I am completely
shocked by what I see as I slowly walk into the room. Jack is sitting
completely naked in a chair, his legs are crossed and a pipe hangs out of the
side of his mouth and he has a devilish glint in his eyes. David is also
sitting in a chair but has nothing more than a pair of underpants on.
I feel like
Rosemary from Rosemary’s Baby, when she enters the Witches party and confirms
that her baby has been fathered by the Devil. I don’t want anyone to talk to me
it’s a lot to take in.
“Hi Ann,” I say
pretending she has all her clothes on as I walk around her. Frankie still has
the crop extended in her arm towards me. “No thanks,” I tell her and just that
moment Mark walks into the room in a harness. “What the hell is going on in
here?” my brain asks. I don’t even know how to process this and I decide that
the best way is to excuse myself and get out of here.
Jack stands up,
his little belly covers his penis and I realize that I just glanced down at it
so I quickly that I switch my eyes up and notice his handlebar moustache is
curled up on each side. He still has that twinkle in his eye and the smoke from
his pipe, circles his head like a bow. I move my eyes to the table that split Jack
and there is a pile of a white substance that I know is cocaine. It is piled
high on a mirror with additional lines and a straw separated off to one side of
the mirror. A smile crosses David’s face and Jack takes a step towards me. This
is a little too much to put together in my brain and I take a step backwards
from this little group. For a brief moment the thought to stay crosses my mind
but I am not comfortable and need time to think on it. I do what I do best when
confronted with a situation that makes me uncomfortable, I run. I just turn
around, take a step around Mark in his harness, Frankie in her SS uniform and
Ann chained to the wall and hit the stairs running.
I don’t stop
until I make my way back to Jay Street and enter my apartment. It is exactly
how I left it and Bill M. still hasn’t returned and we haven’t heard anything
in a couple of weeks about his progress. David and I are supposed to officially
move in together and I have begun the packing. I want to give Bill M. plenty of
time to find a new roommate before I leave but I haven’t even had that
conversation, I don’t want to visit him in the psych ward and tell him my
plans.
It’s hours later
that David appears at my apartment, he wants to apologize for freaking me out,
everyone is sorry that I wasn’t told or asked in advance and Jack and Frankie
want me to come back later for a drink. I tell him that “I will think about it,”
but I know I will. I don’t return that night but several days later I do. Jack
teases me about how I ran out and how if I stayed he would be gentle. Frankie comes
downstairs and sits on the side of me as David stands behind me. We form a
twisted, bizarre little family who at this moment need to be in each other’s
lives. It’s weird when I see Ann but she just shrugs and says “A moment in
time.” Soon David is over at The Gemini Jazz Café on a nightly and most of the
day basis, he will come home and five minutes later its Jack or Frankie who
need something and David is back there. When Frankie calls the house because
Jack has punched, kicked or slapped her when he is drunk, David’s there to hear
Jack apologize for doing it. I start to watch a slide in David’s behavior; he
is constantly on beck and call for Jack. I believe that he cares deeply for
both of them and has tried to talk Frankie out of staying again and again; he
is also there to protect Frankie. How do you get someone to leave who won’t?
Five of the six
weeks are almost up for Bill M. when I walk up the block to go to work at the
Gemini Jazz Café as I get closer the smell of burning wood fills my nostrils
and smoke hangs in the air. As I get closer I realize that there is no building
left on the corner of Dove and Madison. Over the next three hours I am about to
learn that the Gemini Jazz Café has burned down, the fire started in two places
and the owners have left via boat for somewhere.
To be continued……
Geoffrey
Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in
the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written
consent.
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