Memphis Blues (day 2, scene 2) . . . Entry for May 8, 2007

By the time we all pulled into the Pilot Truck Stop in Nashville all three of us in the car were pissed off as hell and I wanted something to drink. But the only alcoholic drink they had inside was beer, and I like “bitch beer” i.e. Smirnoff Ice or Bacardi Silver. But I noticed there was another gas station a half a block away, so I walked there to get me some.

I ended up buying a six pack of Bacardi Strawberry for me and Travis and Patrick, complete with little brown paper bags to drink them in. I walked back to the car and opened one up and took a long pull on the bottle. Ahhh, it went down so good, and I passed it to the guys for a sip.

That’s when the trouble started: the rent a cop from the truck stop caught me drinking and started giving us shit. He was an ex cop (the worst kind) and was even more of a prick than the real cop at the welcome center. He made me pour it out and told us we had to leave.

I poured it out and put the rest of the six pack in my trunk, and walked back into the store to talk to the security guard, and tell him we were waiting on our friends in the RV and I apologized once again for drinking on “his” lot. Things were cool again and I went back to the car, another disaster avoided.

I saw Stan and Sandy taking stuff out of the back of the Winnebago and wondered what the fuck was going on. That’s when Travis told me they were taking showers and I couldn’t believe it. Here I hadn’t gotten more than ten bucks and they wanted to waste time taking showers instead of hurrying up and getting me my gas money.

To say I was really pissed off was an understatement, I knew the security guard wasn’t going to let them sell anything to the truckers and their nonchalant attitude about my gas money had me furious. So I went back to the guard and asked him if they could be allowed to sell something to the truckers and was told flatly NO and if that’s what they were trying to do, we all had 5 minutes to get off the lot.

I went back over to Stan and told him what he said and got into a big argument with him about the gas money. I said I know Sandy’s got jewelry and a boom box and VCR with her, I’d take some of that in lieu of gas money, but she wouldn’t give up any of her stuff. The guard came over while I was arguing with them and said we had to go now.

Their RV still needed a jump and a hammer to bang their starter, which of course I supplied and told them to meet us back at the Stadium in so Travis and Patrick could switch vehicles. They followed us there until we got into the parking lot then they took off in another direction.

It was unbelievable, we had to chase them down, running around circles in Nashville. At one stop light that bitch Sandy gets out of the RV and tells us to wait at the Inn until they made some money and they’d be back. Yea, right, like after all those times they tried to lose us we were going to trust them.

All this time the guys in the car were talking about them and I told them if this was how they were treating them now, they might as well bail and come home with me, cause sooner or later they were going to get left behind. They had both decided to come home with me when Sandy finally pulled over and stopped.

The guys got out and said they were leaving and started getting their shit, and I yelled back to them to get all the food I had bought too. I popped open my trunk and got a bag and gathered the food myself, all the while berating the guys in the RV for the way they were treating Travis and Patrick.

I go to put the food in my trunk and the RV took off. It was then I looked up and noticed that I was standing there alone in the parking lot, Travis and Patrick had left with them, but Patrick’s backpack was still in my trunk. So I jumped back in my car and ran after them again.

If they wanted to stay with them, that was just fine with me, but I didn’t want Patrick to be without his stuff. So I went on this wild goose chase following the RV all over downtown Nashville until finally they were stuck behind a horse-drawn carriage and I made em roll down their window.

I yelled out that Patrick still had his backpack in my trunk, but Stan said when they took off, both Travis and Patrick went walking back over this bridge, which I knew was a lie, because Travis wanted to go home with me, or so I thought.

At that point I gave up, I was mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted and still had a 2 hr trip home, so I said fuck it and took off towards the freeway. I pulled over before I jumped on the highway and got me one of my strawberry bitch beers from the trunk and poured it into my sports bottle. I chugged a little to calm me down, but wasn’t going to drive drunk.

On the long drive home, I shored up that wall that’s keeping me from feeling that pain that Travis caused me, being a pussy like that and not even having enough balls to say he was staying with them. His loss, because I know sooner or later they are going to dump him and leave him up shit creek without a paddle.

Travis-ty

Travis came into my life
On the side of the road
In leathers under the sun
It looked like a heavy load

I pulled over and he walked up
Then I saw his young, smiling face
Where are you going, I asked
And drove him to that place

I wanted him
And he wanted me
Even to a blind man
That was plain to see

(chorus)
I sit here alone again,
just holding it all in
You were my Travis-ty
of perfect lover and friend
Why did you leave me so?
All you had to do was say,
And I would have simply let you slip away


Welcome to my lair
Said the spider to the fly
When I invited him home
And he didn’t ask why

Nearly two weeks of mentoring
Sensually, sexually guiding him
In the oh so many ways of love
And not caring if it felt like sin

We knew it couldn’t last forever
But not exactly when
This vacation from reality
Would finally come to an end

(Chorus)
I sit here alone again,
just holding it all in
You were my Travis-ty
of perfect lover and friend
But why did you leave me so?
All you had to do was say,
And I would have simply let you slip away

I’m not looking forward to the day when he says to himself “She told me so” . . .