So, I stole some gas. I’m not proud of it but it happened. I just pulled in filled up the tank and drove away. Worst case scenario - I get back to Milwaukee and uncle Don is pissed off because I took his car for a week when I said it would only be a day and there is a warrant out for his arrest.
Best case - I die and I don’t have to deal with any of this bullshit.
I won’t worry. I’ll put that in the special mental compartment with my defaulted student loans, credit card debt and the lingering pain in my left foot.
And the stretch from there is eventless. I’ve decided to hold it together. I took this drive a lot of times as a kid. My grandpa lived in Wapaca with his wife, who wasn't my grandmother or anything.
She always told us to call her grandma, but i was like ‘fuck that’. And I sure as shit wasn't going to make things weird by calling her by her actual name, Joanna, so I’d just wait for her to look at me if i needed to ask a question.
There was a joint called Rainbow Falls or something in Plover. One time I smashed a go kart into the the wall and bent the shit out of it. My grandpa saw and went and hid in the car. The guys working were pissed and I almost cried.
These days I’d tell those go-kart fucks to suck my dick and choke on it and run away flipping the double bird, but whatever.
We used to get a lot of snacks those days and I would watch Beavis and Butthead and old music videos forever because I didn't have cable at my dad’s house.
My grandpa was my mom’s dad, all my grandparents besides him were dead. It seemed like a lot of family members were dead.
Maybe death runs in the family.
Me and Carter get out at a way station and stretch our legs. its a really nice one with a path that leads down to a lake. I imagine drifters get blown (or blow) down there. It would be weird to be a drifter.
And Then I stop in Steven’s Point to see what Sarah was talking about. And it is a very nice city. Nice little city. I grab a slice of pizza at some joint and talk to some wonky Jewish kid named Micah. Nice guy, terrible haircut.
Thats about where it all fell apart. I was well on my way when I stopped in a town called Tomahawk. Now, all I wanted to do was get some snacks and be on my way but there was this dude at the gas station named Frankie, he was leaning against the gas station wall.
He was kinda strange but had a kind face.
“Hey man” he said. You want to buy some mushrooms?”
I told him I only had twenty bucks to spend and he was ok with that. He drove a hard bargain. You know how you meet someone and you feel like you’ve been friends forever, it was like that.
We hung around for a while talking about movies and the water skiing show that was in town. Frankie said it was pretty cool. He talked a lot. I gave him a lift to a friends house and on the way he told me pretty much everything that happened in his life.
Frankie:
loved the Dog and Suds Restaurant.
Went to school in Tomahawk (Mascot: Hatchet’s)
Had some friends who raced at the speedway.
sold worms at the bate shop as a kid.
Was a dishwasher at the junction restaurant.
Wore Starter jackets back in high school
listened to Ace Of Base
and then we got to his friends house and i let the dog out and ate the mushrooms, and it all went to hell.
