On Friday night, the stacks of the library are still, quiet, vacant and distant. Nobody is ever there and Wracks decides not to go, so he comes home on the bus, with few people, and a black driver, sitting near the front so he will not be missed by anyone if they were there, The long expanse of moonrise boulevard through tall trees hiding huge homes on the highway but set back away for no one to see. No one walks in Tranquil Hills.
Home again for the millionth time. Grandma is in her room watching Lawrence Week Reruns.
Wrack waves to her and asks her if she needs anything. She says no, smiles and holds the speakers to her ears because she is hard of hearing. A message is on the answering machine and the Wracks picks it up.
Hello wracks, this is playboy. There is a party tonight in Bel Air and they want your presence. To get in the secret password is “Cadillac”. Stick around, I will be there later. I have business and have to pick up a shipment. Here is the address. Write it down and then delete the message. See you there.
Wracks has a boil a bag spectacular from the outside freezer. Chicken parts in peppers and onions and after simmering it for five minutes it is spectacular. Add a coke and Wallah! His parents are at a restaurant in a high place, for the select few, downtown., The place is called “le escoffier” what ever that means and Wracks takes the keys off the racks and gets into the white and green ford pinto runabout to go to a party. Wracks doesn’t dress up for parties because he doesn’t have party clothes, just his clearance JC Penney attire, so he shaves and brushes his teeth.
Wracks has never been to Bel Air before and normally he is not allowed there because…….
A big home, well manicured in California Mediterranean Contemporary, stands with a well lighted perimeter but a door shrouded in shadows far away. Wracks goes to the door and knocks and a person opens it a crack and says Hello.
“Cadillac” says Wracks
Come in and browse says the voice and the door widens and he enters. Inside the standing room on the first floor is a ballroom. A large mirrored globe spins and laser light refract off of it splatter the room with scintillating colors that would incite a photosensitive grand mal epileptic.
A beautiful blond bombshell in a bikini, with light eyes, and holding a serving board lashed to her chest, walks up to him and says, “Hi”. With her slender manicured hand with long nails painted in neon paint, she slips a pill in Wracks mouth and then kisses him on the forehead.
What did you just give me asks Wracks.
“It is vitamin V and it makes you grow”. I will be back, and she disappears. She must be Norwegian Wracks thinks and begins to look around. People arrive with satchels and checkbooks and they don’t notice Wracks but move quickly to a room at the end of the ballroom. A guard within opens the door and scrutinizes. He is really big and dressed in a tuxedo. Then they are admitted and they disappear. Wracks knocks on the door, and it slowly opens, and a big wrestler says “show me 20 G.” “I don’t have 20 G says Wracks”. “Then you cant come in he says”. Disgruntled, Wracks disengages and walks back in the ballroom and people are slowly coming out of the room. He asks them “What’s going on inside there?” Barter, buy and sell, hot commodities otherwise it is none of your business, Kapish? I am paisan says Wracks, I understand. Where there is money there is beautiful women and they dress in almost nothing and they are young and well connected. I am just surf scum thinks Wracks and I like big tubing waves instead, Disco music starts streaming over the hidden speakers, unnoticed like everything else here. People dance, beautiful women swing and the Wracks knows this was never meant to be part of him. He prefers a twelve pack of hot tacos from the bell after a good go out. He decides, then turns about face and leaves. Why are you going says a incredibly gorgeous Norwegian in a sarong and high heels. “I don’t like Vitamin V and coke makes me go crazy” Good bye beautiful and have a good night. She winks and smiles and Wracks hurriedly leaves.
The way is long and dark and back on moonrise boulevard, Wracks knows he is in familiar territory and in the little white pinto with a hatch back and the big V4 overhead cam engine he blasts back home. The police are told not to come out this way so he speeds and practices his race car driving. Back at home he checks his Grandmother. She is asleep and he closes the door slowly. It is fall here and almost Halloween and the santa ana winds blow from the north and warm winds keep everything cozy. Santa Ana winds and a west swell and Silver strand will be ten feet perfect A frame tubes, and so offshore, just don’t mind big sharks and locals with 22 magnum ruger 10/22. I dream of Genie if she was and the sky is clear and black, and the stars shine and the clouds blow one thousand miles an hour under a harvest moon. Halloween is tomorrow and Wracks will hand out candy to the children in costumes with their parents and begin the sacred holiday season. Boo!