Chapter Three: What's In A Name?
I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that I have, up to this point, had very little direction to my life. My only passion has been playing music, and there are those who say I'm fairly good at it. I am generally late for appointments and I really don't much give a damn if my bills get paid on time or not. Irresponsibility seems to be a trait that I inherited from my father, because he was never one to keep his commitments either. I do, however, insist that I am punctual for musical engagements. Why I have this compunction is anybodies guess.
Maureen and I met in a bar down in Micco, Florida where I was playing, one night, and fell in lust for the rest of the weekend. I don't think I was ever in love with her, but we sure raised a lot of hell for a long time. That was over twenty five years ago. Why I was attracted to her is still a mystery to me. She wasn't particularly attractive, she just happened to be there when I got the urge. We went to her dump apartment out on the beach and screwed each other stupid for two days. Say what you will about her, but she was a dynamo in the sack. She had a good body, not great, but good. She was a little pushy and made it a point to tell you just what she wanted, but she fucked like a rabbit.
The band I was working with was a rag-tag bunch of guys from the north east Florida Coastal area and we thought we were pretty good. I was about twenty at the time and hadn't garnered a whole lot of experience for the road yet. We had this big hairy bass player from Mayport playing with us and he took it upon himself to be my tutor of sorts. Dave had all the moves. He was a superb bassist, probably the best I've ever worked with, and a hot lead player when we needed him to help out. But he always told me he loved the bass because he could spend more time watching the women on bass than he could on lead guitar. But he taught me how to be a good musician, and he taught me most of what I know about women. Dave also told me that Maureen would break my heart some day, and he was right. But that came later on. Maureen and I ended up getting married three days after we met.
I took Maureen with me when we left Micco, and she stayed with us on the bus until we got back to Jacksonville, five weeks later. We got a place close to the water in Jacksonville Beach and things went pretty well for a couple of years, until I went back on the road for a seven week swing up through Georgia and the Carolinas to make some extra bread to buy her a real wedding ring. Word got back to me that she was hitting the clubs along the beach while I was away, but nobody ever saw her with another guy. She was always with her female friends.
Of course, musicians have been known to stray from the marital bed from time to time and I was certainly no exception. Fortunately, I never encountered any sexually transmitted diseases, and to the best of my knowledge, I haven't fathered any children along the way.
Dave was fifteen years older than me, and whenever we traveled together, he looked out for me. There were times when I wanted to kick his ass for treating me like a kid, but he kept me out of jail more than once and from getting my ass whipped more times than I can remember.
"I just don't know why you had to go and marry that Maureen," Dave would say. "It's gonna end in tragedy some day."
Dave had it right. Maureen took to wandering off for weeks at a time. Of course I didn't blame her for it. I had been on the road on and off over the years and she had been left to do whatever she damn well pleased. I did what I wanted too. But we always wound up back home together.
My folks both passed away in the same year, Mom from cancer and Pop from a lonely heart. I grieved over dad. I still miss him to this day. That old man could play keyboards like nobody else. Dave told me once that he used to work with him in the hotels along the beach in the old days when rock and roll was really rock and roll. We took him on two tours with us, and had to fight to keep the women off him after the shows. That silver haired devil had a sparkle in his eye and a perpetual hard-on. I found out that he and Maureen were doing the bump and grind one summer when I was up north doing the state fair circuit. I didn't believe it then, but I do now that I've been filled in on some of my dearly departed wife's escapades.
Anyway, when dad died, we moved into his old house on Myra Street in Neptune Beach. Maureen was in heaven with a house to decorate. She nearly bankrupted me the first year buying new furniture. But we survived and stayed there for a coon's age. We were less than a block from the ocean and Maureen became a beach bunny, wearing the briefest of bikinis and growing darker with every hour in the sun. I figure she was making acquaintances on the beach because she would stay away long after sunset and come home smelling of alcohol.
Most of the time, I wasn't there anyway because I was working the lounges all over the area. I'd come home and find her draped in a chair or asleep on the porch, having forgotten to take a key when she left for the day. And I knew what the sticky white stuff was on her clothes and face and in her hair. Dave called it just like it was. She was a party girl! But I never caught her with anyone.
Maureen gave me her full attention when I urged her to. I'd say we were going to do this or that and she was there. I'd ask for a certain meal and she would cook it for me. And she never complained until one day about four years before she was killed when she told me she had other plans for the weekend and I'd just have to get along. I was irked, but what could I say? I'd pack up and be gone for months at a time without as much as a by-your-leave. How could I argue?
But the bitching got worse and I began staying out later after the gig and drinking more than my fair share. When I'd come in tanked, the battle would rage and she would leave for a day or two until we both cooled off. Finally we simply quit speaking at all. I think that's about the time she inherited the money and the boat from her aunt. When she did come around, I could see she was losing weight and had let herself go.
I was forty five and Maureen was fifty four when she had the wreck. I didn't even know where she had gone, or with whom until I got the call from California. What a drag! I called Dave and told him what had happened. His reply was sad but true, "Told you so, Old Buddy."
I wanted to bust him in the chops for being right. But, Dave was usually right when it came to life. He called this one a long time ago.
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A couple of days after my encounter with Velda and Deborah on the boat, I decided to walk over to Neptune Beach's world renowned watering hole, Pete's Bar, on First Street. Pete Jensen opened this oasis way back in the dark ages. I think one of his daughters is running it now but it's been there for as long as I've been alive and a lot longer I'm sure. I used to go there with my dad and grandpa when I was just a child.
I stepped into the dark cool bar and stood just inside the door, letting my eyes adjust from the bright sunlight outside. Pete's smelled of stale beer and cigarettes. So, what else would you expect?
A female voice interrupted my thoughts, "Izzat you Kewl?"
"In the flesh," I responded, scanning the bar for a familiar face.
There were only four other patrons present, plus Caroline the bartender. The only face I recognized was hers.
"Sorry to hear about Mo, Mac." Caroline said, coming around the end of the bar to embrace me in a mammoth bear hug. "We're gonna miss her around here."
"This was one of her favorite places," I added.
I perched on a stool and ordered a Crown and water, fished a c-note from my new money clip and instructed Caroline to set the house up. First time in my life I ever did that, but there were only six of us counting Caroline. Big spender!
"So, Kewl, now that you're single, how about we get together some night let our hair down?" Caroline asked.
"Might be a good idea," I answered. "What you got in mind?"
Caroline leaned across the bar, mashing her ample tits against my hands as she did, and whispered in my ear, "For openers, you could fuck my little ass until I can't walk. Then we'll think of something fun to do."
Caroline was a buxom woman of about thirty five years, with very long yellow hair and sparkling blue eyes. Her skin was naturally dark, like she spent lots of time in the sun, only she didn't. She was small in stature, but had gargantuan tits and a cute little pug-butt. And she had been lusting after me for many years.