Prodigal Son (Part 3).

I reached into Nick's freezer and shifted bottles around until I found a near empty bottle of El Dorado rum. The glass bottle was completely frosted over and the liquid inside had a syrup-like viscosity. I poured some into a white plastic cup by eye and stopped when I felt it was enough. I returned the bottle to the freezer and opened the fridge part to get a can of coke and a pre-sliced garnish. I mixed the drink pretty strong so I take little sips every few seconds. Nick's kitchen is really starting to get messy with empty white plastic cups all over his black and white checkered floor, sticky stains on the wood table, and broken little drink umbrellas everywhere. I notice a little plastic orange hawaiian flower clipped on the edge of the table in the kitchen. I slide it off and put it in my front pocket.

Everyone started piling into the kitchen just then like a congo-line, but only their objective is to get more booze. "Let's go to the bar!" Someone yells out in the hallway. I wait in line for the only washroom in the house, contemplating on just going outside in the bushel. I let a girl in before me and then when she's out I start to go in and see three more girls in line. This is going to be bad, they're drunk... better hurry. I put my drink aside in the washroom, unzip my pants and stare at the target below. I hear yelling outside and block it out of my mind to avoid stage freight. Not even ten seconds into the urination the girls outside start banging on the door telling me to hurry up. I start yelling back telling them that this is a bedroom. They don't buy it and bang some more. I finish and wash my hands, and they bang some more. I opened the door with my belt still undone to scold them and three girls charge into the washroom with me in it, I stumble back into the washroom and squeeze my way out with my drink and they slam the door. I put my drink down on the window sil beside me in the hallway to do up my belt. "Holy fuck." I said aloud laughing.

I wait outside with the rest of them in front of Nicks house. A couple of girls are walking around looking for something on the road, apparently some sort of blue tylenol pill. Yeah right. The white truck outside is owned by someone at the party and while we are waiting he cranks up the stereo. A couple of young girls come up to use skipping to warn that their neighbour will call the cops. He turns off the radio and sure enough a cop call rolls up. I put down my plastic cup on the sidewalk. The one officer talks to Nick and does the usual questioning. Nick gets off with a warning and soon after they drive off we all walk to the bar.

It was predetermined that we were all going to Sin City that night. Of course we didn't all go into the same group as some people didn't feel like waiting for others to get ready, so in total there was about three different groups leaving at different times. I was in the last group with Nick, Kevin and Alison. We wait in line up outside the bar and it is barely moving. Barely turned into not moving at all. We waited and waited while people off the streets just kept coming towards bar and jumping the line up. I'm standing on my toes looking to the front of the door to see if people are getting in. I suggest to everyone that we head to another bar so Alison goes inside to try and get everyone to come out (after some talk to the bouncer). She comes back out 15 minutes later, and we're still in the same spot, and looking distraught because no one wanted to leave the bar. So we head over to the 2nd Floor Lounge where there is no line up.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" I say to the bouncer.
"Sorry, private party, can't let you up." He replied.
"Private party? Who the heck is having a private party?"
"The Liberal Party of Canada."
I start to laugh, "You got to be kidding me." I said. He wasn't joking and I turned to the crowd to tell them we can't get in so they decide to just go to the Trash. I tell them that I'll join them in a sec. I look to see Van who I kinda know through friends and I ask if Kelly is working. I ask even though I know he is. He says yes he's upstairs and says he'll take me up. We walk up the stairs and on the first landing he looks at me and tells me to take off the leis around neck. "Oh yeah, sorry." I said. I continue to follow him into the bar area. There are some people dressed in complete suits, others in very casual dress clothing, some old and some very young. This is probably the busiest I have ever seen at this joint. He takes me to the patio where Kelly is there watching over everyone. He laughs when he sees me and tells me very hilarious stories of these Liberal Party members acting outlandishly. I look around the patio while he's talking to me at all the people outside. The patio of the bar is made completely out of wood, all the way to the tables and chairs, with a small tiki bar on the far side. It is very spacous out here and with very dim lighting. I tell Kelly to yell out something that indicates me as a conservative. We both laugh knowing that if done I would get my ear chewed off. I tell him that I will meet him outside the Rooster at 03:00 hours and that I'll be over at the Trash tonight. We do the handshake and then I walk out of the bar to the street.

I get to the sidewalk and it is nearly complete silence with the occasional yell from a drunkard in the distance. The street lights compete with the neon lighting from the various fast food restaurants for their place on the asphalte. I get to the Trash and make my way inside without having to wait in a line. Which isn't surprising since there is no one in the bar. Strangely enough the big doors were shut that usually leads to the main bar area. I bring this up to the girl at the front who tells me that I have to go through the patio first before going to the bar. I do just that and run into my party out on the patio, which pales in comparison to the 2nd Floor Lounge. Everyone decides to go into the main bar area. There are small groups of people on the dance floor doing their thing, a couple people hanging around the DJ booth, and the occasional waitress walking by with a tray of lab test tubes, each holding a bright coloured liquid inside.

I go up to the bar to order a drink, so I reach in my wallet and pull out the last remaining ten dollar bill and fold it in between my index and middle finger. I look to my right to see a girl ordering a drink. Man she looks familiar, that couldn't be... She looks at me. We both look away towards the counter and then slowly turn back to one another. "Matthew Hunter?" She questions.
"Shannon?" I respond.
"Oh my God, Matthew Hunter!" She says and runs up to me for a hug. Shannon and I were good friends back in high school. When she went off to college and I to University we just lost touch. We got updated quickly on each others lives and who we still hang out with back in Oshawa and then she went off back to her friends and I got my Corona.

We all head to the dance floor to dance and so we get in a big circle. This old guy breaks into our circle and starts harassing the girls. He must be like 75 years old, waving his hand around and smiling. He does these stupid dancing and all the guys are cheering him on. He finally leaves much to the girls relief. However he keeps coming back and harassing them more, I can't believe they let this guy in here. It is always something with the Trash let me tell ya. We all head for the stage where he can't bug us. A couple of the girls take off their grass skirts and place them on the speakers. Nick and I grab them, and in a complete drunk decision decide to put them on over our jeans. A couple of girls took note down below and look sheepishly up towards us with a camera in hand. She finally got enough courage to go on stage and ask to get her picture taken with Nick and I. So we did, with Nick on her left and I on her right. We gave our drunken smiles and a flash blinded us. She thanked us and went back down below to her friends.

After dancing for a long time we all decided to head back home. It was only about 02:00 hours so when I got outside I hung around the ramp for a bit. "Hey why are you such a fucking dick?" Someone says to me. His face is all red and angry.
"Oh I know man, I have no idea." I say back to the drunk guy. He keeps looking back at me as his friends prod him along the walkway crossing Water Street. The party finally gets out of the bar and towards a taxi. They pile into the van taxi cab and bid me to come in. I tell them that I have to wait around for a friend and so they speed off east on Water. I look back and see Alison, Kevin and that other girl with the sparkling wine earlier on today. I tell them that the taxi cab just left and Alison gets upset that they abandoned her. I guess it's been a rough birthday for her. The girl tells me that they are going to have a talk and that I should just go see my buddy. I tell her that I have to wait around for an hour anyways so I'll just hang around by the corner and make sure no one bothers them. She says thanks and they go sit by some stairs and I walk back to the corner of Water and Simcoe, across the street from the trash.

I observe the nightlife by leaning up against a street lamp. People yelling and running down the streets. Girls swearing as loud as they can about something or other. I look down Simcoe and see that same guy that lipped at me earlier walking towards me with two girls and some other big dude. Maybe he has forgotten about me in his drunkeness. I don't usually end up hanging around after the bar alone, in fact, after Aidan got shot in Montreal I made effort to make sure of that. However this time I was alone and as he got closer it was clear that he wanted to talk to me further about something. And then some.

"So why are you a fucking dick?" He asked me again. His face is still red. He is a really big dude, but around my height, wearing a red basketball jersey over a long white shirt and red hat to match. He has broad shoulders and his body fat matches them width wise. "What are you talking about?" I ask.
"What am I fucking talking about?!" He says, "You fucking disrespecting that handicap old man in the bar."
"I seriously don't know what you mean."
"Oh I think you fucking do, you were shaking you head and you wouldn't give him a fucking high five when he came around." He said getting closer to me. Is he talking about that creepy drunk old man?
"Alright man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disrespect him."
"Don't apologize to me! Go apologize to him!"
He continued to talk to me in my face and I got fed up with it so I just walked up in front of his face and stare at him. As he talked I could see his crooked bottom teeth overlaping one another, and his eyes glazed over from drinking. I just stared back, not smiling, not scared, but just staring back intensely. He finally stops talking and stares back at me. What should I do? Sucker punch him? Hit him in the bridge of the nose to water his eyes and run. No I can't run, what if he reconizes the girls and then harasses them. Ok, I can dislocate his jaw by slamming my fist downward into-

"What? Do you want to go?!" He asks interupting my thought.

Ok that's it for tonight, looks like there will be a part 4. Until then.

Peace.

Stacked.

I wanted to take a small break from the current storyline. I just got home from Jordan's tonight.

Today was pretty much uneventful as this whole week has been. I wake up everyday and check my GTalk messages for my brother's daily task for me to complete. Put the garden hose in the garage, clean up the beer bottles, bring in the green bin and recycling blue boxes, put the dishes away, clean up the beer bottles... It is really fun because it gives me more purpose in my day rather than just watching Star Trek. Which brings me to later on when 13:00 hours come around I watch my daily dose of Deep Space Nine, though it's not that great today with a focus on Ferengis. John gets home and we eat some beef jerky while watching Star Trek The Next Generation. It is really funny because when we were little we'd always watch it together growing up, but I'd have to ask him what some of the technical stuff meant. Sure enough I found myself asking him stuff that only he'd know, inside information about alien races and technical abilities of the ships.

We BBQ'd up some sausages on the patio. I run up and down the stairs to watch a bootlegged Pirates of the Carribean 2 and to help out with the food. I did what my father would do, supervise. However when my brother pointed out two earwigs that were mating on the BBQ I fetched a stick in the yard. In my bare feet I sprung around on the grass on my front pads. The grass feels so soft. I get a little twig from the yard and poke the earwigs down the BBQ and stop the mating process. Bet that pissed him off. There is more around the BBQ which is made partly out of wood, one earwig I poked got squished a little bit by the pressure and was hanging from the BBQ from his own bug guts. It eventually fell to the grown and it crawled under the deck.

After the dinner I called up Jordan's cellphone at around 21:00 hours to see what he wanted to do. "Hello?" A voice droned. It was Nelson. I told him I wanted to do something with them and they started arguing. I could hear the the background Nelson saying "Why don't you pick him up?" And then some murmer. "You aren't that drugged up." Nelson said in response. Some more murmer I guess from Jordan. "Fuck you! You dirty-" Nelson says and then laughs. I start laughing too and then mention that I'll find out if my bro can drop me off if he isn't drinking. I ask my bro and he agrees to it. When I get changed I asked if he wants to stay and hang out with us which he agrees too.

We drive there and park in Jordan's driveway. It is just becoming dark now. My stomach feels a little sick, probably from all the beef jerky. I manage though. I ring the doorbell and Jordan lets me in. I introduce John as the fourth for asshole. "Fifth." Jordan corrects me.
"Fifth? Who else is here?"
"Jessica." He says and walks into the living room. I say to John aside that I don't know who he's talking about. I walk in and I am introduced to her, skinny, pink sure, glasses and brown curly hair. "Hi I'm Matt."

"Hey you shaved your head John. Looks good." Jordan says. "You should do it now." Indicating me. I pick up the fashion section of the newspaper on the footrest and say: "I would, but my hair is everything to me, it would ruin my modelling career." Everyone laughs.

Jordan throws a deck of cards on the table and we gather around for a game of asshole. We play the first game and Jordan becomes president and I actually become asshole, I had some really shit cards. The next round Jordan looks at my hand and drops all his low cards into it to give me triples. The cheating already starts. During the game I get a kick to the legs, reach down and pick a card out in between his toes. A wild. I use it to get neutral. Game after game carrys on, I am always the dealer and I deal from both the top and bottom to stack the deck. I give all the good cards to Jordan and all the bad ones to Nelson. I see Jordan dump some low cards in the swipe pile, he looks at me with wide eyes and we both laugh cause everyone is so oblivious to our cheating tactics. In the end though my brother finally notice me dealing from the bottom of the deck and that ended it all. We all had a good laugh and then the night was over.

The previous night, the 26th of July, I stayed up to the late hours listening to the collection of vinyl records in the basement. I would listen only to the ones where I have not heard the name before. To my surprise I found some rare gems. I found a new love for Janis Joplin, her voice is so raw I loved it. My middle finger is starting to bleed now because of all the times I pushed the skin back to reach in for more records. We have about 300 of them down there. After that I decided to stop and I put some aside to steal for my own collection of records I like to play.

I still have a couple boxes to tackle.

Ok that's it for today, hopefully I can finish off the Prodigal Son arc tomorrow.

Peace all.

Prodigal Son (Part 2).

"Ok Kelly, I need you to do me a favour." I said. We continued to walk down Water Street towards Nick's house. I am wearing my American Eagle button-up shirt that is white with thin blue, orange and brown strips with some faded jeans. Kelly is all dressed up with plain button up shirt tucked into black slacks with nice black shoes.
"Um ok."
"If anyone at the party asks, tell them I am a writer fulltime, and that I write non-fiction and technical writing."
He laughs for a second "Oookay, to the girls?"
"Well yes. Well to anyone. I just got out of school and want to avoid telling everyone I'm unemployed and then answer the next question about what my life plan is. If I just say a job-" I begin to impersonate a hypothetical person, who for some reason has a messed-up-high-pitched-voice "-they'll say: 'oh wow, that's really cool, blah blah blah'"
"Alright man, no problem."
"Thanks bro."

The sun is hidden under the horizon, a small breeze blows through the streets which shifts a bit of the dust on the roads. The sky is a very light blue grey, and it is still a little sticky from the heat. The breeze feels nice passing through my shirt causing the collar to flip up momentarily. We take the Rotary Trail the rest of the way to avoid as much traffic as possible. Of course the entire way we have to talk about girls and situations. It is unavoidable and really Kelly is the only one I have these half hour conversations with non-stop.

We arrive at Nick's house and can hear the music in the backyard and people walking back and forth from cars parked out in front. His black steel arc gateway has balloons and hawaiian phrase posters all over it. Some dude looks at us and introduces himself as Ty. He crushes my hand. "Party is in the back boys." We thank him. I look at my finger and there is a big indent where my ring pressed up against it. Man that hurt. We go to the back and I don't reconize anyone. We sort of just stand there. I look around briefly and then raise my hand in greeting.
"Hey everyone, I'm Matt, this Kelly." Some people introduced themself after, some just sat there drinking. I could feel a sense of awkwardness. "Ok, well, we're going to find Nick."

We went upstairs this time to look around for Nick. I see him in the kitchen and he looks at me and grins. "Oh, my God, this guy. This guy!" He says, and as I extend my hand out to do the handshake he grabs me in for a hug. "So glad you could make it." He continued.
"Yeah dude, wouldn't miss one of your parties."
Kelly took Nick aside to go talk with him and left me in the kitchen with these two girls, Natalie and... and... I couldn't make out the other name. Kevin was there too, he was the dude you may remember that I hung out with that time I got lost in Peterborough (check the archives for "Get Lost"). He says hi and offers me a Corona because of my inability to get alcohol in time for a party. Half the reason is cause of the bus situation, other half is laziness. I'll owe him one someday. The two girls were both wearing poka-dot tops that cut off at the top with grass skirts over jean shorts. Natalie was wearing a red version and the other girl white.

We talk for a bit and exchange info one what school we went to and stuff like that. One asked what I was doing now after school and I told her about being a writer, and right now how I am doing a non-fiction project for my dad. "Oh wow that is really cool." Said the girl in the white. Natalie had no opinion on it because she was too busy trying to stand up with a drink. I think she is really sloshed. After talking to them I went to see where Nick and Kelly went and they are out on the balcony. Nick and I get to exchange updates on our life while we were out there. Nick's balcony is really small, it is just a slab of concrete above his door going in the house. All wooden railings with loads of plant and tree coverage. More people pile into the balcony now and the door has to remain open. I meet Nicole and Julia. At least I think that is there names. Doesn't matter I guess, they both look like fake blonde bimbos.

We all head to the back yard where everyone else is. I then meet... Man I am bad with the names tonight. I can't recall her name but she is really cute. Kevin is all over this girl though, they share the same sense of humour. When Kevin leaves I am left to chat with her one on one. She lets me sip her sparkling wine and then I recommend some other sparkling Italian red wine. She asks what I do for a living, and I mention the writer thing and the non-fiction with technical writing. She get excited and then I ask what she does. And Kevin returns. Everything stops while those two joke around and act silly. I am rather amused by it actually and I wonder what their relationship really is.

At this point Kelly has to leave for the bar to work and tells us to show up later. I still hang around Kevin, Nick and this other girl for the rest of the party in the back yard.

Ok that's it for now. Peace.

Prodigal Son.

I began to fade in and out of consciousness; an image of a 1/4 on a green sign flashed by as I passed out again. The rain was a vast mist that came down hard on the windows. I finally was able to maintain being awake long enough to realize where I was. I am back in Peterborough. I look out the window of the bus to see some familiar sights, like the shopping stores along Landsdowne, the Rotary Trail, and of course the downtown sector. I am listening to the new track by The Killers on my MD Sony Walkman, “When You Were Young, and the lyrics couldn’t have been more appropriate.

So how did I get here? Why am I here? A lot has happened since finishing my last exam for Trent University and then returning home to Oshawa. I get off the bus at the Greyhound station and plant my feet to the concrete. I only had one thing on my mind: Night Kitchen pizza. I call up Kelly to let him know I am in town and will be arriving shortly. I walk to Hunter Street along Alymer and turn around the bend. To my surprise I see a patio outside the Night Kitchen. I am not sure I like this new change in such a short period of time. I walk in and get the lunch special, two pizza slices and a pop or water for $5.50. I get a plain pepperoini slice with spices and my fav slice of feta cheese, leek, and spinach green. I choose the water to accompany the slices. I place my sleeping bag carrying sack and backpack by a stool and sit down with my pizza. I started to smile a bit because I keep remember that time that I came here with Rob and how he said he loves to see me come here cause of how much I love this place.

After the feta cheese pizza I go right into the pepperoni, only this time I do a little local tradition and put a little bit of honey on my slice. So good. I look around the pizza store and admire some of the artwork along the puke orange wall. One is just a bunch of angry black strokes of paint mixed in with some red to balance. Others are just weird abstract paintings of unknown people.

I then walk back along Alymer Street to the nearest entrance to the Rotary Trail which should lead me to Kelly’s house. When I get to Parkhill Road I instantly became shocked at the amount of construction work going on. It looks as though they are fixing the Rotary Trails very make-up. I walked along George and then cut into the small one way side street that connects to Water and then to Kellys house. I knock on the door. No answer. I keep knocking on the wood parts, on the glass parts, and then back to the wood parts. No one comes to the door. I begin to call his house when the door opens, it’s Kelly’s roommate. We talk for a bit and he invites me in. Kelly comes out of his room with a big grin. “Hey man, I am so glad to see you.” He said and we do the handshake.
“Good to see you too man.” I said.

We go into his room and I throw my things down and we chat for a bit to catch up and find out what has been going on since we last spoke. I mention the big camping trip I went on, seeing all my friends and hanging out with them, going into Toronto for some crazy adventures, trying to get a job and the interviews I have been going to.

We played a little bit of PS2 before deciding to hit up Subway for dinner. I was famished. After we finished eating we had to get ready for the big party.

My buddy Nick that I met from Walkhome invited me down this weekend for this huge house party that he is having at his house. I couldn’t say no to it, I really wanted to go back to this city, and I wanted to party. It was Hawaiian themed, but I decided on just wearing a nice stripped shirt. Plus I knew there would be some leis floating around. Kelly tells me the bad news that he has to work today, but he will come for a little bit to Nick’s house. I tried calling Nick at around 16:00 hours and his roommate Alison answers and tells me to call back around five thirty because Nick is out. I get caught up in some PS2 that I didn’t call back until 18:30 hours and she began to laugh because he just left again. I asked her what time people are coming over and she told me between eight and nine.

So we get dressed up and walk over there at around 20:30 hours.

Ok that is it for tonight. Will add part 2 tomorrow.

Peace all.