Beer Slushies/The Long Wait in the Dark/The Adequate Escape

Friday night, mid winter. 11:30 P.M. or there abouts. Doc, Gramps, T. and I pull up in front of T.s house. We wanted to have one more beer before we dropped her off for the night,but they were all semi-frozen. T.s dad had told her not to have anybody in the house,but he wasn't supposed to be home for over an hour. We warmed up the stove, opened our beers and set them on the burners. about ten minutes in, (and with the beers still not thawed) we spotted headlights coming up the driveway. "Oh shit", yelled T., "it's my dad!" We grabbed the half-thawed beers and followed T. quickly up to her room,where we hid out in the dark for about three hours.
We sat quietly, not moving, on the floor hiding as well as we could behind furniture. We barely spoke or moved the entire time,only a few whispered words. Occasionally, T. would sneak over to the door and look down the stairway, only to see her dad still sitting in his chair. He never made a move to come up the stairs and find us, but he never moved from his spot in the living room, either. I am sure he knew we were there.
Finally, we decided that the only way out was the window. T.s room was in the front of the house, with a window that looked out over a small overhanging roof above the front porch. We quietly opened the window and one at a time climbed onto the overhang and jumped into the front yard. From the lowest point on that overhang roof it was probably eight feet to the frozen ground, but we all managed to make it uninjured. We got to the car and pushed it half a block before getting in and starting it so T.s dad wouldn't hear it.

Fractal Memory #6

Five of us sit on the hill
near the water
summer sun but a cool breeze
blowing in off the lake
as we sit in the sun to dry off
smoking cigarettes and drinking beer

Fractal Memory #5

The barking dog wakes us
early summer Sunday morning
hazy from the night before
we make love then return to sleep
awaken love sleep again
four or five times
I don't remember now
we finally leave the bed in early evening
and sit on the balcony
grilling steaks and drinking
in the low sun of the afternoon

Shopping Cart Safari

Doc and I used to work together at a grocery store near a smallish mall. Some Friday and Saturday nights if or schedules worked out, I would leave my car at home and we would take off in his car after work. Usually it was just typical idiocy, get some beer, find some girls, raise some Hell. One particular night,we got out a little later than normal. The mall area down the block was closed by the time we got done working. We headed over there in Doc's car on our way out of town and herded the stray shopping carts around the parking lot. With the car. We must have hit ten or fifteen of them, and sent them sailing all around the lot, bent mashed and mangled.

Fractal Memory #4

Driving the red truck
into the summer late afternoon
waiting for the night people
to come out
smoking a small sweet cigar
and damning the sun
for being so low and bright
right in the eyes
as I turn and head west

Fractal Memory #3

Moonlight on the water
late night summer swim
laughing girl takes my hand
and guides me
to her gentle shore

Invisible I

Early summer,1987 I think. Graduation party season, and we hit about five that day starting about noon. It got to be about 6:00 or so,and Doc decided he wanted to get something to eat. So we stop at Burger King and he goes in. His brother and I stay in the car, deciding we're too pissed up to go in. After about ten minutes or so we both decided we had to piss. We got out of the car and stood on either side. In the Parking lot. In broad daylight. Facing towards the second busiest road in town. And nobody looked at us twice, not so much as a horn honked by a passing car. Either it was too weird of a scene for people to believe, or we were invisible that afternoon for about three minutes.