Off the Road - 25

a jazz novel on a typewriter

5

It was the I-10 that I set my course for as if it were the zone of Double Indemnity driving my tail. If the truth of the book is the decidable then be track of the car is anything but irregardless of the fact that at any one moment, the car’s tires churned only one way. Only the miles and the Miles will determine where you end up. The I-10 ends up by hitting the ocean near Santa Monica Pier Near a place called Dogtown and Ocean Ave. and it is there where California one sneaks past the I-10 end and goes up the coast for parts unknown. I felt the wheels wobble and shake and the brakes were tentative at best, it was clear that if I did not get the brakes repaired then we would need to be repaired as well. And even with that, the colored girls sang with a katyusha in a grind cool fashion: “Doo, do-doo, do-doo, do-do-doo.” I could still ignore that but only just.

 And it is parts unknown without a fag to curl up to because I had smoked my last one an hour ago which made it seem like Saginaw, Michigan.

 We parked the car and went out on the peer to see the wheel and make sure of our plan du noir. Shadows came and went against the wood columns and it seemed as if there was someone listening to every word we said and it may have been true. Que sabe?

“So what did the bartender actually tell you? I think we’re long past the time where secrets have any place in our language.” First of all, because I thought that if there were secrets he would sell me out to the lowest bidder. Do not pass go, and do not collect.

 Dean puffed his last rolled-up cigarette, we had had no time to pick up more and in fact I was getting rather sick of the blurry roast that came from the odor of the cheapest tobacco that money could buy. It was like the old line from a World War II movie - there’s drinking scotch and trading scotch and we smoked the cheapest tobacco and gave the most expensive rocks in the same vein.

“You haven’t been paying attention to why I have rocks and half of what is going on.”

“Explain it to me as if I were seven.” I felt I was showing leadership which is a form of self-preservation exhibited by people with auto-destructive imaginations. The reason is because Bush comes to shove, you want other people’s homes to be broken and not your own. It was the price of admission and a sign that you were the daddy to them all.

The look on Dean’s face could well have been that seven would be a step upward in the world. Almost at once I slugged him across the side of his face. Or tried to but Dean faded back and I only struck air. I could excuse the hammer blow as if it was the cigarette talking but I knew better because what was really eating, really feasting, at me was how he had put a saddle on me and drove me around from one side of the country to the other.

“Alright I admit that I have used you to get to this coast of the country but you were the only person I knew who would drive so far and so fast.” Is voice had this even keel and a pleasant tone of voice. It was common and pleasant for the first time that I had spoken to him back in Boston. And all at once I calmed down and loosened my fist back to a hand.

“So what did the bartender tell you and how does that help?”

“He gave me an address and a name.”

“Tell me that there was something else.”

“The need for speed was that the man who took them wanted to toke rocks for his project. A project that was for the government.”

The first time I had said to explain everything as if I were seven and now the look on my face said the same thing.

“If he wants a project from the US government he needs to fill out a reading of forms to get the money. That’s one of the things that I do if I need some cash.”

It occurred to me that I didn’t know Dean anywhere near as well as I thought I should.

“So what is this project?”

“Nobody has told me so I can’t tell you. We aren’t engaged in finding out what is project is just get the hookars back to Alice and her little restaurant.”

“And once we do that will you think we will get paid or is that a scam as well?”

“You have as much information on the trust-worth-i-ness of our little woman in blue as I do.”

“So you are saying that if we are not paid then we could be up a creek without a paddle.” I may have stuck some grass expletives here and there between the lines. And so we left the peer and went down the cool black highway that is labeled California One. And one is the mystery of all that is and all that ever will be.

 So we ran the table on 1, and hoped that our breaks would stay unbroken for just a little while until we could get some Bitcoin to repair the damage. I forgot to tell you why I needed the bitcoin: I was still making payments on the car and if there was any damage I would have to pay triple because it was not exactly a legal exchange. When you don’t have money you must pay more.

Soon we were out all the bright lights of Los Angeles and into the darkness feeling our way along with no memory of the road along the ocean.