49
Hard to believe, but I’ve found my way back to my booth in Jimmy’s Place.
Prince and Leon sit across from me and we’re pulling down pitchers of Budweiser. I called them up as soon as I was back in town.
“Well, I’m glad Mo told you, anyway.”
“Dramatic as hell.” Prince smirks.
“I think I kinda snapped when she left.”
I spent almost the whole first hour telling them about my date with Rose. How promising I thought it all went and how she disappeared anyway without a word.
“But you know I’ve been planning to head out there for years regardless.”
“That’s where I thought you went,” Leon says.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, didn’t I tell you Prince? Cambridge. I said it. You were always talkin about how you oughta fix that place up. I bet you went there. We knew. Didn’t I say that?”
“He did. He said that a few days after Mo told us you left.”
“Another week, and we woulda driven on out there to be sure though,” Leon shrugs.
“Appreciate that.”
“Better now?” Prince asks.
“Much. I was thinkin a lot about Ma and all. My pops. I don’t know. I needed a month.”
“Yeah, yeah.” They nod.
“I didn’t wanna explain. I just wanted to go. I wanted to feel like I could.”
“Course you can. It’s good. Need that.” Leon says.
“Anyway, the place is good as new. You two gotta see it. Whole thing is redone. But the craziest shit happened.”
And then I get around to telling them about the forest mushroom trip. Best I could, I relayed every detail from start to finish. The guys grew damn near giddy hearing it all.
“Good for you, man,” Prince laughs.
“Fuckin good for you, Cash. That’s the stuff. Hell, sometimes all a man needs is a solid trip.”
Leon smirks, amused and drinking his beer down easy. He did his fair share of psychedelic experimenting, but was way calmer and more collected and professional about it all. Before we know it, we’re laughing and reminiscing on everything like I never left in the first place. And God bless them for it. They understood it all. At the end of the day, they thought I was a bit crazy for leaving without much of a sound, but they were just glad that I did what I had to do, and that I had the adventure and returned in one piece. You know how it is with best friends, family. It was just like yesterday, so the saying goes.
After the first pitcher and my stories, we start talking about what I’d missed in Johnston.
Leon, minimal, gruffs out.
“Not a whole lot’s changed. Honest.”
“Gotta be something man. How’s Mo?”
“Mo’s good. She’s always good.”
“Work?”
“Ah well, we’re commissioning this new project over at the high school. Renovating the entire field house, actually.”
“The whole field house?”
“You bet.”
“That’s a big fucking deal, man.”
“It’s good, yeah. It’s work, ya know.”
“Yeah, but it’s great work. Nothing’s changed , he says.”
“All good.”
And he shrugs as I laugh. Most humble guy you’d ever meet in your life. Everything to Leon is always, simply, all good. That’s Leon’s adjective for just about everything, good. Good man, good . You had to really pry with Leon sometimes if he wasn’t buzzed up and willing to ramble on his own accord.
“And how about you? I know you’ve got something for me.”
Prince gets that sly look of news on his face and says.
“Oh I’ve got something.”
“Talk to me, ace.”
“Shit. About a week or so after you left, I had a call with a buddy out West. He’s the one running that weed empire I told you about.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“The guy basically has this greenhouse now, hidden away in the back of his storage garage. Anyway, he’s really, really pulling in the paper.”
“How much we talkin?”
“Well, I don’t actually know just how much he’s really pullin in exactly but he was telling me ’bout all the opportunity out there, ya know? Just for business in general, man. And he said the women are all class. He says a guy just stumbles headfirst into shit out there without even trying. And get this, he offered us a job. A gig. He says it’s basically legal out there and nobody comes running around none. He said if we wanted, we could help him expand it. Not saying we should, but it’s interesting man. Fucking interesting.”
And the whole time he was talking, I drank and thought that I saw an altogether new glint in his eye. He’s at it again. This is Prince at his best, in the concocting of elaborate plans. He’s always having these slick business ideas which almost never materialized. This one has him buzzing, though, there’s no doubt about it. I’ll just say he looks different. Maybe it’s the beer, or us being back together again after far too long, but our voices are imbued with a real possibility. I have the thought that Prince may be heading out West after all.
For now, though, we’re rolling in the bar we know best.
“I fuckin missed you guys, man.”
“Same, pal,” they say.
And I believe them.
I missed this bar too. Saul behind the counter, towel over shoulder, scowling at nothing in particular. Springsteen on the juke. It’s good to be home.
After a few more beats or so, Leon goes.
“Ya know, Cash, I really thought about not sayin this, but I saw Rose here like a week or so back.”
“What do you mean you saw her?”
He shrugs.
“I mean exactly what I said man, I came through here for a quick one after work with Mo, what was it, last Monday? Yeah, well sure as shit she wandered through here for a second. She was chattin with Saul, helped serve for a minute, and left.”
“And what else?”
“I don’t know what else.”
“What else man? That’s it?”
“That’s it. Yeah. I wasn’t starin or nothin, Cash. My back was to her and what, I didn’t even know any of this other shit till you told me just now.”
“Right.”
“Whatcha thinkin?”
“Nothing. I just figured she was gone for good is all.”
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe she is. It was just the once.”
But just the once was just enough to get my mind out reaching her way through the universe all over again. I don’t know how to feel, honestly. The news takes me by surprise. God. Alright. It’s fine. I finish my glass, and I let it out of my head. For all I knew, Leon had things all messed around in his mind and was confusing the dates, or maybe it was a different girl that looked just like her, I don’t know. I tell myself I don’t care and choose to ride the good wave with my friends.
I stand and take the pitcher to the bar for another round. Saul shakes his head.
“Really thought I was rid of you.”
“Not yet, pal. How the hell are ya?”
“Good. You?”
“Never better.”
I suppose he looks about the same, more or less, so I take him for his word. Good . I have the impulse to ask about his sister, but I resist and am proud of myself for it. The woman had left me and hadn’t even called. But I was a new man, was I not? I had seen some shit, as they say. Saul fills the pitcher.
“Thanks, man.”
I head back to the table. I’m officially in the perfect ride up for the buzz. You know the feeling? When the feet start dancing and the body gets lighter and swift? What a sensation. I return to the booth.
“Tell me more about this motherfucker out West.”
A couple hours later we’ve plunged our way through four or five pitchers. A massive return to action. We’re right back at it. We’re young and reckless once again. I know it was only a month or so, but my time away made us reenergized. My brothers. I’ll paint them heroic in my stories, all my life. I’ll write about them for ages, and they may never understand how immortalized they’ll be. Well, in their own way, I think they’d do the same. I’m sure they’ll tell their kids about me one day and I’ll be the hero in those tales.
“Fellas. I was gonna wait to tell you but, fuck it. Mo and I are trying.”
“No fuckin way?”
Prince’s eyebrows raise.
“Yeah, man.”
“My God,” I say and I reach out my hand. He shakes it in pride.
Honestly, I’m convinced now more than ever that Leon would be in Johnston till he died. I couldn’t be more proud of the guy. There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll be a sensational father. And that daughter of his, or that son, would grow up happy and strong and fulfilled. They’d be one of the real building blocks of the nation when things threatened to grow more complicated. Have no fear, Leon will be raising a bright piece of the American future, and that makes me feel better about everything.
Mo and I are trying , he’d said. And the responsibility expanded his chest. He’s hopeful and capable. One of the good ones, the best. Before I know it, the doorbell will ring, and it will be a little Leon at the door. Looking up and smiling wide at me. I can’t wait.
We’re growing up. Always. A celebratory night in the promise of more life.
“Cheers to that,” I say.
We clink our glasses together, an ageless pact.
Home. Good old Johnston. Jimmy’s Place. We’re back.
“Cheers to that, Leon man, cheers to that.”