The Night Of The Fog

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Why does someone strike you as Irish rather than Italian?"
"Because they'd rather drink than fuck," she said.
-Richard Price
"Lush Life"

The Night of the Fog
by Nial Kent
"The Divided Path"

The streets were wet with melting snow, and they walked for hours, hand in hand, completely cut off from the rest of the universe by a dense blanket of fog that obscured everything except what was within a few feet of them.

Twenty-five years ago today:

January 19, 1985
Saturday

This morning I slept in a little longer than usual and wondered whether I was delirious last night or did I really pay $25 plus $8 tip for a professional oil massage. Such is life. It was angelic after my first workout at my new 24-Hour Nautilus Health Club in San Leandro.

I woke up, showered, shined and went to mom's for a quickie breakfast and chat. It seems John's old chum, Mike Cotrell, and his wife are expecting their first child. His wife is three months pregnant. And to think that my 'unknown child' is about two months into its first trimester within the 'unknown mothers' womb. It will be interesting if I do meet the child when she is eighteen years of age. I will be forty-three.

At approximately noon I made a call to Chris Cordellos.
"Listen. I can come over and we can go to my brother's ice-cream shop in Concord."
"Okay, sure!"

I am so low on funds these days and it just isn't funny. I hope a good roommate will turn up soon. I didn't want to take a cash advance on my credit card, so I am waiting for my Sacramento house interest payment to arrive today (before I head out on the drive to the 'Savoir Faire Ice-Cream Shoppe' in Concord).

The check did arrive today but those 24-hour tellers can be a bitch. I went to Great Western's Deputy Teller at South Shore Center and it was closed. Then the one on Park Street was closed. And then the one in Downtown Oakland closed right before my eyes. It was right after some old bag completed her transaction. The fourth "24-Hour" teller was open at the North Oakland Rockridge Center.

I arrived to Chris at 2:30PM and we popped on over for ice-cream. We laughed when two OW (overweight) gals came in for ice-cream. I mean...as if they really needed it! Then a lady with C.F.M.P.'s (Come Fuck Me Pumps) walked into the store. She was sleazy and her pumps were saying just that, "Come Fuck Me." Chris and I couldn't help laughing.

Chris and I got control of one another and began talking about the possibilities of Nigel and Paula's baby. Chris was also 'boo-hooing' over his brother-in-law who was ragging on him the other night about over crowding his folks space, etc. We moved on over to Sun Valley Mall to check out clothes, cologne and people. We both stared down a few people. I noticed Chris give a few double-takes on some select passers by. Chris actually bought a card for Clay!

I took Chris home.
"I'll be in touch," I said.
I stopped at the gas station with a pit stop to LONGS Drugstore in Alameda to pick up my pictures. My pictures were good. I went to mom's house to show them off but they weren't home. So I watched "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy" to kill time. Mom and Dad still failed to show up as I began to suspect that they'd gone to the store, dinner or Aunt Julia Vigil-Casillas' house. My Aunt Julia's husband, Armando Casillas, had a stroke. She was told that he did not have much of a chance for survival.

I decided to go to my Nautilus Club. I worked out from approximately 8:30PM until 9:30PM. it felt good. I showered and saw some new faces. A gal named Chris helped me out with some of my workout, too.

After my workout I went to Jack-In-The-Box for a vanilla milkshake and coffee. The two black gals at the service window spoke with such macho toughness. I think they were mimicking me because I guess I sounded that way when I ordered over the speaker. I think that means a good workout adds strength to my body and overall character. Funny.

I went to ma and pa's to deliver the black VHS Kodak videocassette and 'show off' my pictures. I discovered that they had been "porking-out" themselves at GIANT HAMBURGERS while I went for my milkshake and coffee. We watched a bit of "The Young & The Restless", "Benny Hill" and then I went home to a cold house. My furnace is not working. I showered anyway. It felt good. I went to bed.

Men do such extraordinary things. I remember a well-known writer once who used to dart down the service staircase whenever he saw me coming. I suppose he had a penchant for me and wasn't sure of himself.
-Daphne du Maurier
"Rebecca"