Company’s Coming
Kelvin & Sage had just moved back from Atlanta. They hadn’t stayed there long. That big city dope had really whooped their asses so they came back, although it looked like small town dope was doing just about the same damage.Their homeboy Tim was visiting from wherever he was living at the time and a friend of his showed up one Friday night. I never caught the guy’s name, but he gave me a few vee-cut blues. I’ve always liked blues, vee-cuts especially. I announced “the three second rule is officially in effect” and ate them all. I think there were four or five of them.
The old Hoka was showing a kick-ass double feature. Dazed and Confused opening for Star Wars and not some Episode 47 bullshit but the 1977 classic Star Wars. The real deal. They’d found an old reel someone had left in storage but show time wasn’t ‘til 11:30. The damn sun had barely gone down. We had some time to kill so we played spades for an hour or so. Kelvin & Sage vs. Tim and me. The stranger passed out face down in the hallway right outside the john. He’d been up for two three days and hadn’t really been saying much to begin with. We didn’t bother him. Tim and I went either ten-for-two or blind nil just about every other hand.
Tim kicked his buddy on the way out to the show. The guy mumbled something and didn’t get up. “Guess he’s not comin’.” We really didn’t want to miss the start of the show so we left him there. Figured he’d still be out when we got back later on. Tim assured us his fingers weren’t sticky and his pockets were full to begin with.
The Hoka was mainly a café but there was a ticket booth on the back wall and a path through the stockroom led to a small room with fifty or so wooden seats and a huge portable screen. The sign on the entrance to the screening room stated “no smoking cigarettes.” The projectionist came downstairs and packed a bowl as soon as the movie started. That was all the encouragement we needed. I don’t think my dugout cooled off the entire time we were there. We got high, ate some shit, got high some more, watched a couple movies, acted like asses in general, and had a completely large time. The Hoka was a riot. I really hate they shut that fucker down. Nothing worth a damn is ever really built to last. It’s a parking lot now. I parked there just the other day.
It took us an hour and ten minutes to get home from the show. It had taken us an hour and a half to get there. We were all ready to get back home and push off again. The real dope had pretty much cut out and we knew the stranger had a pocket full of goodies all ready to break down and share.
Kelvin made a beeline for the john. He’d been bitching the whole ride home. He kicked the stranger, Tim’s buddy, a good one on his way in. “Wake up fucker its party time!” The guy didn’t get up so I checked him out with a more subtle approach in mind. If he wouldn’t wake up easy he damn sure wouldn’t notice me rifling his pocket.
He damn sure wasn’t waking up easy so I went for his pocket and couldn’t get right at it the way he was laying. When I rolled him over a little he didn’t look so good. Looked like his days of waking up were pretty much behind him in fact. He was way past call an ambulance. I went ahead and got his pocket. Looked like he wouldn’t be needing that stuff no more no how.
We sat on the couch and got high and not a little high but damn near overdose-for-fun high. Did up most of what the stranger had. I asked Kelvin if he wanted me to make the call but he didn’t. “This place is a mess. I’ma clean up a little first since comp’ny’s comin’.” It was about three hours before he sat down and picked up the phone. The sun had come full up by then and I left just before the circus arrived.
Posted by Modus Operandi 
