A Way With Words - Chapter 13b
Fourth week of October, 1980
I was pleased with my leather jacket, even if it was used. In fact, I was glad it didn't look new, because I could pretend that I'd been wearing one for a long time. I still coveted that cap I'd tried on in the shop, though. And to be a biker I'd need boots -- sneakers wouldn't do at all. I'd seen some big black boots with thick soles in that same shop window and wondered if I should buy some -- after all, the jacket had only cost four dollars. I mentioned them to Joe and he thought they would work as well as anything and would be practical. Yes practical, I thought.
On Tuesday that week, three days before Halloween, we wandered over to Kenmore Square and looked in the window. We were discussing the merits of the boots when someone moved up beside me. It was a guy from our floor whom I didn't like much, a big obnoxious loudmouth.
"Hey dudes, window shopping?" Mike bellowed. I felt my shoulders tense.
"Ennis needs new shoes," Joe said. "Something for winter."
"You don't have any shit-kickers at home your Ma can send you?"
"No."
"You going to that party in the Student Union Friday?" Mike asked.
"Yup.'
"As what?"
"A biker."
"Oh so that's why you're all in black now. You need a cap you know."
"I guess."
"So what're you gonna be?" Mike said to Joe.
"A... a character from a movie we saw."
"Yeah? Which one?"
Joe hesitated and I knew why. Saying you want to dress as a cowboy makes you sound like a little kid. "This John Travolta film that just came out."
Mike looked puzzled. "Just came out? The only one I know about is Saturday Night... Oh shit! You don't mean that one where that chick rides a mechanical bull in a bar? Urban Cowboy? You wanna be that John Travolta character?"
"Um, that's what I was thinking."
"Let's see, a cowboy, a biker in leather... Dave's going as a soldier... Now all you need is an Indian, a construction worker and a motorcycle cop and you can start working on your routine," Mike brayed, slapping Joe on the back.
I had no idea what Mike was talking about but Joe seemed to.
"Very funny. So what about you?"
I could tell Joe didn't really care but was trying to change the subject.
"Oh, I am not telling. It'll be a surprise," Mike smirked. "See ya round, boys."
Mike sauntered off, leaving Joe and me staring unseeing into the shop window.
After a long moment, Joe turned to me. "You know..." he said slowly, "maybe you should go as a pirate, since you like sailing. You could still wear black, and all you'd need is an eye patch and a red rag to tie around your head. And maybe a hook for a hand."
"Yeah, I could go for that," I said. Wearing the leather jacket was all I really cared about.
"Let's go to Jack's Joke Shop. They'll have the stuff you need."
The shop was on Tremont Street opposite Boston Common. Its narrow aisles were crowded with people looking for inspiration for Halloween costumes. Besides the gag stuff like whoopee cushions and hand buzzers, there were rows of wigs, hats and theatrical makeup reaching to the ceiling. The staff had fake arrows and swords through their heads. We found an eye patch and a red pirate headscarf with a skull and bones printed on the front, and bought some special makeup for creating dark stubble for me, since my own was so light. Joe found a frontiersman buckskin jacket and decided to buy it, even though I told him that cowboys only wore those in movies. He grabbed some rubber dog turds, plastic vomit and itching powder, claiming they might come in handy.
That evening at dinner, we showed off our purchases. I put on the eye patch and tied the red pirate rag on my head.
"You need an earring, Ennis," Virgil said. "Pirates always have one."
Sandy was sitting next to him, opposite Joe and me. "He's right, any self-respecting pirate has a gold hoop in one ear," she smiled. "I can pierce your ear if you want. I did it for my sisters."
"Oooh, practice on me!" Virgil exclaimed, batting his eyes at Sandy.
"You already have an earring," she laughed, giving his shoulder a little shove with her own.
"I want another one right next to it. I'll take four or five if you're doing the poking," he smirked.
"Well come up and see me in the lounge after dinner," she said teasingly. "Tomorrow, after you’ve bought a pair of earrings. I'll do you first and then Ennis."
I guessed I couldn't back out now.
The next evening the three of us kept the appointment with Sandy in the lounge. She had already appropriated the heavy wooden coffee table, spreading out on one part her tools: a packet of assorted needles, a lighter, a cup of ice cubes, a brand new bar of Ivory soap, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some little cotton pads. She had brought in an armless, rolling office chair, which Virgil sat down on. She ordered him to sit on the end of the table instead, right at the edge, and to take out his earring.
When he was settled, she sat on the chair herself and rolled close to him, propping her left foot behind him on the table so that her knee was against his back. Her right leg was extended straight out and partway under his thighs. Virgil wasn't mugging now; he looked electrified. Everyone on the floor but Sandy was aware that Virgil worshipped her. But I knew that Virgil was convinced he had no chance whatsoever because he was shorter than Sandy by several inches. So it pained me to see her obliviously position herself so intimately next to him. Especially since she seemed to be paying more attention to me than to Virgil, glancing my way often.
She swabbed Virgil's earlobe with some cotton and alcohol, then chose a needle, flicked open the lighter and burned the length of it. This she handed to Joe and asked him to wipe off the soot with another piece of cotton. She told me to unwrap the bar of soap. Then she took two of the ice cubes and pressed his ear lobe between them for a full minute to numb it.
During this time, several students drifted in and asked what was happening. Viewed from the doorway, it was a startling tableau: Virgil sitting bolt upright, his eyes wide and his black hair with blond roots standing on end while this alluring girl was practically curled around him, her long, flaming mermaid tresses flowing into his lap. It was no surprise that several guys asked her to pierce their ears as well. She told them they'd have their turn after me.
She dropped the ice cubes back in the cup, then took the soap and the needle from Joe and me. She placed a corner of the bar of soap behind the lobe, positioned the needle and confidently pushed it through and into the soap. Virgil flinched.
“You okay?” she murmured to him.
"Hardly felt a thing," he croaked.
She finished up by pulling the soap away and pushing the needle all the way through and out. She dabbed his ear again, then affixed the little hoop.
"You have great technique, Sandy," Virgil said when she rolled back away from him. "It hurt less than the first one."
"I had three younger sisters to practice on," she smiled. "You know about putting some alcohol on it a couple times a day for a while, right?" Then she looked at me. "Are you ready?"
"Uh, I think I want to watch a couple more," I demurred, gesturing to one of the other students to go ahead and sit on the table.
Most of her next customers didn't have an earring ready to put in so she threaded the needle and left a loop of black thread. They were to pull the thread through a little several times a day to keep the hole open until they'd bought an earring. Virgil had become her assistant so Joe and I just watched.
More students came by and wanted to be pierced, and I waved them ahead of me. I really didn't want to sit there and have the whole dorm staring when it was my turn. At one point, Joe sidled over to the table and murmured something to Sandy, who looked up quickly at me. She frowned at Joe, glanced my way again and opened her mouth to speak, but then just shrugged. Joe bent down and picked up something from the table.
Joe came back to where I was leaning against the wall and murmured, "You know, I bet I can do this myself now. You wanna go back to our room and do it there?" He opened his hand and I saw it held a needle and some melting ice cubes. I nodded yes, so we slipped out of the lounge.
Back in our room, Joe dropped the ice in his coffee mug and handed it to me. "Numb your ear with these while I go get a bar of soap from the bathroom," he said.
"What about alcohol?"
"Too bad we don't have any whiskey. Maybe someone has Listerine in there."
I said I guessed mouthwash was better than nothing. After he'd gone out I sat by the window with the ice pressed to my earlobe and watched the car lights streaming through Kenmore Square. I hadn't been sure I wanted an earring before, but now it seemed to be the thing to do. As it turned out, Mike and Joe would be the only guys on our floor not sporting an earring by Christmas.
Joe came back with soap and mouthwash. "Hey, not your right ear," he chided me.
"Why not?"
"Just because."
I shrugged and moved over to sit on the bed, shifting the ice to my left earlobe. Joe sat next to me and took a book of matches from his sweatshirt pocket, striking one so he could sterilize the needle. When he was done, I took away the chip of ice and he put the sliver of soap behind my lobe, leaning close to me. When he jabbed it with the needle, I gasped at the pain.
"Aaargghhh shit! That hurts like hell!"
"Sorry, Ennis, I’m sorry" he breathed. I felt the warm puff of air on my cheek. "I should've taken more ice."
"I should've held it on longer," I whispered. The ice had completely melted by then and the needle was halfway into my flesh.
"You wanna go back and let Sandy do it?" He shifted slightly on the bed, his hand resting lightly on my shoulder.
It was tempting, but I didn’t want to move. I prefered sitting there with Joe by my side and a needle jammed in my ear to going back into the lounge and having Sandy press up against me. Astonishingly, I didn’t think to question my priorities at the time.
I took a breath. "Just push it all the way through and get it over with."
So that's what he did while I gritted my teeth. We completely forgot about the mouthwash, which wouldn't have disinfected a thing anyway. Joe put in the earring I handed him, and that hurt too.
"You okay? Your ear looks pretty red."
My earlobe was burning. "I'll be alright."
The next morning, my ear was a little sore but bearable. At breakfast it was funny to see almost all the guys at our table wearing earrings or loops of thread. All on the left side, I noticed.
When we were all filing out to go to classes, Virgil caught up with me.
"Sandy was bummed that you went off and didn’t let her pierce your ear," he said. "She's really into you, you lucky fucker."
"She... she is?" Somehow I knew this but hearing him say it out loud gave me a little shock.
"What are you, blind?” he exclaimed bitterly. “And if you don't go for her, you're… you’re an idiot. She's the girl you want, Ennis."
If you didn't get what Mike was referring to either, watch this:
Take a tour of Jack's Joke Shop:
Go to Chapter 14 >>