1. How Did I Get Here?
I should have followed my first mind. The moment I pulled up to the house, I thought to pull out my phone and call and say I was outside. But no, I got my happy desperate self out of my car and walked right up to the house. Clearly he'd moved since the last time I'd visited him. Before a few months ago, 6 years had passed since the last time I saw him. Back then he lived in a beautiful apartment in an artsy part of the city. It was perfect for a bachelor and aspiring musician. Today I was ringing the doorbell to a house clear across town. From the outside this was a cute and small brick bungalow in a neighborhood I was familiar with – lots of chicken places and liquor stores, but still a wholesome family community. This was no big deal to me, but definitely different from the upscale persona he liked to portray. I rang the doorbell. I'd just gotten off the phone with him 20 minutes ago. He sounded wide awake on the phone but some young dude I didn't know answered the door. He opened it just a crack and said "Yah" half interested. "Is Red here?" I knew Red's government name but his nickname just rolled off my tongue. I was 100% sure this was a street name situation. The still unknown dude opened the door all the way and said "he downstairs", turned and started to walk away. The dude didn't introduce himself or ask me who I was. He didn't look twice at me. The house was dim inside. No lights were on but lots of natural light flooded in through the windows. Just enough for me to admire the gorgeous light maple hardwood floors littered with trash.
"You been here before?" random dude stopped walking and asked.
"No", I said.
He said "Back that way" as he gestured down a short hallway that ended with the kitchen on the right and basement stairs to the left. I thought I looked cute; I probably looked like a Ferrari at a gas station car wash. Me in my red coat, matching gloves and boots slowly strutted down the hall being careful not to step or slip on random trash on the floor – plastic grocery bags with crumpled stuff inside; cupcake like wrappers on the floor; general dust. On the one hand, one might expect two grown men living together to be a bit junky, but this was kind of foul. I started slowly walking down the basement stairs. It wasn't wet or musty smelling, just dark and I didn't want to slip on any random trash or junk thrown around. I called out "Red?" I could hear and see a TV on and see two couches set up living room style. The basement was actually laid out nicely like a living room and dining room combo - a really dark, messy and dusty living and dining room combo. I heard a moan and saw movement on the couch. He popped up – "oh hey!" He said it like he was surprised I was there, like he didn’t just give me directions a whole 20 minutes ago! He came around from lying on the couch and gave me a hug. He was literally wearing gray long john pants and the dirtiest white tee I'd ever seen. I was thankful he didn’t smell. I was trying my best to put on a brave front and hide my disgust. His hug and big, warm, handsome smile put me at ease. He motioned for me to sit down at the table. The table was glass. It had orange sticky stuff on it like someone spilled a soda on it two years ago. He tried his best to make idle chit chat while clearing junk off the table in what was clearly embarrassment. Then finally he said – "This is the men's room, the dungeon. Let's go upstairs while I see about your party passes. Yeah, party passes."
From our conversation earlier, I thought I was going to pick Red up and drive him to the guy with the "party passes" (weed). But when I got to his house, he called the guy. The mystery man was going to drop the passes off to us. Since beggars, especially last minute beggars, can't be choosey, I had no problem chilling out with an old friend for 20 or 30 minutes. [This was olden days when you had to know someone to get weed; it wasn’t just for sale at a local dispensary.] Random guy was sitting in the living room staring at the TV like it was God. I sat on a couch opposite from random guy. Red sat on a third couch in between us. The living room was large enough to hold three regular size couches to form a u-shape around a coffee table and giant TV. I immediately thought the house could be quite lovely with some cleaning and decorating. Red introduced me to random guy, who turned out to be his younger brother. Little brother was watching soccer, of all things. Odd for a black man, but I didn't knock it. I knew a little bit about soccer; enough to try and make small talk. I thought there was a major championship going on the way he was glued to the TV. It turns out he was watching a sports channel that played old games around the clock. "Soccer is my life. I could watch this all day."
No dude, that’s not a life.
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