Monday, December 31, 2012

A story to end the year...


After staying up late last night dancing to Flip Cassidy, and my boyfriend getting hit on by a barely legal girl, we hit the hot springs, just before the sun rose. We picked up Kevin, the same man that had introduced me to dealing poker at the Oasis the day before. He offered me a joint in gratitude of the ride. When we all were settled in the hot spring Kevin went to telling the best of the best stories from his life. One such story goes as follows:

In a state I will keep secret for purposes of protecting the guilty, our main character Kevin was told to go so see Johnny, the head of a local mafia bar. Upon entering the bar he noticed two guys leave their watered down whiskeys and conversation with the bartender to confront him, the stranger in the bar. As soon as they were up and yelling, two other men came from the other side of the bar and formed a circle around the adolescent. Kevin, seventeen years old at the time and quite aware of his surroundings, knew that if he held his ground, these very intimidating individuals would stop and he'd get by to see Johnny.

After being threatened with getting beat up and killed, Johnny entered from a back room. “What do you want kid?” he said matter of factly. “I'm here to see you Johnny. I was told you wanted to see me.” Johnny made a big uproar, swore at him then went in the back room, slammed the door and disappeared. Three minutes later he reappeared with these instructions. He said “go to the bar across town. Ask for the owner and demand him to give you his name. Once he gives you his name, he will give you a package. Take the package to the bar across the street from his bar. Tell him Johnny sent you and then you will come back here and tell me how it went.” “Ok,” Kevin said.

And that's what he did. He went to the first bar where he was confronted harshly and threatened by acts of violence. He yelled for the owner and when he appeared, Kevin said “What is your name?” after quite the commotion, the man gave him his name along with a package. The package was about the size of the bible, wrapped in brown paper with no writing or anything affixed to it. With the package in hand, Kevin did as Johnny said and dropped it at a biker gang owned bar after being threatened as he had been before. In the end he walked back into Johnny's bar, and Johnny asked him “how did it go?” “Fine”, Kevin replied, nonchalantly. To which Johnny asked “did you open the package?” “No”, he said. “Why not?” asked Johnny. Thinking Johnny would expect him to say 'because you told me not to' Kevin instead replied “deniability is the only thing I've got going for me, Johnny.”

After Kevin was done with his long yet very engaging story, I sat and wondered what was in that package. We three, Miles, Kevin, and myself sat in silence for a few moments taking in the magnitude of his tale when abruptly, an old frail man, with one eye struggled, while fully clothed, to shimmy down the clay wall of the hot spring right next to me. “Ahh” he said as he released all tension. Miles, noticing the man was fully dressed, questioned him “Wow, that's brave to get in with all your clothes on,” considering the cold temperature outside the springs, to which the man replied “oh it's ok. I have chronic diarrhea and I just had an accident.” The three of us exited the water promptly. What a way to start almost new year.
On a brighter note, whoever guesses what beverage is in Miles' right hand, will receive a free Slab city sticker. Good luck and happy New Year!