Hi all. It's the middle of June in the middle of Our Year of the Lord 2024. I won't make excuses about however long it's been since your boy Jackson has posted. Nor will I mention here at this time any of the Traumatic Life Events™ that have occurred in said time. I will, I am sure, whine about them later.
Instead, I am following the anonymous advice of someone on the internet that if one wants to write, then one should write. Herewith, a rewritten snippet from the middle of a story that I abandoned about five years ago. Most of the story has been lost to the Computer Gods, but I found this section on a flash-drive while unpacking recently and revised revised revised. Enjoy.
Since the
weather was relatively pleasant for a November day in Manhattan, I decided to walk from Levine’s
office over to the Metropolitan Club, where I was meeting an old college
teammate for a drink.
Ruth Levine –
I don’t think about her all that often. But I couldn’t help but think about her
after her sister reminded me that it was Ruth who guided me back to the land of
the living after the elbow surgery that ended baseball for me.
Ah, Ruth. Hurricane
Ruth, the Barnard literature major who came into my life like a storm hitting Key
West – little to no warning before the sudden impact, with wind and waves roaring
through the flimsy defenses of the unprepared.
It all started
here in New York, at a massive party not too long after Lily dumped me. We had
just gotten clobbered at Fordham and had a game the following day at Marist. I
pitched, and what, you may ask, was Jack Callaghan’s line in the box score? He had
a mere 2 1/3 innings pitched, gave up six earned runs from seven hits, and was
the losing pitcher of record. What can I say? Even Boy Wonder apparently had
off days. I was staring into my locker after the game finally ended when
someone had the brilliant idea of breaking curfew and going into the city. I
quickly agreed.
Four of us
ended up deciding to go to Sodom
on the Hudson. But
to do what, exactly? Chris Dellasandro was from Long Island, and when he called
a high school buddy who lived in the Village, he learned about a party downtown
to celebrate someone’s record deal or book deal or something like that. Should
be fun, he said. Lots of college girls, maybe some models, and almost certainly
young divorcees. The promise of free booze and dope, and the implied promise of
sex – or at least a reasonable shot at it – I mean, what more could a fellow
ask for? The other two guys chose to go to a peep show in Times
Square, but Chris didn’t have to try too hard to convince me to
join him. We borrowed a car, dressed in our finest shiny disco shirts and
platform shoes, and headed down Route 9.
I was trying
to look like Catfish Hunter that year, and so my hair was longer than my father
liked, and I had finally been able to grow a real mustache to complete the
look. (My previous attempt as a junior in high school to grow one had resulted
in a thin and wispy one that led my father to start calling me “Pancho.”) A few
months earlier, a girl at a Siena
party told Chris that he looked like Vinnie Barbarino in “Welcome Back, Kotter,”
and he was milking that for all he was worth. The two of us were going to put
the shitty Fordham game behind us by any means necessary -- if we couldn’t get
laid, at least we could get stoned or drunk. Or maybe get into a fight. Ah,
youth.
Following the
directions from Chris’ buddy off the Henry Hudson, we soon found ourselves downtown in
an old industrial neighborhood full of seemingly abandoned factories and
warehouses. Chris parked the borrowed car on the street, gave a skinny kid sitting
on a nearby stoop $5 to keep an eye on it (translation – to not steal or burn
it), and we walked into one of the old buildings.
As soon as we
opened the heavy doors, the sound and smell of the party hit us hard. It was an
old warehouse full of people and smoke and music. Seconds after we walked in, a
girl walked up to Chris, grabbed him by the hand, and led him away. As he left,
he looked back at me over his shoulder and wagged his eyebrows like Groucho
Marx as he disappeared into the crowd. All I could do was laugh.
It was a very
mixed crowd – college students of all shapes, sizes, and colors; a group of
dangerous-looking Puerto Ricans in gang regalia; teenaged hustlers of both
sexes; and a bunch of well-dressed thirty-somethings. I looked around for a
moment, trying to figure out where the booze was when one of the teenagers
handed me a joint, lit it for me, and walked away.
I finally
spotted a keg off to the side and was heading over to it when an older man in a
navy-blue three-piece suit tapped me on my shoulder. “Hey, there’s an actual
bar down that hall. With real liquor.” When I hesitated, he frowned at me. “Unless
you want to celebrate Ozzie’s good news with cheap draft beer.” It sounded like
he was pretty pissed about that for some reason, so I mumbled my thanks, handed
him what was left of my joint, and started heading the way he pointed.
He was right –
someone had installed a full-length bar against the wall in this area of the
warehouse. The bar looked like it had come from an old saloon, down to the battered
mahogany top and the polished brass rail. I made my way to an open spot and
waited to catch the attention of the bartender.
“Excuse me,” a
female voice said from behind me. I turned, catching an intoxicating whiff of
perfume (later revealed to be Chanel No. 5), and found myself face to face with
the most beautiful girl not named Lily Van Dimmel that I had ever seen.
Shoulder length wavy black hair, soft brown eyes, very fair skin, and very red
lips. “Would you mind ordering me a drink? The bartender used to date my
sister, and she just slapped him a few minutes ago. It must have caused some
strange sort of blindness, because now he apparently can’t see either of the
Levine girls.” She smiled at me. “And I am getting very thirsty.”
“Of course,” I
said, feeling like not stammering was a major victory for me. “What would you
like?”
“Vodka
martini. Rocks. Twist,” she replied. My eyes hadn’t left hers, and I noticed
that hers hadn’t left mine. She continued to smile at me, this beautiful
non-Lily. She was so very non-Lily -- brunette instead of blonde; brown eyes
instead of blue; short with hourglass curves instead of tall and willowy. Ava
Gardner instead of Grace Kelly, I thought. Yes, I told myself, maybe it’s about
time to forget about Grace Kelly for a while.
I reluctantly
turned away, and after a moment caught the attention of the bartender. “Two
vodka martinis on the rocks with a twist, please.” He nodded and started making
the drinks. I turned back to Ava Gardner.
“Ruth,” she
said, holding out her hand.
“Jack” I
answered, taking her hand and feeling an electric jolt.
“Jack?” she
frowned slightly. “Is that your actual name? I mean, does it say ‘Jack’ on your
drivers’ license?”
“No, it says ‘John’
on my license. But my aunt started calling me Jack when I was a baby, and I
guess it stuck.”
“Here you go,
pal,” the bartender interrupted, sliding the two drinks towards me. “And a word
to the wise – stay away from the other one.” He gestured with a nod of his head
at a group of people across the room. I looked over, but I couldn’t tell who he
was pointing at, so I shrugged, slid some money to him, and grabbed the drinks.
“That’s Bobby,”
Ruth said to me as I handed one of the drinks to her. She raised her glass to
me and then took a sip. “He’s entirely too sensitive. She didn’t slap him that
hard – I mean, you can barely see the marks. But it was very gentlemanly of you
to tip him at an open bar.”
I shrugged,
trying to hide my pleasure at the compliment. “The drinks may be free, and
Bobby may be too sensitive, but he still gets most of his pay from tips. I
tended bar for a bit.” I took a cautious sip of my drink. It was my first
experience with anything other than beer or Boone’s Farm or whiskey. I decided
that it wasn’t awful, the vodka. I took another, a less cautious, sip of it. Nope.
Not bad at all.
“Hey, Namath,”
a new voice interrupted. “Hand over the martini, and no one gets hurt.” I
looked and saw a slightly taller version of Ruth, with curlier hair and wire-rimmed
glasses. This was obviously Ruth’s slap-happy sister. She grabbed my drink from
me, took a swallow, and made a face. “Jesus, Ruth,” she said turning toward her
sister. “Vodka?”
“You know I
despise gin,” Ruth replied. “I prefer vodka.”
“Bobby!” the
sister called to the bartender, gesturing at me. “Mister Namath here wants a
gin martini when you have a moment.” Bobby just looked at her and didn’t move.
“Since it’s not for me, dumbass,” the sister said. “You have to make it.” He
shook his head and sighed, apparently in agreement with her logic. He grabbed a
bottle of gin and started making the drink. She looked back at me. “So, what’s
your story, Joe Willy?”
“His name is
John,” Ruth said. “Why are you calling him Joe?”
The sister
smiled at me. “Ruth’s not much of a sports fan,” she said. “But I bet you are,
John, right? Sure, you are.” She continued looking at me in silence for a
moment. “John,” she repeated. “Let me guess – John Cohen? Maybe be John
Goldberg?”
“Um, no. It’s Ja
…, uh, John Callaghan,” I said, looking to Ruth for help. She just rolled her
eyes and frowned at her sister.
“I’m John
Callaghan,” her sister mimicked me, deepening her voice. She looked at me
again, in what seemed to be a distinctly unfriendly way. “Callaghan – that’s
nice Jewish name, right?”
“Well …” I was
more than a little confused by her. And the whole situation. Was it the joint?
Could it have had some hash mixed in? Angel dust?
“Thank you,
Bobby,” she looked away from me and took her drink from the bartender. She took
a swallow, glared at Bobby as if to dare him to point out that he had, in fact,
made her a drink, and turned to look at Ruth. “Dad will just love him,”
she said. Ruth rolled her eyes again. The sister turned back to me again. “So,
John, let me give you a little insight into my sister. A little information
about her, so that you are fully informed.”
“Oh, for
Christ’s sake,” Ruth said.
The sister
ignored her, continuing to look at me. “Ruth here is drinking vodka instead of
gin and flirting with an Irish Catholic football player …”
“Baseball,” I
interjected. “I’m an Irish Catholic baseball player.”
The sister
shook her head. “Football, baseball – whatever. Fine, John Calaghan – you’re a
baseball – not football - player, as if that’s at all a meaningful distinction
for purposes of my point.” She took a swallow of her drink. “If I may continue,
John, my sister the Barnard literature major is flirting with an Irish Catholic
BASEBALL player because she’s been reading Sylvia Plath and thinks that she needs
to prove to herself that she doesn’t suffer from an Electra complex.” She
noticed my look of confusion. “Like Oedipus, only for girls and their fathers.”
“Um, Electra who
killed her mother because her mother killed her father when he came back from
Troy?” Ruth and the sister looked at me as if I had grown a third eye in my
forehead. I laughed when I saw their looks of surprise, knowing what they were
thinking – the jock has a brain, maybe? “Hey,” I said, “I go to the occasional class
in between keg parties and baseball games.”
“Her brother
Orestes actually did the killing, but yes,” the sister smiled a little at me,
and this time there didn’t seem to be mockery or hostility in it. “Anyway,” she
turned back to Ruth, “I am leaving. Are you coming with me?”
“No. I want to
stay and talk to Johnny about the ancient Greeks,” Ruth smiled and kissed her
sister on the cheek. Her words made my heart leap. Hurricane Ruth wanted to stay
with Johnny! Could I get used to that – being Johnny and not Jack? Could I? For
Ruth, I could -- without a doubt.
“Fine,” her
sister sighed, turning to look at me again. She shook her head. “He seems
relatively harmless for a baseball player, I suppose. Don’t be too late,” she
said, hugging her sister. “Goodbye, Johnny,” she said to me, mimicking Ruth’s
tone as she turned and walked away.
“Goodbye,” I
said. Goodbye who? I didn’t know her name. Wait, I knew her last name, so I
said “Goodbye, Levine.” Damn! I meant to say “Miss Levine.”
She stopped
and laughed as if I had made a brilliant joke and turned around still smiling.
“It’s Janice, but I like the sound of just ‘Levine.’ You’re all right for an
Irish jock, Joe Willy. I feel sorry for you, but you are all right.” She waved,
turned, and then walked away. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
Ruth and I
looked at each other for a moment, and then she leaned in, put her arms around
my neck, and kissed me. A soft kiss, a kiss full of promise. A kiss full of
anticipation; a kiss with hints of what was yet to happen. A kiss that hooked
me and hooks me still, if I’m being honest with myself. “Johnny?” Ruth
whispered into my ear after the kiss. “I still don’t understand why she keeps
calling you Joe Willy.”