might show off her new body
about a year after the birth of
her firSt child. There was also a
tattoo somewhere on the midriff.

A garish display of ink forming an

incomprehensible image or symbol

which dove down into the tight black

jeans below. For all the time I Stared

at this midriff, I can’t remember if the

tattoo was on the front, side, or back. It was

as if the middle of this girl was not even attached to
her body juSt an independent band of youthful skin, a
perfect circle with no front or back.

‘The midriff was with another girl—a very short, altrac-
tive blonde. When the midriff wandered off somewhere,
the blonde came up to our table, placed her drink on it,
and pretended to be intereSied in something happening on
the ceiling of the bar. We eventually aroused her attenuon
by a combination of primal grunts and pretending to slip
drugs into her drink while she Studied the ceiling. Our
juvenile efforts worked and the blonde sat down next to
me. She told me about her job in Ontario, her mom in
Victoria, and her younger siSter who happened to belong
to that perfect midriff. I told her a Story about when the
bartender at the faux-cowboy bar poured a beer in my
friend’s shoe as he was getting kicked out.

I suppose my Story loosened her up. Right after I told
it, she drank a beer in three gulps, snapped a Stranger’s
umbrella over her knee, then Stuck her tongue down
my throat. The three events probably didn’t happen in
such close succession, nor necessarily in that order, but
in a timeless place like the faux-cowboy bar, it’s hard to
position events on a timeline. You enter the faux-cowboy
bar at an arbitrary time and leave once the lights come
on. What happens in between does not obey a linear
time Structure.

‘Vhe midriff came back so that her siSter could buy her
more drinks. I guess she didn’t have much of her own
money, and the blonde seemed to enjoy being her siSter’s
keeper for the night. After a few drinks together, we all
danced to country music, Fletch with the midriff, and
Scruff and I taking turns dancing with the blonde. None
of us were very good at dancing to country music, but
the girls let us spin them all over the place _ they weren’t
worried about not being able to Stop. So we spun them,
and then held them close for a moment and tried some
sort of romantic dip before Stumbling into the people

44

beside us. It was great fun that
laSled a few songs before laSi call
came and we had to buy more
drinks. We bought a final round
of beer, the lights came on and
returned linearity to time. The
blonde decided she’d had enough
of me so she took the midriff and left
quickly. I had asked her to come home
with me, but she said no, and I didn’t
pursue it any further. There’s an alleyway
behind the faux-cowboy bar where college boys and
addicts go to smoke cigarettes and buy drugs. Scruff was
smoking a cigarette and had Struck up a conversation with
a Strange person near the alleyway. Fletch and I went into
the alley to see what kind of drugs the college boys were
buying. I had a pen and pad in my pocket, as I usually
do, and asked one of the college boys to write something
down on the pad. I don’t remember what I asked him to
write, but he spat on the pad and smashed the pen on
the ground, all while smiling and acting like we were
beSt of friends. I really liked that pen. A good friend
of mine had given it to me. Fletch later gave me a new
pen that he took from a credit union, but I Still missed
the other pen.
Then another college-looking boy came up to Fletch
and me in the alleyway and asked us ifwe wanted some
HEHEHE. I can’t remember the word he said. It was
a regular word, but P’d never heard it used to refer to

drugs. Before then, I thought I had heard all the terms ss
for different drugs, but it had been a few years since I \
was a college boy myself and new words had emerged i
since then. After Staring at him blankly for a while, the 5

college-looking drug dealer politely clarified that he was |
selling cocaine. We didn’t want to buy any cocaine. We
had juSt come down the alleyway to see what kind of drugs
the college boys were buying. We told him that, so he left
us alone, and then we left the allyway to collect Scruff and
walk home.

‘That was the extent of the exciting parts of the night. ‘Vhe
walk home took a long time, but the fresh air was appreci-
ated, as was the opportunity to talk to one another without
making eye contact. I can’t remember what we talked about,
but eventually we were at the apartment I was looking after.
Dead tired, we fell asleep.