Swamp Buggy

January 24th, 2004

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Johnny Cheetham sucked in his gut, scratched his ass and exhaled as if to release all of the poisons he had accumulated the night  before as he shuffled slowly through the door down the hall to the kitchen.  This was it. This was the day.  He felt the familiar tight-headed regret that would normally be bad till he had a cup of coffee and a cigarette, cause him to consider giving up the sauce till about noon, and fade to dull thud by quitting time.

He had spent the better part of an hour, not more than few hours before, in his mother's room gushing over what a wonderful lady she was until she made him go to bed at about 3:30am.  He would normally be comatose at this hour, but the anticipation of the day had made him restless, and after a few flops that were punctuated by that certain tingle in his chest only a good hangover could bring, he knew there was no use in trying to sleep.

The kitchen stunk of the crusty frying pan remains of a scrambled egg breakfast, and Joanie was perched in her usual spot near the window with her coffee and the romance novel of the month.  She wasn't the type of mother who would rub his nose in the revelry of the night before, but the sideward grin was enough to let him know it wasn't completely overlooked.

Johnny pulled a mug out of the cabinet, poured himself a cup of coffee that was bitter from sitting too long on the warmer, and sat down opposite his mother.  He reached for a cigarette from her pack, but before he could get it to his lip, she snatched it from his hand, and said "get your own, lover boy, I'm through supporting your sorry ass."  Before his expression could shift from surprise to disgust she stuck it in his mouth and lit it for him.

"You know, your grandfather is very proud of you,  if he could, he'd be the one to take you down to the recruiter's office today", she said, all traces of sarcasm in her eyes now fading to misty softness.  "He really loves you, Johnny."

"Yeah, I know, Joanie, but instead I have fucking Greg dropping me off? What kind of shit is that? You couldn't get two hours off from wiping asses to drop your only son off on the day he's going into the fucking army?"

"Now wait a minute. Wait just a minute young man", she said setting down her book with the pages covering a small pile of toast crumbs, butter soaking through the page she was reading. "You know very well how busy the clinic has been lately, and I was out almost all of last month with the pneumonia, so no, if I don't want to lose my job, I can not take you today. I'm sorry.  I told you I would come to your graduation in June."  The pained expression she wore told him to either go for the kill, or leave it alone. 

"Fine. I'll take your car and drive myself down there. You can pick it up with dickhead later", he said, blowing the final drag from his cigarette in her face as he crushed the butt in the ash tray, not moving his glance from her eyes as she squinted from the smoke.

"Watch your mouth, Johnny, I don't need this shit from you today.  I have to take my car to the DMV this afternoon, or the registration will expire.  You'll just have to ride with Greg."

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

Page II

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