Friends Friends

The bartender didn’t know where he might go, just that he had a very sad loser sitting at his bar, but the tips were good and that is all that matter when you are a penniless bartender trying to make a living while your dream is to be a writer.

I wished him luck, went to use the John, and go for a walk, even with the money he had, after a bottle of wine I was betting he wasn’t that stupid enough to drive that little Audi of his unless he had at least cleared his head.

Now, you might think a place is all upper crust and look down your nose, a yuppie paradise, with all the crap that comes with being rich and stupid, but there is often something that is just a little down to earth, and well the John is it my friends, you stroll into the men’s and you find something that looks like it belongs in a strip joint, and not a one you would see any of these guys in, or near.

I made a few notes of the number on the wall and a picture and a path began for form in my head as to the walk the little cry baby did to clear his head.

While you might think that Boston is a big place, it really isn’t, you can get from a high class whore house to a crack house in the blink of an eye really if you know the roads, and it just so happens that while in yuppie town, there is this one route you can take, an alley and a back garden access path and you find yourself in the middle of the real world, so that is the route I too.

This road had what I was looking for, and a little more, and as it was easy to find I started regretting not trying that wine with my breakfast, still I could always go back and do it again. This was a beautiful day, and my luck couldn’t hold out for the entire day, surely I would have to return.

Left Face, says the drill Sargent and we will start my route. The first store drew a blank and frankly I am rather happy, I wasn’t sure of what some of the items in this place were for, and I really didn’t want to find out, nothing looked remotely familiar and the girls behind the counter didn’t recognize the picture.

Its just us working here, no one else, honest, we have never seen him, but you come back and see us now, we’d love to help a detective.

Hmmm, yeah, I shall mark that offer down.

The next was a maybe, he looks like someone I have seen, but we don’t sell that kind of stuff and we don’t do special orders, so I am guessing you might want go go across the street and down the alley, first on the right, dirty johns, he knows all about who does what.

The hot streak was still in play, if this kept up I will have to buy a lottery ticket and go to Lou’s and throw some dice.

I decided to keep to the plan, as the yuppie wouldn’t have gotten his ideas and knowledge as easily as I do, he would be lost and a little dizzy, thinking about the ad he had seen for the strip joint just down the road, and would have have been figuring that seeing a little strange and having a few coffees or a coke or two would bring him up to par for that ride home.

Nothing but blank stares and the odd, I think I have seen him in here before, so it was off to the first strip joint and a beer for me, I wasn’t on the wine so I could indulge and the girls wouldn’t talk to a man drinking coffee, guys who are sober don’t tip, don’t get dances and really only want to talk.

I wanted to talk, but I wanted to information as well, and the best was to look like I wanted it, but not to look like I knew what I was doing, a tough trick for a ex-cop and someone who had spent a good many years patrolling these sorts of places.

The luck, yeah, its a beautiful day.

I walk in and yes, I know the first man I see, an old friend a good friend and just who I really needed, he would have been a phone call if I went a few days without digging anything up.

Tommy, coke on the table and a girl on his lap, fully clothed, of course.

James, to this day I will never understand how he always knew who walked into any bar before anyone else knew, it was a gift that had saved his life and many others, it was a sixth sense, from a shaggy dog of a man who was, without a doubt, the nicest guy who ever walked the earth.

I sat, I tipped and I ordered, and in that order.

It was a beautiful day.

Yeah, the yuppie who used to come in here, he always seemed close to tears, has he died? Nice guy even played pool, only drank coke, how about that, played like he was drunk though.

Yeah, I was going to get all I needed, and it was going to be a day of firsts, the first place I go was going to away/s be the place to get the info.

The first bar, the first XXX 18 only maybe, and the first strip joint, I knew, the man with all the knowledge.

Yes, I get it, you walked back though the story, and thought, but it wasn’t the first XXX store you went to, I think you might be forgetting, I didn’t name other places.

So, it was a lock Dirty John’s the only place to go, and a place I had not heard of back in the day, and I didn’t know any John’s per say, but it could be anyone, and it could be anything.

Better safe than sorry I borrowed the bars backup after beer and a few games and went to visit this place, what trouble, its a beautiful day.

So it was, and so it shall ever be, for this day was a beautiful day.