Bird Came Down

“WE’RE GETTING A DIVORCE,”Scott said, his voice muffled as the pot smoke leaked out of his nostrils and he took a swig of the beer. His tie was loosened and his legs were out like a Raggedy Andy doll’s. “I mean, I made a fucking effort,” he passed the joint to Rule. “I really did.

“I might as well tell you, Joe, I didn’t take the plane here just to see you, Mom and Dad. I’m staying here. I’m not going back up to Fort Atkins.”

As Rule took a long hit, Scott looked at the beef taco in his hand with wonderment and then said, “This is the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.”

He took a huge bite of the taco and, mouth full, he said, “I just want my babies. I just want my kids.”

Joey, his knees hanging out of his shorts, looked at Felix whose fedora was far back on his head. He said, politically, “Kids… I believe they are our future.”

Rule held the joint to him, and Felix shook his head while Joey’s eye bugged out when he was, presented with it.

“You were always so fucking cool!” Scott said to Felix. “And I was so fucking dumb.”

Felix looked from Joey to Scott, and Scott said, “I was so dumb. I just ought to have been myself. And I’m learning that now. I was trying so hard…”

Felix wished that Scott would shut the fuck up and, suddenly, to his relief and surprise, going unconscious on the floor, before the futon, that’s exactly what Scott did.

“I’m so sorry for this,” Joey said.

“Don’t be,” Rule laughed, covering his mouth, “this is the most fun I’ve had in weeks.” He thought about that then said, “Well, days, really. But still.”

“He was talking to me, Idiot,” Felix said. “And don’t you have a car to give back?”

“Fuck!” Rule jumped up. He looked around the little studio apartment littered with liquor and tacos and taco papers and rolling papers. “Can you take care of this for me?”

“Just go,” Felix said.

Rule stumbled out the room, and Joey opened his mouth, but Felix held up a hand and said, “Just wait for—”

The door opened and Rule said, “I forgot my—”

Felix held out his cigarettes.

“Thanks, you’re a real pal.”

Rule headed out of the door and Joey opened his mouth again, but again Felix held up his hand, and just then the door opened and Rule said, “The—”

And Felix held out the keys.

“Now is that it?” Felix said.

Rule patted himself down, his eyes hollow.

“That’s it,” he said.

“Then get out.”

Rule grinned stupidly and left.

“Now?” Felix turned to Joey.

“What are we gonna do with him?”

“The first thing, we’re going to do” Felix decided, standing up and moving to one end of the taco paper strewn coffee table, “is move this thing before he wakes up and kicks out the glass panes.”

They did so, and then Joey said, “And what’s the next thing?”

“Shit, I don’t know. I guess I’ll sit on the sofa, watch him sleep, and read a book.”

“You’ve got a lot of books,” Joey observed as he moved through the living room, which was the only room in the apartment besides the kitchen and the bathroom.

Because Felix wasn’t sure what else to say he shrugged from where he sat on the couch and said, “Yes.”

“Have you read them all?”

“That would be ridiculous.”

Joey considered this. He reached for a book and pulled it off the shelf. It was red, clothbound. He opened it to the middle and said, “I don’t read at all.”

“Then it’s strange you’d be fingering my library.”

He grinned and said, “Sorry about that.”

Again Felix shrugged, and on the sofa Scott groaned.

“Well, hello,” Felix greeted him, putting his book down and looking at the man whose feet were propped on his lap.

“I passed out,” Scott twisted, and seeing his feet were on Felix he moved them and said, “Sorry about that.”

“There’s so much to be sorry for in this world,” Felix said, “and so few people are. Why be sorry about this?”

Scott closed his eyes tight and touched his head.

“Hangover?” Joey came near him.

“Nope.”

“You better take some aspirin before you get one, then,” Felix said.

Scott nodded, but then he grimaced and touched his stomach: “Bathroom?”

“Right down that hall. It’s the only room.”

Scott moved forward but then, just like that, he fell to his knees and vomited on the carpet.

“Oh, shit,” Felix murmured.

“Oh, no,” said Joey.

Scott tried to say something, looking frightened and lost, but in the end he bent on his hands and knees, gagging horribly as his insides spilled out all over the carpet and the acrid smell hit Felix’s nostrils.

` “There’s some stuff for that in the service room,” Joey said, moving past his brother. “I’ll be right back.”

“The toilet,” Scott began to say, but Felix said, “Why worry about it now?”

Scott made it to the bathroom and continued vomiting and Felix wondered how much was in him and how long could he do that and then Joey was coming back with the sawdust and a vacuum and he was saying, “I’ll let that sawdust lie for a bit, and then I’ll vacuum. And of course I can be here early in the morning to dry clean the carpet. I can do the whole apartment.”

“Great. I have to be up early for Mass.”

“I didn’t know you were Catholic.”

“I go to an Episcopal church now. But… yeah.”

“Um,” Joey considered this. “I never thought of you as a church person.”

“Most people at church don’t either.”

Scott came out of the bathroom looking worse for wear and embarrassed.

“I’m so sorry,” he began.

“Don’t worry about it. Just…” Felix paused, “sit down. Sit down until Joey finishes the floor.”

“Your bathroom’s kind of… I got straight aim, but your toilet’s still kind of…”

“I’ll clean that up too,” Joey said over the vacuum. “That’s my job.”

The sun had set while this was happening and suddenly, Felix realized how dark it was. With three people and a coffee table pushed aside, the apartment was small and Felix stepped over Scott to flick on a light.

Scott turned his face away.

Felix apologized.

No one talked while Joey vacuumed, and when he was done, Felix said, “Do you want some tea?”

“No,” Scott said. Then he said, “Yes.”

Felix went to put a cup of water in the microwave while Joey took everything downstairs, emptied the vacuum and then went looking for cleaning supplies. Scott was halfway through his cup of tea by the time Joey was done cleaning.

“I don’t know what to say,” Scott said to Felix. Joey came into the kitchen where they were both sitting on either side of the card table under the light of the lamp.

“Are you alright?” Felix asked him. “I mean, not just your stomach. But… alright?”

“I will be,” Scott said, and looking at him.

Felix felt sorry for straight people.

“Well, we better go and let Felix get some peace,” Joey said, thumping the door post.

Scott got up miserably and held his hand out for Felix.

“It was good to see you.” He grimaced. “I mean as good as it could be.”

Felix walked them to the door and Joey said, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” before Felix closed the door and locked it behind them.

It sure is a good thing Rule let me jump start the car with his car… or whoever’s car,” Joey said as they drove south out of downtown.

“I mean, it sure has been a day. I can’t wait to go to sleep. And I mean, I gotta be up early now. Not that I’m blaming you. But wow, you really put that booze away. And I didn’t even know you smoked weed.”

Joey stopped talking and turned to his older brother. The long tall man was crumpled in the passenger seat, holding his temples.

“You alright?”

“Can we drive by the river?” Scott said.

“Sure, Scott. I guess. You mean on our side? Up Riverside Drive?”

“Yeah,” Scott said. “Sure.”

They crossed the river at Madison Street. It was barely visible because nothing reflected in it, and they turned past Landing Park, and then drove south along the water. Now and again they looked to their rights where the shoulder of park descended into bike paths invisible in the night. They passed under the viaducts the train would pass over later that night, and by the old factory that had been turned into a dance club and then, by the farmer’s market, Joey said, “We could stop right here.”

Scott nodded.

They parked in the lot and the night was warm with a small breeze. They walked until they crossed the street and sat on the grass.

“It’s so beautiful,” Joey said.

Across the river they could see the lights of Eastside and there was a small boat making its way up the river.

“It is,” Scott said, and his voice cut off as his shoulders began shaking.

Joey turned to his brother and Scott buried his face in his hands and began to sob.