Mark Tufo - Alive in a Dead World

Nineteen fifty for three beers. She took her time with the change, I guess expecting me to tell her to keep it. I waited patiently and she begrudgingly handed it over. I’ll be damned if I was giving her a nickel for making me go through that while I was in my altered state. I don’t think I won the particular encounter, but I didn’t lose either. Now I had to try and figure out how to get back. Easier said than done, but I figured at the absolute worst, I would be alone with three beers.

I found the sound stage just as Widespread came back on. I circled around a bit until I saw Dennis. He was once again twirling around with Yellow Sundress; she must have landed nearby. I looked up in the sky, I guess looking for her falling vapor trail. I tapped him on the shoulder. The relief slash joy that flooded across his features as he saw me was, in a word, awesome, and then compound that with his added joy when he saw what I was carrying was just plain cool as hell.

“Wasn’t sure I’d see either of you two again tonight,” Dennis said joyously as he took the proffered beverage.

“I knew you’d be thirsty, my friend,” I said, putting my arm around his shoulder.

“How’s Yellow?” I asked.

“Who?”

“The girl you’re dancing with.”

“I’m dancing with someone?” he asked in earnest, looking around for his mythical partner. “You seen Paul?” he asked when he figured I was messing with him.

“Naw, I hoped he made his way back here by now.”

“Maybe he’ll bring some beers too. That’d be great!”

And I nodded an enthusiastic agreement.

Widespread played an inspired second set. Dennis and I had finished our beers, and out of a toast for our missing friend, we split the third beer evenly and drank it down. Paul was still nowhere in sight. By this time, I think Dennis’ eyes were turning yellow. I could see a hint of panic in them as he tried to gauge his success rate at holding it or making it to and from the john.

Yellow saved the day. She was walking by without a care in the world, semi twirling as she moved past.

“Hi!” I yelled to her louder than I needed to. I imagined my face to be a washed out version of itself from the hard partying I was in the midst of.

She looked over, her smile never wavering. “Hi yourself!” she said.

“Are you heading to the bathroom?” I asked (yup that’s me! Always the smooth one.)

This time, her smile slipped for a second, like “What the hell was my problem?”

I wasn’t so messed up, (okay, yes I was) that I couldn’t see her confusion. “My buddy, here,” I said, pulling Dennis over to my side. He had not the slightest idea that I had been talking to his dance partner.

“Do I know you?” he asked. I wasn’t sure if he was asking her or me.

“We’re fabulous friends,” she said, her smile returning. “We might even be married.”

That was news to me, although I’d met Dennis’ ex and this girl blew her away, both looks-wise and personality. He could have done a lot worse, like going back to the miserable thing he’d divorced.

“Umm, okay, since you two are potentially married, your husband is in some desperate need of (I swear I almost said relief, but that would have sounded way to sexual) help. We’re a little on the other side of normal, and I don’t think he’ll be able to find his way to the restrooms and back.”

She laughed a warm, mirthful laugh and put her hand out for Dennis.

He grabbed it, then asked who she was again.

I had my doubts I’d see him again tonight. By now, I was wondering if I would be able to find my way back to our temporary accommodations. The odds weren’t stacked in my favor. I was constantly scanning the crowd for Paul. He had been missing a long time. Sometimes I would call out his name, thinking that maybe I had seen him close by. But always the person was walking away, threading through the crowd to parts unknown.

If you’ve read all my journals up to this far, first off congrats for getting through my ramblings. But you should have a good idea that I do not like big crowds and I do not function well within them. However, there I was thriving. The collective consciousness of that crowd was uplifting. My soul was bobbing up and down on the strong electric current. I know it sounds corny and maybe a little too hokey, but I was having a blast and who’s to deny what I was feeling, no matter how cheesy?

Twenty minutes later, half hour, seventy-eight parsecs? I don’t know. I saw the bright rays of Yellow Sundress gleaming through the crowd, and like a heralding angel, she was leading a beer-laden Dennis.

“I hope you two are married!” I told her.

She was still smiling, but I think she forgot she had ever said that.

“I come bearing gifts!” Dennis yelled. “And I’m not ever doing that again!”

I hoped he hadn’t meant peeing because eventually you’d just blow up.

Yellow handed Dennis a piece of paper with her phone number on it. “Enjoy the show,” she told him as she gently stroked his face and went twirling away into the crowd.

“Who the hell is that?” he asked me, handing me a beer.

I picked up the napkin that he had dropped. Her name and phone number were on it. I think her name was Susan, but I won’t attest to that. I stuck the piece of paper in Dennis’ rear pant pocket.

“Paul?” he asked, sipping his beer.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Did you get the beer Nazi?”

“No ID, no beer!” he said, smiling.

It was another few, maybe ten minutes and the lights dimmed down, the third set was starting.

“DUDE!” I heard from behind me.

It honestly took me a few moments for my reeling brain to put the image before me and match it up with Paul’s.

“BUDDY! Where the hell have you been?” I responded.

“I’m not really sure. I remember going to the bathroom with you and when I came out, I couldn’t find you. Then I realized I was starving, so I went over and got some beef teriyaki.”

“They have beef teriyaki?” Dennis asked as he turned to join the conversation. “Paulie! Hey buddy!”

“So I ate, and then I was thirsty as hell. I went and tried to get some beer, but I didn’t bring any ID.”

Dennis and I gave knowing glances to each other and started laughing.

I was floating around trying to get some brew and I ran into this guy that had brought a cooler in and was selling them for like two bucks a piece.”

“Two bucks? Damn!”

“So I bought like a six-pack.”

I looked down into his hands, bummed that I didn’t see any of them hanging there by the plastic holder.

“By the time I got the beer, I was all turned around and I had no idea which way to go. So I started playing Frisbee with this group and then I might have done some hula hooping. I was thinking that maybe I’d remember where we were by then.”

“Didn’t work so much?” I asked.

“No, so when the music started, I hopped on someone’s blanket and drank and danced.”

“So how’d you find us?” Dennis asked, still looking at Paul’s hands like beer might magically appear. That night it might have actually happened.

“I saw the girl in the yellow sundress and I seem to remember her being around us.”

“You saw Dennis’ wife!”

“What?” they asked in unison.

“Long story!” I yelled, wanting to get back into the groove of the music.

The music was playing again, my buds were back, I placed my arms over both their shoulders and we enjoyed the remainder of the show. I would have bet money that Dennis was the most effed-up one of us all, but I kept repeating over and over at how amazed I was that he knew the way home.

Nothing we passed looked even vaguely familiar to me. Other revelers walked around us, our footfalls echoing on the tree lined roadways as we trekked our way home. I caught snippets of meaningless conversations… “Jenny wasn’t even seeing him….”