Christ, I can't believe it was that long ago, already...seems like yesterday.
OK, let me elaborate. It was a Friday afternoon, and I got a phone call from an acquaintance, asking if I wanted to check out a concert that night, in a city a couple of hours away from here. I was up for it; I was just finishing off the last of my dissertation, and could use a break. I told her I'd meet her at a coffee shop near the venue.
I got there, and waited. And waited. Finally, the girl working there came over and asked my name, then said she'd got a call, it was someone named Laura and she said she was sorry, but she wouldn't be able to make it. No surprise there; Laura was one of the flakiest people I'd ever known. She probably had some brand new best friend to impress or something. Oh well, what the fuck, I probably would have ended up paying her admission to the show anyway...
I was only a few blocks away from where some friends of mine lived, so I decided to stop by and say hi before I headed back. I grew up in the same neighborhood as these guys, and knew that the welcome mat was always out. Angelo and Mario Carrillo were my next door neighbors after their family moved out west from Montreal, and were a riot to be around. They brought a whole culture with them, and everyone knew that friends of the Carrillo boys were untouchable, and, well, you didn't want to be on their bad side.
I got to their place and found the door wide open, and a poker game going on in the kitchen. No surprise there; these guys had hosting poker games down to an art. There was always plenty of food and beer, and they were extremely shrewd when it came to how much they won from their guests. Someone always left with a lot more than they showed up with, and everyone else would lose a bit, but the Carrillos would always come out ahead. I'd seen them doing this since we were in junior high, and the group of young blue collar guys laughing and drinking around the kitchen table had no idea that they were being fleeced.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in! Ang! It's fuckin' Mikey!" Mario got up and threw his arms around me as Angie came out of the bathroom and spotted me, then started spouting off in Italian; something about wondering if he smelled something rotten, but it was just some freakin' Mick. He brought me a beer and wrung my hand for what seemed like an hour, asking about my mom and school and the neighborhood and everything else. I hadn't seen these guys for a while, and it was good to see them. Mario introduced me to the rest of the guys in the room; they were their neighbors from across the alley and worked for some excavation outfit. Their boss was also there, a guy named Rob, late forties, a big dude, really built, and smart enough to not be sitting at the table with his crew. After exchanging pleasantries, the Carrillos got the game back on track, and told Rob and I to help ourselves to whatever we wanted, which was a spread of antipasto in the dining room, a fridge full of beer, and as much Montreal hashish as we wanted.
"So, Rob, not a gambler, then?", I casually mentioned while giving the Carrillos a sidelong glance. Rob kind of grinned knowingly and shook his head.
"Not really in the, uh, mood, y'know." Yeah, I knew, and decided to just let the boys do their thing.
Rob and I really hit it off, and were talking away as if we'd known each other for years. We had a lot of things in common, and it seemed like he'd really needed to just relax and unwind with someone who actually listened to what he had to say. He was married, though he didn't seem too interested in elaborating on that subject, but was happy to talk about photography and rock climbing and vintage sports cars. After a few beers, I started to wonder if I should plan on staying in the city overnight, or coffee up and head home. At one point, Rob got up to take a leak, and I headed out onto the balcony for a breath of fresh air. A few seconds later, Ang came out and lit up a smoke.
"Fuck, it's good to see you, man, I miss the old neighborhood." he said with his serious Italian barber look on. "Oh, hey, I got something for you, it's the very last of it, and I couldn't think of anyone who'd enjoy it more." He pulled a little glass bottle out of his pocket, and told me to hold out my hand. I did , and he carefully turned the bottle into my palm and deposited a tiny purple pill into it.
"Where the fuck did you get THAT?" I asked him with a bit of surprise. There was a time when we spent a far amount of time amusing ourselves with LSD in the old neighborhood, and I'd done my share in university after that. I'd always enjoyed it, but after a while I just didn't have the time or inclination, or the right people to do it with.
"Hey, part of a deal me and Mario had going. The chemist has retired though, so you are holding the last of it, my friend. Do it whenever you want, fuck, you can crash here if you want."
"Well, no time like the present!" I popped the hit into my mouth, not having to worry about a place to hang out or pass out once I came down. Ang just smiled and headed back inside, telling me to enjoy the ride...
I sat back down and Rob came back into the living room and tossed me another beer. I thought about doing another bit of hash, but it would be a waste of time if the acid was any good, which it no doubt would be. I cracked the beer and Rob started telling me about some of the machinery he had at home in his garage. I told him that I'd have to check it out next time I was in town, but then he told me that he only lived a couple of blocks away, and he wanted to get his truck home before he drank any more. Good plan; I wasn't too interested in watching a poker game anyway.
We got over to Rob's place, and man, he had some of the coolest shit I've ever seen. A track prepped Datsun 240Z with a 302 Chev engine and M-22 transmission, a John Player Special Norton Commando, a pair of Sunbeam Tigers, one a super clean original, and a rough parts car. The walls were lined with amazing photographs; Rob a few years younger and dangling off of an outcrop on Mt. McKinley, killer skydiving shots, and a photo of Rob in the pits at Laguna Seca with some guy in a race suit that looked a lot like....
"Yeah, that's Paul Newman", Rob offered up. "We had camped near the track, and security back then was pretty lax. I walked over to the track and into the pits really early in the morning. A couple of guys came over to me and asked if I could give them a hand pulling out some bent sheetmetal. We got it pulled and tweaked to the point that it looked half decent and the tire wouldn't rub on it, and they thanked me for the help and asked if I had breakfast yet. Other than a can of warm Coke and a Slim Jim, I hadn't, so we went into their trailer, and there was Paul Newman, cooking up a mess of bacon and eggs on a Coleman camp stove. Real nice guy, just a regular Joe. Fucking good driver, too."
This was a fucking rush, and I couldn't tell if it was from being in the middle of this amazing collection of stuff, or if I was starting to get a buzz from the acid, or both. Rob suggested we go into the house and crack some more cold ones. I was up for that, I was pretty thirsty, and was really enjoying his company.
We went down into his basement where the walls were lined with even more incredible photos. The beer was flowing easy by this point, but Rob was catching a lot more of a buzz from the brews than I was, and he started to open up a bit about his marriage. I could see the way he was gritting his teeth when he talked about her, and the fact that he was enjoying the simple pleasure of having attention being paid to him, just having someone enjoying his company.