I’ve often said that illegal adventures are the best but truth be told I’ve never seen a cop give a shit about J-walking. Wearing a blue flower dress, white sunglasses, carrying a pink Asian parcel as I dashed across the street and walking through the tall littered sprinkled grass along a busy road… I must have been an unusual sight. However not all that unusual for this is Columbus.
The outside is a swell of heat and a pool of human beings. Push and squeezing through the crowd to find our way back to the corn hole.
Dancing to Come on Eileen singing the lyrics, I can’t say for sure we distracted the boy’s game but I hope so.
Swanky drinking half a pitcher of beer straight from the pitcher.
Last call music stops. The background bouncy tunes are replaced by a sea of voices that spike and slur into a mixture of conflicting noises.
Suddenly the birthday 21 is yelling and I am inside a crowd of people. There are men yelling and I see body’s fly backward. The whole crowd backs up. Cleo and I are drowning in the masses as the birthday 21 is yelling from somewhere within the thick of the throng. Another girl yells and guys yell. People keep telling people to drop it and leave.
So I guess she got fed up and she told him they shouldn’t talk until he moves back. I did my best to play the supportive friend but I’ll admit I’m an awkward animal so don’t expect much comfort from me.
She had all her blankets and long pillow pulled up besides her in that little corner.
“Do you like this cocoon I made,” She asked motioning to what had become of her bed.
“Yeah,” I said. “I feel like this is your nest and your a bird and I’m this lizard from the neighborhood who’s come over to visit. And I guess this must be Florida because there are no lizards in Ohio.” I lift my Styrofoam coffee cup in the air. (This is a gas station coffee cup from the night before that J-Rabbit had left in my car. I decided to keep it and drink it so I didn’t have to wait for the coffee maker in the morning.)
“And this is like an acorn with some morning dew I collected.” And this is all word for word because this conversation had been recorded. I’m going to eventually make a documentary. It’s going to be about me and Swanky growing up, lower class existence and anything that will be fun to look back on. I’ve been recording us off and on for the last two years. My camera is a piece of shit but I feel like the footage so far is really genuine and maybe someday years from now I’ll find a kick-ass film editor to help me complete the project.
“And we’re sitting here talking about this other bird who used to share your nest but now he’s in this tree all the way over there. And your like what the hell, and he’s like sorry and you’re like bullshit.”
She starts to laugh which is good.
October 7th 2012, I sit on the floor of my bedroom with my laptop glowing before me. My butt hurts…