"It knew what coach expected and by golly it performed."
The day after Dave Douglas was Wednesday--my last day spent with Buttons and Jules. They left on Thursday; but their flight was early in the morning, so Wednesday was it for us.
Now reader, I’m aware of the risks of a non-linear narrative; but for my purposes I’m gonna skip to Thursday--the day of their flight back west, and the final impression left.
I should mention that we got freaking HAMMERED on Wednesday. I mean all day and night since by then I’d had five days with Buttons and Jules--so my liver was bloated as a football and in prime alcohol absorption mode. It knew what coach Grdzak expected and by golly it performed.
Thursday AM should have been one long intermission. Just lay back and dream and sleep off the booze. Except...
Ring. ring.
Ring. ring.
Ring. Ring.
Ring. Ring.
Oh man. Why’s your phone even on Lodo?
I initially had no intention to answer, but I’ve been told to keep my cellphone away from my balls and my head, so its oftentimes buried deep in my backpack. That said, its set to ring a lot of times before it goes to voicemail. So that fucker would not stop.
Ring. Ring.
Ring. ring.
Ring. ring.
Ring. ring.
Ring. ring.
Ring. ring.
(heavy sigh). The phone’s display said BUTTONS, so I answered.
“Hey Buttons.”
“Cotta! Cotta! Cotta! Cotta!”
“It’s Cotto Buttons.”
“Whatever Lodo--we love you. Really. We were just sitting here at our gate talking ‘bout all the wonderful things we did. We saw Cotto and Margarito and Dave Douglas and watched The Packers play the Giants.”
“We watched that on TV Buttons.”
“I know! But we still had so much fun. Anyway, I’m gonna put Jules on cause I know he wants to say goodbye--but we love you and want to see you come out to us.”
“Okay, Buttons. I lov...”
“Hey brother! Did we wake you?”
“Uh, hey Jules. No,.yeah,...maybe a little bit.”
“Ha! ha! I knew we would. Well listen man, I wont keep you. We just wanted to let you know what a great tour guide you were. Now I can say I’ve been to Madison Square Garden and eaten duck in Chinatown at 4 in the morning. Plus my kid’s gonna shit a brick when he sees that pic of me and that drummer.”
“That’s great man. And listen you went way over and beyond the cal...”
BZZZZZZZZZ!!!
BZZZZZZZZZ!!!
“Holy cow! What’s that man?”
“Oh shit, that’s my intercom Jules. Someone must be downstairs.”
I rolled out my bed to look out the window, but couldn’t see who was downstairs.
“...You still there Lodo?”
“Yeah Jules. Just wanted to see who that is. ...Not expecting anything. Maybe they’ve got the wrong...”
BZZZZZZZZZZ!!!
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!
“Oh fuck me Jules, I can’t listen to that.”
“Yeah, if its the postman they probably need you to sign something. Well, anyway--thanks again brother!” Jules said as we hung-up simultaneously.
Probably needs you to sign something. I assumed that was a throwaway comment ‘til a few moments later. After I threw on some clothes, stepped into my flip-flops, and made my way downstairs where I encountered a postman with an overnight delivery envelope. The guy wasn’t my usual carrier, and in his hand was one of those document-sized, express envelopes--the kind of which I last saw when I first met Jules.
“You ringing the buzzer?” I asked the postman. He was young and wore his crisp uniform very tight.
“Are you apartment # 3?” he asked.
“...Is that who you’re looking for?”
The kid smiled. “Grdzak?” he asked. “Lodo Grdzak?”
I looked at the envelope he held in his hand. It was the exact same envelope--at least in terms of size and dimensions as the one I’d mailed.
“...Is that who you’re looking for?”
“Yeah,” the kid said. “Is that you or not?”
“...I’m not expecting anything.”
“Well someone sent this to you.”
“...But I’m not expecting anything.”
“Well, I suppose you don’t have to sign for it if you don’t want to.”
We stood silently in the doorway a few moments as I collected my thoughts.
“...Who sent it?”
The kid’s face registered impatience for the first time, but he looked at the envelope.
“Its from Seattle. Listen, are you Lodo Grdzak or not? Otherwise I’ll ring the right apartment. I’m not sure what the confusion is here.”
“It's not about confusion,” I answered as I leaned against the doorjamb and squinted into the morning sun. “Christ man, I just woke up.”
* NOTE: Due to the length of this post, I'm going to split into some additional parts. Next installment in a few days.
* ADDITIONAL NOTE: All pics used herein (with the exception of me) were simply stolen off Google Images.
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