by Carl Henegan
Crash!
The far too familiar sound of shattering glass thundered through the back wall. His guess was that another tray of serving glasses had been dropped in the kitchen. He hoped that he was wrong but if that was in fact a tray of glasses, it would be the seventh one this week. The cost of replacing the glasses took an additional toll on the already strained budget of the Memphis Bar.
Ring! Ring!
The office phone chimed and the timing was as perfectly placed as leg cramps in the middle of a foot race. He stared at the receiver and if looks could dismantle the business phone would have imploded. Where is a bat when you need one? Inopportune times by definition are never welcomed so the phone call fell into that unwanted category.
“Memphis Bar and Grill, Michael speaking,” he said. At the same time Rufus – his head bartender – appeared in the doorway. When he saw the phone against Mike’s face he held up a lemon with one hand and formed a zero with the other. The good news keeps flowing, out of beer, out of lemons, and out of money.
“Mr. Andrews?” the tart female voice said on the other end of the phone.
Mike flipped through his rolodex for a vender who could bring in more lemons on credit. His brain – out of absolute necessity – grew comfortable with conducting multiple tasks. “Yes this is Mike Andrews,” he answered.
“Mr. Andrews this is Mrs. Janelle Wooten the principal from Plano Jr. High School,” she said.
Mike stopped spinning the rolodex. Oh come on Danny. This call marked the second one from his son’s principal in the last month. The first time stemmed from an incident that occurred when the teacher left the room for a bathroom break. Danny and his best friend John decided to super glue the classroom door. It took over an hour for the janitor to get back inside.
Mike hoped that this was not for something even more serious. He sat up in his chair. “Yes Miss Wooten how can I help you?”
She spoke like a stage actor doing an over performed scene. Her heavy Texas accented words dragged out as if what she was about to say had worldly implications. “Mr. Andrews, it seems that your son Daniel and a classmate of his…a err um Willard Matthews somehow figured out the password to the school computers and were uploading animated cartoons with the faculty’s faces placed on them.”
“I see,” Mike said more impressed then pissed.
“Mr. Andrews you will need to have a talk with your son. We just cannot I repeat cannot tolerate this sort of deliberate lack of respect for our school rules and faculty members. Also I just wanted to inform you that Daniel as well as Willard will be suspended from school on Monday and I do hope that this will be the last time that I have to call you about Daniel.”
“I’ll take care of it Mrs. Wooten thank you for calling me. I am so sorry,” Mike said.
“Your welcomed Mr. Andrews,” she said abruptly then disconnected the call.
Ring! Ring!!
“Memphis Bar and Grill Mike Andrews speaking,” he answered.
His wife Kelly’s voice returned words that was as dry as the principal’s. “Michael.”
At one time his name was honey or babes but somewhere along the way the pet labels vanished. In the past several months the nomenclature became just Michael, not Mike but a short abrupt disgruntled Michael. “Did you remember to set a new doctor’s appointment for Danny for next week?” Kelly said.
A mere two years of marriage and the tension had already reared its ugly head. The honeymoon phase of the relationship fizzled out faster then the kegs at dollar beer happy hour. Mike’s schedule permitted little time for anything other then work except that is for the time needed to work on his marriage.
His relationship with Kelly wasn’t the only thing suffering due to the extensive work hours. Quality time between he and Danny had been scarce a best. Danny split time between Mike’s home and his biological mom’s place evenly. Unfortunately Mike hardly spent his allotted time at home.
Kelly didn’t pull any punches about Mike’s lack of time at home. As she put it, no matter how much time Danny spent at his place would still be unless in the end because Mike was never around to share it with him. He argued with her at the time but deep inside he knew she was right. When his son visited his place, Danny shared the majority of his time with Kelly while Mike worked feverishly at the bar.
“No I didn’t reschedule the appointment Kelly but I’ll take care of it tomorrow,” Mike said.
Kelly remained quiet for a moment. “You said that last week Michael.”
“I realize that, and not that you care or notice but here’s some breaking information. I have a lot going on Kelly so yes it may have slipped my mind, what are the great odds on that one? But I’ll take care of it, I always do.”
“You could have kept the sarcasm, I know that! But look Michael it’s not like you have to be spread out like this.”
“You think so huh?”
“Come on Mike I use to work there remember? You can delegated some of the things you do there, let one of the guys take on more duties. You always think that you have to carry everything on your own shoulders!”
“Oh please Kelly, it’s not that simple and you know that!”
“It is that simple Michael!”
Another employee stood in the doorway trying to get Mike’s attention. “I don’t even have time for this right now Kelly,” he said between clinched teeth. Before he could finish his words he jerked at the sound of the phone being slammed on the opposite end.
The hard smash left a ringing in Mike’s ear. When provoked by him, she had a habit of slamming her cell phone against the nearest hard surface. After the last two times he upset Kelly and had to purchase a new phone, he took a proactive approach by purchasing adequate insurance. Now he had backup to cover the cost of any future phones that fell victim to Kelly’s wrath.
* * *
That night or more accurately, morning, Mike took the scenic route home. After closing the bar Mike traditionally utilized the forty-minute drive to unwind and clear his mind. On this morning the questionable future of the bar governed his thoughts. Maybe I’ll just sell the damn place. He twisted his neck from one side to the other feeling the tight muscles across his broad shoulders stiffen.
He reached back with one hand and massaged his neck. Weeks, if not longer, had past since he made any time to hit the gym. As he drove north, the round about path took him directly past a 24 hour fitness center. He felt the need to take the long way home and this was not the first time. Unlike the others, this time he pulled his car into the fitness center parking lot.
After a very short warm up session he attacked the weights with an aggressive one-hour set. The workout revived his recent lack of enthusiasm doing far more for his mind then his body. The displaced focus of the intense workout left his muscles tight and in turn therapeutically allowing him to place his worries aside.
On the way out of the fitness center Mike notices the large round wall clock. The design, as surely intended, looked like a dumbbell weight. The barbell shaped hands pointed slightly past 3:30 a.m. By the time he would make it home it will be close to four in the morning.
The remainder of the ride home consisted of a slow increase of troubling issues flowing back into his head. The effective workout session only paused his carefree mentality but he embraced the short mental break from the veracity of the real world.
The peace of mind ended up being nothing more then a very brief escape. He felt as if the brief break server as nothing more then looking the other way before crashing into a wall. Eventually he was going to have to deal with the mounting issues.
Once inside of his north Dallas home the first thing Mike notices is Kelly’s cell phone sitting half tilted on the counter. He flipped it over to find the lower end protruding away from the frame with visible wires extending from the bottom. A crack extended from the top of the screen straight down the center.
“Unbelievable,” Mike said with frustration.
Two neatly
folded blankets and pillow rest on the couch. Great. On the bright side, if he could call it that, two blankets were placed there for him. One blanket indicated that she was really pissed off. No blankets signified that he needed to sleep with one eye opened.
The quick shower relaxed him so much that he closed his eyes the entire time. After he finished, he dropped on the couch feeling the weight of the entire day push him into the soft cushions. Much like the iced shoulder Kelly gave to him, the living room felt far too cold so he pulled the covers over his head then drifted off to sleep.
When Mike opened his eyes again, morning had already arrived. He blinked to make out the shadow standing over him. His son Danny looked down with his usual half smile expression.
“Dad you sleep?” Danny smiled. “Check it out I found this old video of you doing back flips over a wall!”
Mike twisted his back from one side to the other. His face grimaced from the stiff pain across his shoulders. “No I’m up,” he grunts. “Video? What video?” He squinted at Danny who pointed at the flat screen television. Mike turned his head to the TV screen.
Danny increased the volume with the remote. “Yeah see?”
Fatigue touched every part of Mike’s body and it took an added effort to even see. Mike peered between the small slits of his sleep deprived eyes. On the television was his own blurred image dressed in Air Force fatigues.
Mike blinked to make the image appear clearer in a slow focus.
“Where in the world did you get that?” he said.
His clouded vision finally became lucid enough to see the entire picture. “Good lord that’s old. Where did you find that?”
“Found it in a box in the garage,” Danny said. “Whoooooe look at that!”
“Yeah, but you should see the videos that I threw away when I almost busted my head,” Mike laughed.
“How old where you back then dad?”
“I think I was in my early twenties.”
“Who was holding the camera?”
“My buddy Dexter filmed that when we were goofing around on the job.” Mike stretched hard and yarned. “We were on the avionics team, sort of like mechanics for airplanes. We had to wait in these big trucks next to the flight lines till the planes took off. So since that would take hours sometimes, we would do back flips over these short wall dividers while we waited.” He looked closer at the TV lifting his eyebrows in disbelief. “We could have broken our necks. That was pretty stupid.”
Danny’s eyes locked on the television. “Man that’s cool! Can you still do that?”
“Ha! I doubt it. That was dumb and a looong time ago, so now it would be insane. Speaking of not being too smart, we need to have a little talk there Danny the Kid. Got a call from your principal, again.”
“Wha? Me? But I didn’t even…”
Mike held up his hand. “Save it. Your principal said that….”
“Mike! Mike!!!” Kelly screamed from the other side of the house.
Mike placed his hand over his forehead. “Good God Kelly,” he mumbled. “Yeah?!!” he said louder.
“Come here, you have a call. Hurry up!”
“The cordless is in here, I’ll pick it up here!”
“No, come here Mike! You have to get it in here!”
“Daa…m” he started, and then changed his choice of words. “Doggit!” He lifted his body off the couch then made his way to the hall. “You’re not off the hook yet,” he said over his shoulder to Danny.
A tight cramp pulled at his thigh mussel so hard that he had to limp down the remainder of the hallway. Kelly poked her head out of the bedroom and saw him moving down the hall. “What’s taking you so long?”
“I’m coming,” Mike grunted.
He entered the bedroom and Kelly guided him to the computer.
“It’s Eric, he’s on Skype,” she said.
“Eric Dunbar? On skype? You talking about the online phone deal?” Mike said still not fully awake.
“Yes on all three questions. I use skype all the time to talk to my parents in Idaho, oh…but you’re not around enough to see that right?”
Mike ignored the jab. She caught him of guard before with one of her many her mild protests. The growing list of things that irritated her stayed at her beckon call. This time he avoided opening up another ongoing dialogue about how he doesn’t spend enough time at home. He flopped into the desk chair and was eye to eye with Eric’s on screen image.
“Damn bout time man! You left a brotha waiting forever,” Eric laughed.
“Eric D! Where in the hell are you? You haven’t stunk up my bar in a month,” Mike joked. He eased back into the cushioned desk chair as Eric released a loud burst of laughter.
“Man get the hell out of here. I’m the classiest customer you got in that hole in the ghetto you own. You still doing your own bouncing there too?”
Mike’s cheeks remain lifted as they always did around Eric. His long time friend not only had that affect on him but on everyone. Eric made you forget your troubles or at the very least laugh about them.
Eric’s large physique filled the monitor’s screen as much as his robust laughter filled the room. With the free spirited wit of a comedian and the personable traits of a salesman he always had a commanding presence. With that Eric still maintained a degree of mystery about him almost as if the jolly façade was to ensure that no one tried to dig deeper.
“Ghetto?” Mike laughed. “Addison is about as far from the Ghetto as you are from monogamous. But you may be right about being the classiest customer that comes into my bar. At least when you’re buying rounds for the women that you’re chasing, you pay off their tab.”
“Damn right I’m the classiest customer you have. Wait! Hold on a second. Did you just call me a playboy in front of Kelly? Oooo you wrong as hell for that!”
“Yeah right!” Mike laughed. “Ok, before you close your mouth here’s another shocker for ya. As far as I know Kelly never thought of you as a choir boy. But she does think that you might have slept with a few girls who sing in the choir though.”
“Oooo another sucker punch, back off Mike you not that damn big! You’re on a roll today.” Eric lifted his chin to peer over Mike’s shoulder. “Where is Kelly anyway?”
“Just stepped out of the room.”
“Oh yeah? I was gonna tell her to put in a word in for me to her friend Tracy.”
“Tracy? You like Tracy? I thought you were on your European girl fetish this month.”
“Man look here, I draw no lines when it comes to females. Tracy is bad. Gotta keep a steady stream of my sista’s in the harem, feel me?”
“No, not at all playboy,” Mike laughed. “But um you know you can count on me to take you to the clinic.”
“The clinic?” Eric leaned back with an even bigger roar of laughter. He lifted his hands to the monitor placing his finger tips against the inside palm of his hand to give Mike the football time out signal. “Ok, I quit, you’re in rare form today. I’m having a hell of a time here; you have to check out Europe one day.” Eric pointed his finger at the screen. “Say man I just thought of something. I don’t think I have seen you take a vacation since I’ve known you. What you need to do is get out of Dallas and check out another country. Take Kelly on that honeymoon you guys never went on.”
“Yeah right. I’m too busy trying to get the bar out of the red. Plus you know I’m not much for flying. Anyway where are you?”
Eric leaned back far in his char. He spread his arms apart dramatically like he was revealing his location to the awaiting free world. For added measure he spoke in his Ryan Seacrest voice complete with the theatrical pause for affect. “America, THIS….is Budapest.”
“What? Budapest?!”
“Hell yeah! I tried to call you from here but you didn’t answer. Didn’t you see the pictures I emailed you yesterday? The stacked Hungarian female, smooth skin, with the big….”
Mike cut Eric off by coughing into his fist. “Ummm, nooo I
didn’t,” Mike said.
Mike intercepted Eric’s words for a good reason. Kelly had just reentered the room. Mike cut his eyes toward her to see if she was paying attention to their conversation. She wasn’t, or so she pretended.
“I haven’t checked my email in a few days man.”
“I hear ya. I’ll be sending more pictures anyway so make sure you check them out. Later on I gotta hot red head teacher meeting me to give me a personal tour of Budapest. After that, in the next few days I’ll be headed to your mother land.”
“My mother land?”
“Yeah Rome. Oh man this is embarrassing, I thought you knew. How do I say this Mike? You’re Italian!” Eric laughed. “Anyway, I’ll be hanging out in Italy for a few days. Maybe I’ll bump into a hot Italian female relative of yours, get hitched, and we’ll be end up being kin.”
“Yeah dream on,” Mike laughed.
“Don’t hate Mike please, you’re embarrassing yourself. So anyway, after I hit Rome that will be the final stop on my bucket list.”
“No kidding? You talking about the list you showed me last year, you finished already? Man you are living like there is no tomorrow. Plus all that traveling has to get costly, what did you do hit the lotto or something?” Mike paused. “Come to think of it, I thought you had already gone to Rome.”
Eric slanted his head to one side. He nodded with an internal post thought of the words Mike had just said to him. “Oh yeah yeah, but um, this is a revisit. It’s a lot to see to see in Rome.”
“Ok then world wide playboy, do your thing,” Mike smiled. “Hey won’t you….”
Eric turned his head to the left holding one finger up to the monitor for Mike to pause his words. He waited a few seconds then got up moving away from the camera and out of view. A few seconds later he returned.
“Everything alright?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, it’s cool,” Eric assured him but Mike was not convinced. Eric then peered into the monitor with an uncommon sober expression. “Say Big Mike, you still by yourself?”
“Yeah, Kelly was in here but she just stepped out again.” Mike looked over his shoulder. “She closed the door to the bedroom so I’m by myself now. What’s up?”
