Shady

first night
of my first time
living in Austin, TX

standing outside my apartment
with the door left open so i could
still hear Skip James singing
from my stereo

sipping at my fifth
or sixth beer
for the evening
staring off
toward the light
of downtown

this is when i first met Steve
as he approached his apartment
which was next to mine

"hey
you my new neighbor?"
he asked in his thick
Michigan accent

i told him i was

"yeah
i heard ya moving in this afternoon
and i would have come out to say hi
but i was afraid you'd ask me to help
and i didn't wanna help"

i laughed and said
"no problem
you want a beer?"

we hung out quite a bit
for the six months i lived there that time
often heading downtown to rock bars
looking for women to drive us crazy
and drinks that made us sane

but we also liked The Horseshoe
closest bar to the complex
both on South Lamar at that time

it was a beer only bar
with a bring your own liquor
buy your mixer
policy

one night
when The Horseshoe was lacking
anyone of the opposite sex
we struck up a conversation
with a shady character who told us
he knew a girl

for a hundred bucks
he said
she'd let us both fuck her
he said
and she was young and pretty
he said

at the behest of poor judgement
we found ourselves in a house barren
of any semblance of respectability

mustached slime-balls
all lined around on a sectional couch
smoking crack

as we waited for the girl
they passed the pipe
in our direction

i
passed it on
Steve
didn't

now
Steve wasn't a junkie
but he'd been driving trucks for more than 10 years
and was also not above partaking in life's more questionable
activities

i
was no angel
and in that six months
i'd used more powder cocaine then
i'd ever want my gramma to know about
but
i don't
smoke crack

the gentlemen of this particular house
did not take kindly to my standards
and one of them decided it was time
for me and Steve to
go

he rescinded our invitation standing nervously
in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen
holding tightly to the handle of a big fucking butcher's knife

"well"
Steve said calmly to me
in his thick Michigan accent
"i guess we better go"

we walked outside
never turning our backs 
to the man with the knife
got into Steve's truck
and drove back to the complex
finished the beers in our fridges

after six months i wound up
leaving Austin and headed back to Milwaukee
but Steve and I stayed in touch throughout
and eight years later i returned to Austin

unfortunately
the second time around
deceit of a woman
came between us
and after all that time
our friendship
ended

but
it was fun to think of him
tonight

his thick Michigan accent
how cool he was in a seedy situation
and how he seemed to like those situations
and how maybe
i did
too

my story
is less boring because of him