Your own little world in a room with a lamp and lots of picture books to look at and read.
Mom says Kool is coming to pick you up and take you out because it is getting weird.
Yes Mom
get in some jeans and a nice shirt, he says he is taking you to the club
Kool has long wavy brown hair down to his shoulders, he says it is for work. He got tired of running a skip loader on the job and watching when subs try to sell you inferior supplies.
The door rings and the Wracks lets him in. He wears a denim shirt that Grandma embroidered for him wish multicolored embroidery and swirls all over because Grandma is a seamstress. She has a bad heart and inherited it from her family in France.
Lets go says Kool, we have an invite to the club on the strip, the los Piedras are going to have a birthday party in the Over the rainbow club. The big red Ford F140 pickup truck with a plastic liner for excavation tools. There is no stereo. It gets ripped off he says. Kool opens a new pack of Marlboro reds, extracts one, hands to the Wracks and says
Light it for me.
Moonrise boulevard is a beautiful street strung through beautiful housing filled with beautiful people, with plenty of non-olfactory money that even the great Gatsby would envy. In the sixties and early seventies the richest people in the United States owned a house or condominium in L.A., and now is real and new. The Wracks doesn’t think most of them are Christian.
It is a club, it is square, and of two stories and it sits on a big lot with plenty of space for parking automobiles. All the well to do have big cars.
What is your name says the big bouncer, with taboos in a french T shirt with muscles bulging out of nowhere. Here, I am the law he says
Kool, you are in, enter, who is the runt your bring with you? He is under age but he is with me and we are going to a special party.
O.K. go, you are in
The club is a typical bar, with plenty of bar and plenty of booze and something else if you have money. On the corner is a dance floor where local bands slam their amplified sounds into distortion boxes so pathoknemonic of the generation. In the back of the club is a long stairway or should I say ramp up to the Over the Rainbow Club. Wracks and Kool walk to the top of the ramp and there stations a gate with a man in a suit with dark hair, olive complexion and big nose. He must be roman, thinks Wracks
The Piedras are throwing a party tonight says Kool, We are invited. The Italian looks at the Wracks and exclaims, is this the star child, and people inside turn their heads and smile.
Go on in says the Manager. If the police swarm in go to the bathroom and dump it, the toilets are the biggest that money obtains and they will flush anything. Have fun.
Kool and the Wracks find a booth for four people and sit down. A young waitress stops by and says what will you have.
I want a Gin and tonic, double, with a sprig of mint.
I want……says Wracks
You are getting a Rob Roy says the beautiful like money waitress. You are under age.
Ok says the Wracks and he pulls a Pall Mall gold cigarette from his lapel pocket that he bummed from his fathers stash. He lights up and savors his Rob Roy.
I have to go talk to the Piedras, says Kool, they all have south American girl friends, can you tell?
The Wracks goes to the small bar with his glass to get a refresher. Sitting alone at the bar is e street. He sits alone, very alone, and drinks, and the glasses line up in front of him like a wall and his long black curly hair and rough shaved face look up at the mirror in the bar asking for deliverance.
I drink alone he says
Nice to meet you says the Wracks and he goes back to his table. The manager appears and says to the Wracks. I hope you like our place says the manager, your Godfather owns it, and he hopes that you have a wonderful time at his house. The drink is complimentary.
Do you like that barmaid with the long brown hair, dressed in a mini-skirt with stockings.
She is pretty says the Wracks
She is a doctorate student in Engineering at UCLA, would you like to meet her
To be honest sir, I wouldn’t have the foggiest notion of what to do with her.
Suit yourself says the Manager, Have a good night. It was nice to meet you
The Piedras are having a whale of a time, and the disco tunes are up loud, there are presents and wrappings and bows at the table with the big family. A waitress brings in from the kitchen a huge silver platter with a silver top, sets it on the table, takes off the top and there is a large round white cake, that looks to be fake and she leaves and disappears. The head of the Piedras takes the cake with both hands, lifts it up and underneath is a huge mountain of white, cleanly shaved. It is not regular white, cut white, but slivers of crystal, lighter than air that seemingly float away.
The host smiles and everyone takes a large tablespoon and digs a heaping helping of hospitality.
Get a noseful, says Kool, the host wants you to have a noseful.
Will it hurt says the Wracks?
No it wont says Kool
I feel different says the Wracks, kind of like in outer space. Is this stuff supposed to make you feel sexy?
That what they say says Kool. I am going to get another piece of cake.
Time moves on, People of all sorts stop by at the table and when they see the Wracks is not a rich midget, they move on, and the disco plays, south American women dance and the night is long.
We got to go, says Kool, I have a private party to attend at 2 AM, go find the truck.
The ride on moonrise boulevard around 12 AM is a well lighted montage of well polished decadence. Bacon way is just a chuleta away and the Wracks waves as Kool turns around and drives off. He puts his key in the front door, opens it and to his amazement, Grandma stands there in her bathrobe waiting for him.
I wanted to make sure you are all right she says
Yes I am Grandma, now you can go to bed.
The Wracks takes off his clothes, says a prayer, and hopes that tomorrow twenty foot waves will hit the coast. Even Panga is good if you can dodge the rocks, he thinks. And the moon, and the moon rays stream into the bedroom, through the curtain, with aplomb, and the world is beautiful once again.