winners of tonights ceremonies and i belly up to the bar and say hello to shelly and pat the alcoholic newlyweds and therese and ben the samurai bar back and order a drink and i guess i probably look rather stunned or at least i feel that way as i sit down with my drink and start looking for a piece of paper and wrestle marty for a pen as mickey rourke winks at me and transforms himself into a giant bottle of absolute which just keeps bellowing brought to you as a service of wisconsin bell the eleven pm milwaukee temperature is fifty nine degrees at mitchell international airport as the porter takes my bags and deposits them at beckys feet but she cant pick them up because her hands are full of colorfully printed beer company coasters which say drink at rosies whenever youre in taiwan and gives me a drink and i look at pat and shelly and shelly says im glad you made it nic and becky smiles at the tip i gave her and i just keep looking at this crumpled piece of yellow paper in my hand that says garycomplainedcausehecouldseemybreath or something equally unintelligible and the highlights of the brewers vs canseco game are on the twenty four hours a day sports network while my mind is on the fleeting thought which is playing hide and seek with my consciousness somewhere in the dark and moss covered recesses of my caverns of glorious red and purple granite aged by years of constantly dripping ground water working its way from the soil above us picking up considerable amounts of lime and other mineral components which it then leaves behind in the form of stalactites and stalagmites you know you can always remember which one is which if you just remember stalactites hang tight to the ceiling and stalagmites just might reach it some day if i keep trying but i cant and give up and go home cause thats when the brick goes through the window

consciousness dials the phone at eight thirty in the morning and gets a busy signal

consciousness finally resorts to operator assistance at eleven and i drag my ass to the east side feeling distinctly like gary got the better of me in this deal and i go to floretta and jean and craig and joes house and floretta is in the shower and chris is the kitchen and im still a little afraid to look at the crumpled sheet of yellow paper which haunts me from the night before like alimony for sins committed as i discuss with floretta the evils of alcohol as we both stare intently into our respective coffee cups and chris starts to cook while we discuss the deck and how it looks so content in its partially finished form and would probably stay that way for another week chris cooks the potatoes and eggs for about an hour and serves them just as i am about to pass out

floretta has a killer headache which has overstayed its welcome for about five and a half days and everyone is being rather quiet and contemplative so we eat and then i jerry rig the video camera and vcr so we can watch missionary chris and joe disappear while we watch the movie but its all about bad guys in the vatican and i can't relate to that so i leave to go home and nap and when i get to my car there is a handbill laying on my seat all about how the pope is really a nazi war criminal and is the master mind behind a hundreds years old conspiracy and its nothing new to me

its my nickel and im tired of consciousness getting a free ride

four thirty is a much more hospitable hour with a meal at mimas i have a new york times which i focus on enough to read william safires column on language and i hope it will remind me of mine looking a little bedraggled coming in out of the rain with my times and my new razer and ink all over my hands from walking a block with the paper of record and order some paglia e fieno or hay and straw as the italians would have it but food is good hmmmm

safe at home i start to think again about the yellow paper but the phone rings and it is anna and she wants to know if i want to come and have a drink with her at the estate do you know that my girl friend lowi is playing at bastille days today i ask and she doesnt but well give that some thought and the estate sounds better than the yellow ghost before me so its off to the bar i go for a change of pace

text of annas travails with leon omitted for brevity

as we arrive at the days we hear music in the distance and i realize that i was led astray information wise last night lowi is already crooning her tunes when we get to the stage anna immediately wants to go get some food and drinks but i stay to watch my sweetheart sing to this tough crowd

im actually feeing pretty good right now as i survey the masses a rather sparse and damp looking crew completely unnotable except for mike coffey walking through the crowd whispering into first one persons ear and then another i fancy he is either trying to bum some money or sell some drugs but in either event i am probably better off being invisible right about now and make it so

after far too long of a wait anna returns with her red beans and rice and by her presence shatters my cloak of invisibility leading to a flurry of recognitions first mr coffey then kitty dibble thomas the sidewalk painter then gary balsieper its a veritable nicfest in the making when the drunken guy standing at the side of the stage decides to show his affection for my gal by walking around on his hands in front of the stage during her heartfelt rendition of a dr john song and before i know it the show is over and anna and i take advantage of this prime opportunity to take leave and head towards oconnors for a change of pace

i go into oconnors to get drinks while anna goes to the portolet which leads me to ponder that bastardization of a name because the contraction should really be based upon the root word but is instead based upon the diminutive modifying suffix thus rendering useless a slew of other potential contractions for things like portablew cigarettes or portable chevrolets or more properly portable rooms for let but then i guess thats kind of what they are so i can once again put my mind at ease and order a drink from the same bartender as last night while the same gay octoroon ogles me to the beat of the same lambada while a white haired woman of about sixty wearing a fashionable jumper made of visa or some other minimal care fabric sits on the piano bench looking like a refugee from whitefish bay adding a certain flair to the proceedings

i reflect upon last year sunday at the days when i prayed for anonymity and was foiled as i walk out of the bar looking for anna when i see standing next to the door is joe kashina probably the most beautiful man in milwaukee and our surest bet in the out fataley attract roland gift contest i havent seen joe since the night at miss katies dinner when donna and i went to meet kate after she got off work there and was having problems with her boss peter trying to make passes at her and she had told peter that i was her lover and so i sat at this table with kate and donna all of us drinking the same malt with three straws while i goosed joe and then kissed him good bye on the way out and im sure that peter had a rough night that night but joe and his sister kathy who is to womanhood what he is to manhood used to work with me at century hall in nineteen seventy eight and then again at the metropole a few years later so i was glad to see him and just a little curious where his sister who just so happens to be an indian princess was you remember cathy she was being wrestled into a car by a drunken neandrathal on prospect the night we went looking for bones on summit and lafeyette at the direction of tom toy who is conspicuously absent from this weekends affairs

he doesnt know

anna and i watch chubby carrier and the bayou swamp band and anna is really taken by the washboard and announces that she could master that as an instrument but i explain to her that the performer wears freddy krueger nightmare on elm street long metal things on his fingers and i dont think that anyone will let anna wear those least of all leon right now

we go back to oconnors

anna tries to get a look at joe but somehow misses him even though he is still standing there but is fixated on the white haired lady sitting at the piano which is now surrounded by a motley looking crew of young men from all walks of crime and she says do you think theyre together and i say not but i dont really know

we go back to cathedral square since the schedule says that the oil tasters will be playing there and sit around for a half an hour waiting for lowi to emerge from her dressing tent wearing at least as little as she was on stage but alas as the hired hands tear down the stage and accompanying garbage the only celebrities to be seen is norq the dork and his body guard so we decide to head south on jefferson since anna is little hungry again

every one is cosing down as we realize that our last and best hope is to return to oconnors and get a drink when in the distance we hear the circus in the sky fireworks begin and we cant see them since were standing in the middle of a city but anna is like a possessed child demanding that we make every effort to see them and we run north to wells and then past the tepees which my friends the kops in hector minnesota made as i inform anna and then east always trying to see the display but only seeing a few sparkles here and there

we keep going east and as we pass the cooke and franke law compound we see a parking attendant quietly reading at his post while bombs bursting in air and it looks like hes reading a phone book and i say so and we keep going anna virtually dragging me along as we wind our way down a construction debris strewn side street towards the monolith of nml getting to the plaza just in time to sit down on a planter with a perfect view for the finale well at least there is that

its a slower walk back toward the car as the last of the days crowd has pretty much dispersed and we say hello to the studious parking lot attendant only to discover that hes reading sci fi nothing of import and i tell anna that i feel an icebreaker kind of mood coming on and she doesnt understand so i explain it and she says we better get to the car quickly