Tuesday (Part 2)

I stood in the driveway for a minute and thought I didn't want to walk at all, I just didn't want to be in the house. I got in the car and drove downtown.

The world was warm and dark and a buzz of life flit through it. Cinco de Mayo, but on a Tuesday.

Parked the car and around the corner I found a small group of people I know sitting in chairs outside of a Mexican restaurant I went to once. Some were friends, some were people I know. I went in and ordered a margarita. No salt.

Fuck salt.

I took the mason jar margarita out to the table with the people and sat between William and Ethan. There was a large traffic sign glowing away nearby and it flashed between a warning for a delay in traffic and the dates.

"Can you just change those from there, or do you need a laptop?" William asked.

"They usually have a keypad right inside them. Hold, on," I said, and dug out my phone. "I have instructions on how to change them."

William laughed. "Excellent. What should it say?"

"I have no idea. Everyone always goes with zombies. Not zombies."

"Oh fuck no. It should say 'Bitches, Bitches, Bitches.'"

"Nine to eight."

Jane, a friend across the table laughed. "Bitches bitches bitches, nine a.m. to eight p.m.?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yep."

My phone buzzed.

Taylor sent a message. "Oh, you should walk then. Sounds nice."

"I did. Currently outside a restaurant having margaritas and thinking about changing a traffic sign."

"Oh dear."

"I know."

"It is Cinco de Mayo, have fun."

I closed it out and began searching through my phone for the directions on how to change the sign. I found them after a few minutes and walked over to large base and pulled at the door of it. It wasn't locked and opened. The control unit was inside and as I was going to reach for it I noticed a cop walking around the corner. I acted like I had just been walking by it and went back to the table and I nodded at the cop as I passed him.

"It isn't changed," Jane said.

"The cop."

"Oh right. Well, he's gone now. How do you do it?"

I gave her my phone and she stood up and walked over to it and William and Ethan and I watched as she crouched down and reached into it. A minute or so passed and she stood. "I can't figure it out. These directions..."

I stood, grabbed my margarita, and went over to the sign and William came also. We all crouched around it and fumbled with the control unit. The directions seemed close, but inaccurate. Nothing happened and after a minute it was boring and we stood.

People were leaving the table and walking toward us. A party was mentioned. A party that may or may not be happening at an address no one was totally sure of.

Seven piled into Jane's care.

William and I walked to my car I finished the drink and dropped the jar into a garbage can.

In the car I pulled from my pouch of wine and passed it to William. I turned the key and Operation Ivy came crashing out of the speakers.

"It's Op Ivy," I said.

"Oh, I know."

Drove across town to the street Jane was pretty sure the house was on. The street was quiet. Dark. Also, there was no house with the number we were looking for. Operation Ivy still loud out of my open windows we drove up and down the street staring at porches and in windows hoping to catch some clue.

Jane's car showed up on our fifth pass and we parked near her.

"I don't really want to be here," William said.

"Me either. You want to book early?"

"Yeah."

"We should have a code word for when one of us is ready."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Goatwhore?"

"Perfect."

We walked behind the group Jane brought. They went down a driveway, behind a house and there were people smoking near a door with the number we had been looking for. We never would have found it on our own.

Jane's group went inside and we followed, and up a staircase and into a kitchen that looked like it was the first apartment of a group of college kids.

A guy reached his hand out to me. "Hey, man. Welcome. James, right?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Saw you play a while ago. Good shit. Glad you're here. I'm Nicholas."

"Good to meet you man. This your place?"

"Yeah. Booze is in the kitchen, and Randall, wherever the fuck he is has pot. So, you know..."

"Thanks."

"Of course man. Hey, I'll find you later, I've got music shit to ask you."

All right," I said.

He walked away and I walked to the kitchen, where William already was, pouring a glass of gin.

"Me too," I said.

He nodded his nod and grabbed a glass from the dish rack behind him and poured me one. There were stools on one side of the island in the kitchen and they faced outward so I could see the front door when we sat.

I sent Taylor a text. "I kind of wish you were hanging out."

"Kind of?" she said.

I drank my gin, poured another and drank it. William kept up.

The front door opened and a girl whom I had been keeping my distance from walked in and immediately made eye contact.

"Shit," William said.

"You know the story?"

"Not really, just what I have heard."

"Oh, that's fucking horrifying. What does that mean?"

"Don't worry man. It isn't on you. Goatwhore?"

"Goatwhore."

We threw back the drinks we had and left.

Pot smoke filled the porch and I knew some of the faces around it.

"You want some dudes?" someone asked and gestured the joint at us.

"None for me, thanks. Booze only."

"All right, you man?" the kid asked William.

"No, thank you though."

We walked down the stairs and I was nearing the end of my pouch of wine.

"What do you want to do?" I asked.

"Wander?"

"Let's go to a bar."

"Deal."

Stumbled into the road and found the car. Got in and William changed the CD and the music was deafening and we drove back into town.