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Swamp Buggy
Page III
February 16th, 2004
Johnny snatched the beanbag ashtray from the center of the table and turned back to the hall toward his bedroom. "See ya at the next reunion, Joanie."
He heard a stifled sniff as he entered the door to his room, and decided not to turn around. He stuffed out the cigarette butt, deposited the the ashtray on his night stand, flopped onto his bed and watched the last ribbons of smoke dissolve into the lamplight.
Positioning his hands behind his head, he lay staring at the ceiling with jangly nerves that wouldn't allow him to fully enjoy the last comfort his own bed would provide him. It was the comfort of familiarity he felt rather than a feeling that this moment or place was his.
He wouldn't miss this place or this bed any more or any less than he had the countless other apartments and schools and friends that had streamed endlessly past the eyes of his young life.
The only consolation in the upcoming ordeal was that this move wouldn't carry any baggage. He could start fresh, and he didn't owe anything to anyone. No gratitude to an aunt or uncle or second cousin who felt awfully superior and benevolent for taking him and his mother and sister in while his mother "got them on their feet". No long explanations to new friends about where they had lived before this and where his father was, or subtly maintaining the image that he and Nicole had the same father to somehow "normalize" their lives.
The ringing in his ears, audible in the silence that engulfed the house, was mercifully cut down by the pounding of his oldest and dearest friends' tail on the floor, the familiar grunts and puffs of his seemingly recurring doggy dream cracking the tight lipped anxiety Johnny wore on his face.
Johnny rolled over and propped his head up on the heel of his hand. He never woke the mutt up until he looked like he was going to go into convulsions. These days anything that startled old Sparky too much might just be what did him in, and you were liable to lose a hand if you tried to pet him to wake him up, so Johnny took off one of his socks, balled it up and whipped it at the old dog.
A big, sneeze-like exhalation of air and an attempt at standing, resulting in a vigorous raise of the head, and not much more, was all Sparky could muster, and Johnny quickly and soothingly gave him an "easy, boy" to reassure him everything was alright. The cloudy white eyes moved in his direction and a more coherent thump of the tail and low growl acknowledged that he was back.
Johnny sat up and then slid down to the floor to meet Sparky's muzzle as he raised it from the pile of clothes he could always count on being on Johnny's floor near the closet.
While apartments and beds and schoolmates had passed in a seemingly never-ending procession, Sparky had been a rock he could always count on since he was eight years old.
Joanie brought him home one day after a drunken night with one of her boyfriends that had turned ugly. Johnny never really understood until he was much older that Sparky was more than just a playmate for he and his sister. Sparky had provided the protection and unconditional love a young boy doesn't even know he needs until he's learned to live without it from the people around him.
This would be the first of the only two goodbyes that he knew may be difficult. He and Joanie had learned to maneuver around each other with the least amount of discomfort for each, and still remain fairly cordial with one another. Nicole was a lost cause as far as he was concerned, and no one had seen or heard from his father since he was about three years old, so that wasn't really going to be a problem.
Johnny turned and laid his head on the dog's ribcage and tried to relax. The anxious feeling was hitting him hard again, gurgling his touchy, unfed stomach, and he began to feel a cold sweat developing. It was either go back out and listen to Joanie bitch, or lay here and try to fall asleep until she left.
.
Flash Crash Rumble and Roll
November 12th, 2003
Jinx
November 20th, 2003
Kid Rock
November 27th, 2003
Biwwy
December 4th, 2003
Da Crusher
December 30th, 2003
Amsterdam and the Dentist
January 2nd,
2004
Champagne and Reefer
January 24th, 2004
Swamp Buggy
February 6th, 2004
30 Days in the Hole
February 10th, 2004
Swamp Buggy - Pg. II
February 16th, 2004
Swamp Buggy - Pg. III
February 20th, 2004
Swamp Buggy - Pg. IV
June 1st, 2004
London Calling
June 16th, 2004
Eddie