Just a bit further
This is just a bit more of the book I am writing a few have asked for more to read and I dont think it will hurt anyone if I post it.
I looked at my watch and it read three thirty. I counted down. “Three…two…one.” Then my cell phone rang. I flipped it open “Greetings Al.”
I knew it was he. It was Saturday and he wanted to get laid. So Al calls me in hopes for me to hook him up with some of my past interest. “What’s up my man?” He asked.
“Nothing much.” I said back “Just broke up with my girlfriend.”
A silence came over the phone. Al hasn’t even meet this girl yet and yet she was already an ex-girlfriend. “What the hell dude?” Al asked.
“What?” I asked back.
“What is that like number five?”
“Wasn’t that number four?”
“It might be six come to think of it.”
“No, we said we wouldn’t count the Chicago thing.”
“No I was thinking the Sea World thing.”
“Riding atop a few whales is hardly a relationship.”
“Whatever! Your single now so we can go drink.”
“Al! I told you I don’t that stuff anymore.”
“O yea. Well we should find something to do. What are you doing right now?”
“Standing here.”
“Where?”
I paused for a moment and looked around. “I don’t know.” I said passively. “Somewhere in Roseville.”
“I’ll come and pick you up. Just wave me down when you see me.”
“Will do.” I said hanging up the phone. I swung my trench coat to wrap it around my body. It was almost four in the morning. This only meant that the sun would come up several hours from then. I knew if I didn’t get to bed then I would be sleeping in church. But Al was my only ride home, so I was almost force to go over whatever chicks house he wanted, watch him laugh at some jokes that were not funny and drink himself to sleep while I am left to entertain a bunch of drunk teenage girls. Where was that drunk driver when I needed him?
“It’s all in his divine plan.” I kept reminding myself.
After Al picked me up I knew it was a bit of a long drive to wherever he was going. So this meant that Al and me would have a somewhat “meaningful” conversation. Now these conversations normally started out with something completely stupid. And normally I would be the one who started it. “Do you think Eskimos take showers?” I asked.
Al thought about that for a minute. I was beginning to think he didn’t hear me. This happens quite a bit. It is what me and most everyone who knows Al as “An Al Moment”. If the dictionary described mindless and somewhat useless phrases it would describe this one as;
“To take any question or situation that requires a simple answer or easy rational decision and stretching it out into mindless explanation that ends with no point. Or acting in a constant state of mind in which you have something to prove.”
There are many “Al Moments” in this story. Anyway, He finally answered. “I think that if you believe they can then they will.” He said to me.
“What in hell is that suppose to mean? If I believe? Sound like something out of a Disney movie.”
Most of the time Al used certain phrase (that were once just good harmless jokes that you would see on a T-shirt or coffee mug) to dictate his life. It was really sad to watch but it made him happy. And it made sense in an Al kind-of-way. But for me it seemed too childish. We were twenty years old for god sake. On the other hand I wasn’t to old to ask inane questions when I knew that I would regret it when I heard the answer. And with that the conversation continued. “Seeing is believing. And when someone believes something they can see it in their own mind.” He replied.
“But if that were true wouldn’t I have to see an Eskimo take a shower first?”
“Not necessarily.” He said back to me.
He always said that before he would go in a deep pensive state to try to explain why. No matter what happened in these conversations we would never agree. We would either disagree or the subject would change into Batman and who would be a good match up against him. Al snapped out of his trance after he found what was known to him as a compelling argument. “First you have to think they do to go and see if they do and if you think they do then you believe.” Al said pointing his finger in the air.
I bowed and shook my head. “That was the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say.” I said to him.
I said that a lot. I kind of felt bad about it after awhile. The poor kid tries and lord knows he is very smart when he wants to be but something’s he would say would just push me. It was like listening to a fifth-teen year old girl talk about politics. Everything to prove but nothing to show for it. I was just glad that it finally stopped when he arrived at the bar we were attending.
I looked at my watch and it read three thirty. I counted down. “Three…two…one.” Then my cell phone rang. I flipped it open “Greetings Al.”
I knew it was he. It was Saturday and he wanted to get laid. So Al calls me in hopes for me to hook him up with some of my past interest. “What’s up my man?” He asked.
“Nothing much.” I said back “Just broke up with my girlfriend.”
A silence came over the phone. Al hasn’t even meet this girl yet and yet she was already an ex-girlfriend. “What the hell dude?” Al asked.
“What?” I asked back.
“What is that like number five?”
“Wasn’t that number four?”
“It might be six come to think of it.”
“No, we said we wouldn’t count the Chicago thing.”
“No I was thinking the Sea World thing.”
“Riding atop a few whales is hardly a relationship.”
“Whatever! Your single now so we can go drink.”
“Al! I told you I don’t that stuff anymore.”
“O yea. Well we should find something to do. What are you doing right now?”
“Standing here.”
“Where?”
I paused for a moment and looked around. “I don’t know.” I said passively. “Somewhere in Roseville.”
“I’ll come and pick you up. Just wave me down when you see me.”
“Will do.” I said hanging up the phone. I swung my trench coat to wrap it around my body. It was almost four in the morning. This only meant that the sun would come up several hours from then. I knew if I didn’t get to bed then I would be sleeping in church. But Al was my only ride home, so I was almost force to go over whatever chicks house he wanted, watch him laugh at some jokes that were not funny and drink himself to sleep while I am left to entertain a bunch of drunk teenage girls. Where was that drunk driver when I needed him?
“It’s all in his divine plan.” I kept reminding myself.
After Al picked me up I knew it was a bit of a long drive to wherever he was going. So this meant that Al and me would have a somewhat “meaningful” conversation. Now these conversations normally started out with something completely stupid. And normally I would be the one who started it. “Do you think Eskimos take showers?” I asked.
Al thought about that for a minute. I was beginning to think he didn’t hear me. This happens quite a bit. It is what me and most everyone who knows Al as “An Al Moment”. If the dictionary described mindless and somewhat useless phrases it would describe this one as;
“To take any question or situation that requires a simple answer or easy rational decision and stretching it out into mindless explanation that ends with no point. Or acting in a constant state of mind in which you have something to prove.”
There are many “Al Moments” in this story. Anyway, He finally answered. “I think that if you believe they can then they will.” He said to me.
“What in hell is that suppose to mean? If I believe? Sound like something out of a Disney movie.”
Most of the time Al used certain phrase (that were once just good harmless jokes that you would see on a T-shirt or coffee mug) to dictate his life. It was really sad to watch but it made him happy. And it made sense in an Al kind-of-way. But for me it seemed too childish. We were twenty years old for god sake. On the other hand I wasn’t to old to ask inane questions when I knew that I would regret it when I heard the answer. And with that the conversation continued. “Seeing is believing. And when someone believes something they can see it in their own mind.” He replied.
“But if that were true wouldn’t I have to see an Eskimo take a shower first?”
“Not necessarily.” He said back to me.
He always said that before he would go in a deep pensive state to try to explain why. No matter what happened in these conversations we would never agree. We would either disagree or the subject would change into Batman and who would be a good match up against him. Al snapped out of his trance after he found what was known to him as a compelling argument. “First you have to think they do to go and see if they do and if you think they do then you believe.” Al said pointing his finger in the air.
I bowed and shook my head. “That was the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say.” I said to him.
I said that a lot. I kind of felt bad about it after awhile. The poor kid tries and lord knows he is very smart when he wants to be but something’s he would say would just push me. It was like listening to a fifth-teen year old girl talk about politics. Everything to prove but nothing to show for it. I was just glad that it finally stopped when he arrived at the bar we were attending.