A Few Moments of Your Time
Having fun with form and scene.
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A Few Moments of Your Time
Yeah. March 9th, what’s it, eleven…11:34 AM.
Nineteen fifty-two.
I told you I wasn’t going to do that.
All right. You know, I said, I’ve got to get out of here at…
Ok.
* * *
Yes.
Yes.
No, not really.
All right. A little.
No.
I can’t really remember.
Hhah. Okay, fine. Sure.
Once, if you want to call it that. Yes: we knew each other.
The first time was in Cleveland, I think in ’49. No, it was after the New Year – ’50. I had spent that New Year’s in Detroit, and then gone down to Cleveland.
Yeah, we had a lot of fun in Detroit, sure. My brother was there. Were you ever there, back in the ‘40s? Hhah, feels like yesterday. Man, that was cool. There was a trombone in every alley, and it was cold, real cold, that New Year’s. I remember the way the horn would warm my belly. Coulda been the whiskey, sure, but I’m supposed to pretend I don’t know nothin’ about that, right?
Oh.
Well, good. No matter, though. I still like to think it was that trombone, hhah.
Sorry. Yeah, sure, I’m getting there. So yeah, Detroit, New Year’s, then down to Cleveland.
No, we had met before. One of those buses, you remember? The ones that never seemed to stop for gas, no matter how far you took ‘em? Well, that particular bus, the one from Cleveland to Detroit, it was long, you know, from all that snow. Felt like it went Detroit to Cleveland via San Francisco, that kind of long.
Yeah, we met on the bus. We sat next to one another. Well, not initially. You know, hhah, no one ever kept the same seat for more than 20 minutes, it felt like. Everyone was jumping all about, the driver would just keep that pedal straight to the metal, hhah, just like he was paid to do, he’d get us there. But back behind his back it was mayhem. Just the way we liked it. Usually, you’d sit in a seat not more than 20 minutes, an hour maybe, if the cigarettes lasted.
Well, the cigarettes, they just seemed to last on this one particular ride. We spotted each other out right when we got on in Detroit, played it cool at first. Then found each other a few minutes in, and got to talking. We were both young and we had both come a long way, which I guess would have been true of near everyone on that bus, but something about the two of us worked out. We shared cigarettes clear to Cleveland, and then we shared cigarettes once we got there, too.
Sure, the place was all right then. Not much to it, but it was all right. He was visiting a girl, hhah, I think that was his idea of going there. I was just…visiting.
No, I didn’t know her. Never did meet her, actually. We found a room together, and kept things rolling, you know. Hard to say how long passed. Felt like a few hours, but I think it musta’ been a few days, a week. He talked about her here and there, sure, but mostly she wasn’t a part of it. He would go away for a few hours at a time, once or twice a day, pretty normal stuff. And I’d go out and look for an odd job, something to just keep things moving. I did all right.
Like I said, I never met her.
She never came by. He’d always say he was going over to see her, but that was all he’d say. And he’d come back without saying how it went.
I’m telling you, that was it. What time is it? I told you I needed to get going.
Hhah. All right, one more.
He talked a lot about Mexico. That was a long winter, like I was saying, and he wanted to go spend some time there. He never said how long, but I think he might have been serious about it, sure. He had a lot of ideas, you know, places he wanted to go. Cleveland was never for him, not for any longer than that girl was, at least. So yeah, he could have gone there, I guess so.
It snowed one day, late, probably in March or April. We had been going along as I said for a while and he was starting to go out more and more, I never knew where. But it snowed, and he had just about had it, and he said he was going.
No, he didn’t say. It wasn’t the type of thing where you asked him, either. He said he was going, I said OK, he grabbed two glasses, we drank them down and talked about the time that had passed and how it just tends to do that, you know? Hhah. And he waved goodbye the next morning. Got on one of those old buses.
Never saw him after that. Hhah. Never heard from him, either, nope. Not that I expected to.
That’s all I’ve got. I told you, I have to go. You wanted what I knew, that’s it. The rest don’t have nothin’ to do with me, if you’ll pardon my sayin’ so.
Thanks.
Sure, sure. I’d say let me know if you hear anything, but you won’t.
Hhah, so long then, all right.
_______________________________________________
A Few Moments of Your Time
Yeah. March 9th, what’s it, eleven…11:34 AM.
Nineteen fifty-two.
I told you I wasn’t going to do that.
All right. You know, I said, I’ve got to get out of here at…
Ok.
* * *
Yes.
Yes.
No, not really.
All right. A little.
No.
I can’t really remember.
Hhah. Okay, fine. Sure.
Once, if you want to call it that. Yes: we knew each other.
The first time was in Cleveland, I think in ’49. No, it was after the New Year – ’50. I had spent that New Year’s in Detroit, and then gone down to Cleveland.
Yeah, we had a lot of fun in Detroit, sure. My brother was there. Were you ever there, back in the ‘40s? Hhah, feels like yesterday. Man, that was cool. There was a trombone in every alley, and it was cold, real cold, that New Year’s. I remember the way the horn would warm my belly. Coulda been the whiskey, sure, but I’m supposed to pretend I don’t know nothin’ about that, right?
Oh.
Well, good. No matter, though. I still like to think it was that trombone, hhah.
Sorry. Yeah, sure, I’m getting there. So yeah, Detroit, New Year’s, then down to Cleveland.
No, we had met before. One of those buses, you remember? The ones that never seemed to stop for gas, no matter how far you took ‘em? Well, that particular bus, the one from Cleveland to Detroit, it was long, you know, from all that snow. Felt like it went Detroit to Cleveland via San Francisco, that kind of long.
Yeah, we met on the bus. We sat next to one another. Well, not initially. You know, hhah, no one ever kept the same seat for more than 20 minutes, it felt like. Everyone was jumping all about, the driver would just keep that pedal straight to the metal, hhah, just like he was paid to do, he’d get us there. But back behind his back it was mayhem. Just the way we liked it. Usually, you’d sit in a seat not more than 20 minutes, an hour maybe, if the cigarettes lasted.
Well, the cigarettes, they just seemed to last on this one particular ride. We spotted each other out right when we got on in Detroit, played it cool at first. Then found each other a few minutes in, and got to talking. We were both young and we had both come a long way, which I guess would have been true of near everyone on that bus, but something about the two of us worked out. We shared cigarettes clear to Cleveland, and then we shared cigarettes once we got there, too.
Sure, the place was all right then. Not much to it, but it was all right. He was visiting a girl, hhah, I think that was his idea of going there. I was just…visiting.
No, I didn’t know her. Never did meet her, actually. We found a room together, and kept things rolling, you know. Hard to say how long passed. Felt like a few hours, but I think it musta’ been a few days, a week. He talked about her here and there, sure, but mostly she wasn’t a part of it. He would go away for a few hours at a time, once or twice a day, pretty normal stuff. And I’d go out and look for an odd job, something to just keep things moving. I did all right.
Like I said, I never met her.
She never came by. He’d always say he was going over to see her, but that was all he’d say. And he’d come back without saying how it went.
I’m telling you, that was it. What time is it? I told you I needed to get going.
Hhah. All right, one more.
He talked a lot about Mexico. That was a long winter, like I was saying, and he wanted to go spend some time there. He never said how long, but I think he might have been serious about it, sure. He had a lot of ideas, you know, places he wanted to go. Cleveland was never for him, not for any longer than that girl was, at least. So yeah, he could have gone there, I guess so.
It snowed one day, late, probably in March or April. We had been going along as I said for a while and he was starting to go out more and more, I never knew where. But it snowed, and he had just about had it, and he said he was going.
No, he didn’t say. It wasn’t the type of thing where you asked him, either. He said he was going, I said OK, he grabbed two glasses, we drank them down and talked about the time that had passed and how it just tends to do that, you know? Hhah. And he waved goodbye the next morning. Got on one of those old buses.
Never saw him after that. Hhah. Never heard from him, either, nope. Not that I expected to.
That’s all I’ve got. I told you, I have to go. You wanted what I knew, that’s it. The rest don’t have nothin’ to do with me, if you’ll pardon my sayin’ so.
Thanks.
Sure, sure. I’d say let me know if you hear anything, but you won’t.
Hhah, so long then, all right.