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Monday, April 15, 2013

8 Balls and the House on Dana Part 4


The after hour party starts at the house on Dana around 4 am, shortly after everyone gets out of work. The parties go on until the sun comes up or until everyone is crashed out on the floor. Everyone left at 8 Balls when they call last call is invited to come over by Jackie and everyone tends to show up. So it’s 4 am and a crowd of drunks take over the living room.

Kim and I, constantly sneak away from the party and head into the bedroom to sleep. Most of the time we lay on the bed in the dark cracking each other up, until one of us falls asleep. Kim believes in locking the bedroom door, “You never know if one of those people out there is a crazy lunatic with a knife,” Kim   says sitting up quickly, pressing her fingers to her mouth. Since we sleep in a bed on the floor, Kim   wastes no time, she jumps up in the dark room and runs across the bed to the door, locking it as quickly as possible. We lay there fully awake contemplating what we would do if we found everyone slaughtered the next morning when we get up.

The next morning, Kim has awoken before me, gotten herself a cup of coffee and has positioned herself at one end of the couch. At the other end of the couch sits a young guy, fully dressed watching the television with a blank stare.

Kim is sipping her coffee with her eyes scanning the ceiling when I walk in. “Good Morning,” I say to Kim as I go shuffling into the living room, my coffee in one hand my cigarette already burning in the other hand. “Sup?” says the guy on the couch, tilting his chin in my direction before he goes back to watching television. Kim’s eyes briefly meet mine and I mouth the words “Who’s he?” Kim shrugs and goes back to intently watching the ceiling. “What are you doing?” I say glancing up to the ceiling as well. “I am watching the cockroaches race each other on the ceiling.” Kim says and takes a drag off her cigarette. “I am trying to make them fall off by using my mind control,” Kim squeezes her eyes with all her might. “How’s that going?” I ask. “Not working so good yet.” Kim pauses, taking a sip of her coffee and flicking her ashes into the ashtray.

I sit down on the couch next to her and move her over with my butt. We are squished at one end while that guy sits at the other end of the couch with plenty of room. We don’t know him so we don’t want to get close. I reach back and pull my tail out of the top of my t-shirt. I take the rubber band off the bottom and unbraid it. Well, it’s called a rat tail and is sort of like a mullet except it is a strip of hair from the base of the head that forms a pony tail, which gets braided. Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins sports one and so then, do I.

I loosen the braid and run my fingers through it. It is coarse and brittle due to the fact that I dye it all the time. Kim reaches over and pushes my shoulder so I can sit with my back to her. She then begins to run her fingers through my tail, parting it into three different strips so she can braid them for me.

“Hey, I love to braid!” yells the guy on the couch making both Kim and me jump. He begins to slide down the couch towards me and moves Kim out of the way with his butt. Kim forced to stand, crosses to sit on the other side of me. The guy then pulls me to the floor to sit in front of him. He grabs the back of my hair and begins to pull on it splitting it into three strips to braid. Kim and I say very little, we assume that this must be someone’s friend who slept over on the couch.

He quickly makes a braid and puts a rubber band at the base. “Hi, I’m Geoff and this is Kim.” I say turning to him over my shoulder. “I’m Jim,” he says moving my head back, so he can finish the braid. Jim offers nothing else to us, no explanation as to why he’s here or why he’s here. Kim offers him coffee, so I jump up and follow her into the kitchen.

Jim will proceed to spend the next three days sitting on our couch, drinking coffee and every now and then helping himself to meals that he finds in the fridge. On the third night Jackie walks into the kitchen and stops in front of me and Kim while we are eating dinner. Jackie pulls out a chair, sits on it and places his elbows on the table. Leaning in he whispers, “You’re friend is eating us out of house and home!” Then he motions to the living room with his hand. “Our friend?” Kim responds, her eyes getting as big as saucers. “He’s your crazy friend,” Kim says.

After several verbal back and forth’s with Jackie that include us sneaking peeks around the corner and knocking on roommates doors for a mandatory “family meeting” that we realize that no one knows Jim and that he just walked in with the crowd three days ago just for the party.

Jackie saunters out of the kitchen while the rest of us hide around the corner in the kitchen. Jackie stops at the couch in front of Jim and reaches down to pick up a magazine.  “Hi, Jim how are you?”Jackie asks nonchalantly thumbing through the magazine.  “Good, how are you!” Jim asks trying to look around Jackie’s legs so he doesn’t miss anything on the television. Jackie slides next to Jim on the couch. “Jim who do you know in this house?” Jackie asks and begins to fan himself with the magazine.“Well I got to know everyone,” Jim says leaning on the arm of the couch. “Who did you come with?” says Jackie as he leans in front of Jim’s line of vision, so that he will have to meet Jackie’s eyes. “Oh, I just walked in with everyone else from the bar.” “You did?” Jackie says holding up one finger. “Stay here I will be right back.” With that said Jackie walks back into the kitchen, leaving Jim to watch the television.

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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