I was watching a show on television on PBS. The show It showed two men who had taken some old typewriters and turned them into a musical instrument. The men were sitting side by side. In front of them were two rows, one over the other, of old black typewriters. The men began hitting the typewriters all over with what appeared to be drumsticks. Beautiful music began coming out of the typewriters. I was impressed.
Apparently the men played in an unorthodox club. When the concert was over, someone began talking about them; the name of my second cousin Jeff was mentioned. I would like to talk to Jeff about this.
I began walking toward downtown Portsmouth. I knew Jeff caught buses in front of the old Laroy theater; I might find him there. As I approached the theater, I saw Jeff standing there on my right. I was carrying some books and had a coat on my right arm. As I reached him, I purposely dropped my coat right in front of him. I also clumsily dropped some of my books. As I picked up my books, Jeff bent over to pick my coat up. When he handed me the coat, he recognized me. With a big smile on his face he realized I had dropped my coat on purpose.
I told him I had wanted to see him, and that I had specifically walked to downtown instead of driving because I thought I might find him here. I told him about the show I had seen and how I had heard his name mentioned on PBS. He seemed surprised but interested to hear what I said.
Standing next to him was an attractive blonde woman about 30 years old. Jeff didn't introduce us, but she began taking part in the conversation.
We were standing beneath the marquis of the Laroy theater. There was a row of benches that went in a U-shape all along the recessed entrance area of the theater. Jeff and the woman finally sat down on a bench close to the street, while I sat on one farther toward the back. As we continued our conversation, we had to holler to each other.
I wanted to go to the club where the men playing the typewriters performed. I wanted to take Carolina to the club with me. I hollered to Jeff that Carolina might want to go; then I added that Carolina was "relatively straight," meaning that she wasn't accustomed to going to places like that.
Some people to my left guffawed when they heard what I said. They said something about "straight" and "gay"; but I hadn't been using the word "straight" in the sense of being not gay. However, I had the feeling the people were making fun of everything Jeff and I were talking about, as if we were out of the mainstream.
Copyright 2003 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
