Nicholas
Bubbles
“Hi-yee!” Alison screamed.
Bubbles looked up with relief. Her friends -Thank God. She was beginning to feel like a real geek. Everybody here seemed to know each other. She was on her third PBR and her second shot of Jagermeister. She figured as long as kept drinking she looked busy. At least the bartender was really sweet.
Raven tucked her arm through hers. “How long ya been here?”
“Oh not long.”
“I am so high,” Raven giggled, “What was your name again?”
“It's Bub,” said Alison, “God Rave. I told ya five times already.”
“Here you go, Ronnie,” the bartender said, bringing Bubbles the third shot she'd requested.
“Ronnie?, I thought you said your name was Bub?”
“It's the name on my ID,” Bubbles whispered, “It's my sister Veronica's so I just told him to call me Ronnie.”
“Oh. I like Ronnie better than Bub.”
“Really?” Alison said, “I like Bub better - it's so tough. Like Hey BUB, Hey Buddy, Listen Buster!”
“Well...” Bubbles began, feeling no pain, “how ‘bout you call me Bub,” looking at Alison, “and you call me Ronnie,” looking over at Raven.
“Works for me,” said Alison.
“Sure,” Raven agreed, “hey come in the bathroom, we brought treats.”
Max & Eleni
“You are not going to believe this one,” Max groaned as he dropped the receiver.
“What now?”
“I finally talked to Bobby's mom this morning—he’s in jail. And I just got off the phone with Marilyn, and Micky's dead.”
“Oh my God. Poor Micky.”
“I know. Marilyn was hysterical. She found out right before I called.”
“Poor Marilyn.” Eleni sat down next to Max.
“I know, I bet Bobby doesn't know yet either. I don't even know if I should tell him.”
“O.D.?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“So this is probably not good news for the band either?”
“No shit.”
“Poor Max.”
“Yeah.”
“You want me to call Daisy?”
Max sighed. “Might as well.”
Barkin' Jack
Barkin' Jack slipped back into the Greyhound station and headed for the restroom. On his way he passed a little rack with free leaflets and little magazines for tourists. He helped himself to one that extolled the virtues of Washington county. He enjoyed reading about the “Gracious Living” round and about the Portland area. The whole concept of gracious living intrigued him. Could you live graciously with no means of support? To hear tell of it from most of these missives, it was an idea that had escaped notice. But Barkin' Jack wasn't so sure. Although the line between the haves and the have nots was clearly drawn, there were areas of blur. Once upon a time the haves just purely pissed Barkin' Jack off. Even seeing people stuffing themselves silly at a sidewalk cafe used to make him feel angry. Would it kill them to offer out a half a sandwich or a slice of pizza? Or people going into the supermarket with their fat wallets. Coming out with shopping carts filled with food rather than all their worldly possessions. And woe betide the Barkin' Jack who might ask for a bit of change. Some of them just behaved as if no one had said a word. As if there wasn't a human being standing in front of them. Others had the nerve to get angry at him, tell him to get a job. Well, he'd had a job thank you, and it hadn't worked out very well at all. A job defending their thankless asses from a stupid war they cooked up to watch on T.V. while they stuffed their faces.
Time, however, had mellowed Barkin' Jack. The longer he spent out here the better able he'd become at looking after himself. He was no longer as hungry all the time as he once was. He'd learned a bit about where to get a meal and who expected what from a man like himself. Now he was able to appreciate some of the freedoms that came with a life on the street. He certainly had more time to stop and smell the roses. It was just a shame about all the other things he had to smell.
Jolie
Jolie held onto the bar on the MAX train, stared at her boots and tried to breathe deeply without smelling anything rotting. Man she was drunk. They sure liked their beer up here. They'd already gone to a pseudo-biker bar, an oldies club, a fake English pub, and now they were on their way to Goth night at some gay bar, for Christ's sake. And all she had to show for it was a handful of Vicodan and a beer belly. And Jackie could not stop whining and worrying about whether someone was going to rat her out to the recovery community. Well, she had news for Miss Jackie—she wasn't going home 'til she found herself something to set her straight, and she wasn't going home until she found herself a place to go. Even if Betty fucking Ford hunted them down.
Bubbles
Bubbles leaned on the wall outside the club. She'd slipped out for a breath of air.
Man she was drunk. Being able to drink anyone at Louis and Clark high school under the table had not fully prepared her for this kind of serious bar drinking. And the hit of X that Raven gave her was seriously bringing on the whirlies. She did not want to blow chow all over the place like some amateur. Alison and Raven still looked great twirling around inside the club. The last time she'd checked herself out in the bathroom mirror she had definitely lost most of her patina. She just hoped she looked more buzzed than fried. As she turned to go back into the fray something caught her eye. Coming around the corner. Could that be? Omigod, it was. She didn't know anyone else that looked liked that. It was Nicholas. Headed straight for the door. Headed straight for her.
Nicholas
Man, he'd copped more of a buzz at the last bar than he thought. But the fresh air helped. And the night was young. And so was he. Fuck Honey and all her we're getting too old for this shit. Maybe she was. It was a fact, women wore their mileage earlier and harsher than men did. Twenty nine was the end of the line for most of them. But for a guy like him, hell—it was just the beginning.
Daisy & Toby
Dear Daisy,
I know things haven't been easy for you and I believe you now about all that stuff you said about Daddy. But he's dead now and he can't hurt you anymore. So now you can come home, right? I really need my big sister and Mom needs you too. She hardly comes out of her room so she can't make you mad anymore.
Gran comes and shops for us once a week...
Toby stirred and Daisy quickly shoved the letter back in the pack. She hadn't shown her the letter yet. One of the girls at the old building she'd lived in had gone back to get mail after they'd all been evicted. She'd given it to Daisy at clinic the other day. The first time Daisy read it, she almost tore it to bits right then and there. But she didn't. She just stuffed it in her pack and now it lay there like a guilty secret.
Jolie
Jolie looked around at the scene inside Maggie's. She looked at Jackie, “Are you fucking kidding me? It's all kids here.”
Jackie sighed. “I don't know what happened. It wasn't like this last time I came.”
“How long has it been since you were here?”
“Oh, I don’t know—a year maybe.”
“For Christ's sake, Jackie, a year is like forever in night club time.”
“Well not everybody's too young. Look at him. He looks like a friggin' Wolf prince or something,” Jackie giggled as Nicholas walked by.
“Well now that's more like it,” Jolie smiled for the first time that night.
Nicholas
“Well, here's a familiar face,” Nick said, hoping the familiar face would identify itself. Names were never his strong suit.
“It's me, uh Bub, you know from My Face? We, um, talked about going to the Fez, I'm here with, um, Alison and, you know, Raven?” Bubbles cursed herself.
Every time she was nervous she said um and you know every other breath. The more she thought about it the more she said it.
“Well, little Bub, it's getting pretty cold out here. What say we step in for a drink? That is if you're not waiting for anyone?”
“No, no a drink sounds great.”
Nick reached for her hand. She didn't know if he was going to kiss it or what. He just stood there looking at it for a moment then he slowly turned it over bringing her wrist to his mouth and licked it. Just as quickly he pressed it to his own wrist and held it there all the while looking deeply onto her eyes. When he let go there was a perfect imprint of the entrance stamp on the inside of his wrist. He laughed.
“Now we're twins.”
“Twins,” agreed Bubbles happily, “identical or fraternal?”
“I guess only time will tell, which would you prefer?”
“I think we'd have to be fraternal on account of being male and female.”
The doorman gave Nicholas the stink eye as he looked at his wrist—lucky for Nick the crowd behind them was too backed up for the guy to bother with him tonight. Nick grabbed her wrist again and they headed for the bar.
“Whatcha drinking?”
“Oh just a PBR and, um, maybe a shot of Jagermeister.”
“Sounds good. Same for me but with a shot of Jack.”
“Ronnie,” the bartender smiled up at her, “same again?”
“You bet, make it two PBRs and a Jack as well.”
“Your wish is my command, Ms. R,” he said and disappeared along the row of bottles”
“Ronnie, eh? Leading a double life?”
“It's, um, kind of a long story. Like, some people call me Ronnie, some people call me Bub,” and, she thought, if I play my cards right no one will ever call me fucking Bubbles again.
Barkin' Jack
It looked like Barkin Jack's feet were taking him to the riverside again. It was typical Portland weather tonight, soft rain just enough to give you a chill, then it would clear up, then, more rain. It had been playing at springtime a bit, the cherry blossoms and daffodils were coming out and they had a really warm day last week, but it was still late winter tonight. He'd meant to check into the shelter but time got away from him, and now it was too late. He loved the rows of cherry blossom trees decorating the west side of the Willamette river downtown. Now there was gracious living. Just that little stroll along the water with tree after tree in vivacious pink beauty. All his, all for free. He'd been up to Forest Park earlier looking for Frank and a few of the other guys he knew up there. He never found Frank, but he'd been surprised to see his friend Harry. It was probably seeing Harry that made him forget all about the time. He'd been both saddened and pleased to see her. Rumor had it that Harry's family had found her, taken her home, and that Harry was living in the lap of luxury up in Lake Oswego.
Life on the street was much harder on women in Jack's opinion. It seemed to prey upon all the things that made women so intriguingly different and, from what he'd seen, it devoured most of them. Harry was one of the few people Jack shared a bit of history with. She'd been a nurse in the war and had been there at the fall of Saigon like Jack had. Both of them just kids, both there only for the bitter end of a war that so many people thought was already over. It hadn't been a good war for Harry, either. All in all she looked pretty good though, her short stay with her family had done her health some good. But she told him inside she'd just felt too stifled. Too much like a combination of a circus freak and a charity case. She said her people felt sorry for her for all the wrong reasons. She was opting for a break from her break. Jack could see how that might happen. He'd always liked Harry. Both of them thought it odd that they could understand things about each other that those who had shared their lives with them could not. Not that they actually spoke of it. It was just something that occurred to them individually. Now, Jack headed for the spot under the stairs where he sometimes sheltered for an evening. Tonight, however, there were two young girls sleeping there. He left before he frightened them.
Jolie
Jolie'd been about to give up on the beautiful wolfish boy when all of a sudden he sauntered up to her. She'd given him a wink a bit earlier on a return trip from the bar, but up 'til now he'd had that little goth kid glued to his side. Now she was out having a smoke (she couldn't believe they'd changed the smoking law a month before she'd arrived).
“Any way I can buy or rent a smoke?” he smiled down at her. Damn he was tall.
“Now how would one go about renting a smoke I wonder?” Jolie hid her interest by staring into her bag while she looked for her pack. It never paid to let them see you cared.
“Well, perhaps indentured servitude would work better. You give me a cigarette and I'm yours for whatever time you think might be fair trade.”
“That could be interesting,” she started to give him the smoke then held it up for a moment.
“Of course how do you know I won't drive an unfair bargain, hmmm? I could put an awfully high price on my cigarettes.”
He reached out and took the cigarette. “I guess I'll just have to trust you. And after all, you being a stranger in this town, a local boy might be just what you need right about now.”
“How can you tell I'm a stranger?”
“See, I know all sorts of things. I can be very useful.”
“Well maybe you can, local boy. You got a name?”
Bubbles
Alison, Bubbles, and Raven were crammed into the stall in the ladies room. Gay bars usually didn't spend much time fixing up their ladies rooms. Come to think of it, very few of the other nightclubs did either.
Raven had literally chased out the previous occupant. Bubbles loved this. She and Alison were still bursting into laughter every time one of them said “Boo! “ which is what Raven had shouted to the stall hog as she'd pulled her out of the tiny space. They were now fully amped and she was trying to get their advice between hysterics. “What should I do?” she kept asking them.
He'd invited her back to his place and she really wanted to go. She felt like she should trust her instinct. She might never get this shot at him again. She could see the other girls eying him .
“Well, do you want to go?” Alison asked.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Well, why not?” said Raven. “You're not like a virgin or anything.” She said the word like most people say warthog or cockroach.
“Um of course not,” she'd replied hurriedly, “A virgin, right, ha!”
“You know what I think?” Alison said.
“What?”
“Boo!”
And they all burst into hysterics once again.
Nicholas
Goddamn! The only thing better that might have happened tonight is if that bitch Honey had been there to see him in action. This Jolie was something else, legs up to here and smart too. That little goth girl was cute as hell and now he was taking Jolie uptown to see a man about a little Mexican brown. Damn, who knew where the night would end?
Jolie
Could it be? Was her luck actually becoming something approaching fortuitous?
Finally a sign of some of that dope the Northwest was supposed to be full of. Not only that, but a really fine looking courier. She looked out the window of the MAX train as they zipped through the city. It really was a very pretty place. Maybe now she could look at it with something approaching hope.
Bubbles
It looked like it was now or never. Alison and Raven had found the party they'd gone in search of, so it was either stay here and go home with Nick, or leave with the girls. She looked over at Raven who was flirting it up with a couple of cute boys. What would it take for her to have that kind of confidence? Maybe getting rid of her virginity would be a good start. Everybody had been talking about doing it for the past five years up in Longview but that’s all it was—talk. She was tired of hearing about it second hand. It made her feel clueless and immature. Well, it may not be a cure for everything but it was certainly a place to start. She pulled herself upright and went to go tell the girls to go on without her. She was going to get a clue.
Jolie
Man oh man did she feel great. It surprised her when it really turned out to be as good as she'd anticipated. She looked around the 24-hour McDonald's with appreciation as she waited for Nicholas to finish his shot. A happy place she thought with amusement. Such a happy place. She had that warm floating feeling that seemed to emanate in her gut, then go coursing through her veins. My kind of place! She almost laughed out loud. She could feel her hand swelling up where she'd missed part of her shot. It throbbed dully. But fortunately it was met with the painkiller aspect of the drug almost immediately. She held it out and examined it like an object that was part of something else. The back of her hand had swollen and looked a little bit like a Mickey Mouse glove, rounded and comical. She reached for her pack to see if she had anything to cover it up with. She was pretty sure she had packed some gloves somewhere. Where did it get to now? She looked around her, then dove under the bench she was seated on and searched under the table. Damn. She'd left it at the club. How stupid could she be? She looked around desperately for the time. She had to get back to the club before they shut their doors. A thin film of sweat seemed to instantly cover her face now. Where was Nicholas, Goddamn it?
Nicholas
Goddamn, Goddamn, Goddamn it! This was not what was supposed to be, thought Nicholas as they rushed down Burnside. Right about now we should be getting down to it at my place not running around fuckin' freezing cold downtown looking for a goddamn backpack. No MAX running this time of night, not a bus or a cab in sight. Goddamn it!
Bubbles
It was all a terrible mistake. She should have known better, she was almost sixteen years old -What was she thinking? She sat on the stoop of a shop next to the club. She'd been dumped, ditched. Now it was going on 2:30 and she was all alone in downtown Portland. He wasn't coming back. All that shit he'd said was just that—shit. Now she had no way back to Longview even if she could have gone home. Man. She could see her dad screaming at her first for coming home at 4:00 AM then for the inevitable sassing back when he'd said one stupid thing too many and she couldn't take it. She let herself finally chew on the nail she'd been eying all night. What was the point of keeping them nice now? She looked up and down the block, everything was shut up tight. She pulled out her cigarettes and counted them. Six left. Fuck it! She lit one anyway. At this rate, if she smoked one every half hour they'd be gone before morning. She got up and walked to the corner. If only there was a cheap hotel or boarding house like in the old days she could stay there, but where was she gonna find a place in Old town for less than fifty bucks unless it was the Salvation Army? And even they were closed. She thought the Benson hotel was around here somewhere –well that was out of the question. She'd been there once as a child. Such a glamorous old building. So many things she didn't know about this place. Why hadn't she just gone with Raven and Alison? Now they were partying their asses off and she was all alone on a street corner. And if things weren't bad enough, who the hell were those guys coming up the street? They were loud and they sounded kind of angry. She hoped if she drew herself into the doorway she might escape notice.
BB
