This Is How You Remind Me of What I Really Am...
I witnessed firsthand how Pokey was affected by the loss of his father. He had an older sister, but by the time I became friends with him, she had moved out. I think I met her once, at Joe's funeral. Pokey spent a lot of time with his mother and father, and his cousin Richard, AKA "The Professor." He was our age and lived at the house for a few years during high school.
Losing Joe was devastating. Pokey took it hard.
I was nervous about getting married, and Pokey was experiencing grief. So we decided the cure for our dilemmas was to spend Saturday together, drinking beer on Nantasket Beach.
We filled a large Styrofoam cooler with ice and a case of Michelob bottles, the good-looking ones with the gold label that extended over the cap. We loaded the cooler into Joe's light blue Chevette, and headed for the beach in Hull. We told the girls, Susan and Lorie, we'd be home late afternoon and that we'd pick 'em up at 8:00 and take 'em to the Canton House at Cobb's Corner in Stoughton for drinks and Chinese food.
And, just to set the record straight, that was our intention. (The best-laid plans of mice and men…)
Pokey and I never kept any secrets from each other or told any lies. We had an incredible friendship and work relationship. We constantly challenged each other, and that made us both better. Unfortunately, sometimes it had the opposite effect, and we willingly became partners in crime and fucked things up altogether. This was destined to be one of those times…
It was close to an hour's ride, and we drank the whole way down. By the time we pulled into a parking space on the beach side of the street, we had a pretty good beer buzz. It was only 9:30.
We were drinking on the beach when we met a group of Puerto Rican kids doing the same. One of them was small, but chiseled, and he challenged me to a push-up contest. I looked at Pokey and said, "Hold my beer..." I could do push-ups.
The kid went first and did just north of 75. Then it was my turn. I was going like hell, but because of how drunk I was, I went down too far and too fast, hit the pavement, and split my nose wide open. But I kept going. I struggled towards the end, but I managed to match him.
With blood dripping from my face like a prize fighter who had run into a slew of straight right hands, I needed some medical attention. By then, I had won over my Puerto Rican friends, and before we left, we all shook hands; a sign of mutual respect.
On the way to a public bathroom to rinse the blood off my nose, I told Pokey about the time my rugby pal from Norwich University and I destroyed a bathroom in Montreal. Using plain brown paper towels and cold water from the sink, I was able to stop the bleeding. That's when Pokey looked at me and said, "Let's fuck this place up!"
I started by kicking the side of a stall and loosening it from the floor. Then Pokey started in on another. We went house, and by the time we were done, the paper towel holder was off the wall and on the floor next to all the light-green panels, which we had reduced to a pile of rubble. I'm not sure why we did it, but we both had a lot of pent-up emotions, and it felt damn good to let loose. We exited the bathroom in a hurry without being seen. What we did was wrong, and we should've been arrested for vandalism…
We went back to the Chevette and had a few more beers; all that destruction made us thirsty. Once we were totally lit, we crossed the street and started walking down the boardwalk in front of Paragon Park. That's when we bumped into my Uncle Sid and Auntie Honey, my father's sister. By that time, we were noticeably drunk, and it didn't seem to bother my aunt and uncle. They thought it was funny.
My Uncle Sid enjoyed sitting in his leather recliner in the cool basement, drinking beer and watching golf on TV, so seeing us inebriated wasn't anything out of the ordinary. He had terminal cancer, was using a cane to walk by then, and had asked my aunt to take him to Paragon one last time. I was so glad I got to see him. He passed away shortly after that…
It was getting late and we hadn't eaten anything, so we got in the Chevette and headed home. On the way, Pokey said he was hungry, and he pulled into a Chinese restaurant. I said, "Poke, we're taking the girls out for Chinese tonight." He said he didn't care, that we could eat it again tonight.
We sat down, ordered some food, and a couple of Mai Tais. And then a couple more Mai Tais. By the time we stumbled out of that place, we were fucked up!
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I don't know how we did it, but we made it back to Pokey's house unscathed, where we immediately crashed on the carpeted living room floor. Marie was shaking her head; she knew we were a couple of drunk knuckleheads. It was 5:30 and we told her to wake us up by 7:30, that we were taking the girls out for Chinese food…
She didn't wake us. It was almost a form of punishment, and in some crazy way, I don't think she liked the girls. She felt they weren't good enough for us, when actually, it was the other way around.
I woke up suddenly and looked at the clock and shook Pokey, "It's fucking 9:00, Poke. We gotta pick up the girls at Lorie's house!"
We drove there, and Lorie's older sister, Nancy, a friend of my sister's, was the only one home. She said they left and were headed to Thackeray's Pub in Walpole, our favorite watering hole…
Ruh-oh! We knew we were in deep shit, so we headed over there in a hurry…
When we got inside, we immediately spotted the girls sitting at the bar. They were pissed! I tried to plead my case, even used my split nose to get some sympathy, but none of it was working. Poke and I were getting well-deserved browbeatings in front of the entire bar.
While Lorie continued to hammer Steve at the bar, Susan got up and started walking out, saying she was walking home. It was six miles to her house. I knew she couldn't be serious. She was wearing heels. I followed her through the mall parking lot, pleading with her to stop and let me drive her home.
At one point, I ran up in front of her, got down on my knees, and begged. She looked at me. I was drunk, with a split nose that still had some dried blood on it. I was on my knees in a parking lot apologizing… That's when she started laughing hysterically. I must've looked like a damn fool, but I was her damn fool, and she agreed to walk back to Thackeray's with me…
Pokey and I stood at the bar next to the girls and salvaged the night, one that easily could've been a fucking disaster. We were bad boys with good hearts, and that's what attracted them to us in the first place. In a way, they should've expected this kinda shit from us. I think they did.
Susan's forgiveness in that moment reminded me of what I really am. I was a good guy who occasionally made some poor decisions and exhibited some bad behavior. But I knew I could change for her.
The wedding was only a few weeks away…
This time I'm mistaken
For handing you a heart worth breakin'
And I've been wrong, I've been down
Been to the bottom of every bottle
This is how you remind me of what I really am
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To be continued…