Ginger has three daughters, 23, 22 and 9-years-old, with the 22-year-old serving in "North Korea," she said.
"You mean South Korea?"
"No, North Korea."
"It's South Korea," at least two voices chimed in. "South Korea!"
Overhearing that Ginger had only been with six men, Leaf also interjected laughingly, "Six guys?! I've been with so many more. I loved f*cking."
Ginger got me a Tecate, so I bought her a Salty Dog, or maybe it was a Fuzzy Navel. In any case, things went south not long after, but we'll get to that later. Meanwhile, let's meet Jim, a lanky, Stetson-wearing 53-year-old with most of his front teeth punched out, or maybe in, and he had simply swallowed them, with a chaser.
Jim was born in Oakland, where his mom died of heroin. He has nine kids that he's aware of. "I'm still in touch with each of them, and I've taken care of all of them." Maybe he has. A seasoned crane operator, Jim was in town for a new job that paid $29 an hour, big bucks in these times and parts. The work would only last a few months, however, then it's on to Casper, Wyoming. Using the internet to find gig after gig, he had bounced around the country. It's good that he had no wife and kids at home, for it would not be possible to drag them along his gypsy route. Jim had no real home, in fact, only rooms at cheap motels, and tonight, like every other night, naturally, he didn't want to sleep alone. Seeing two lovelies at a table, he grinned at me, "Are you with me? I'll get them for us."
There is no stability in the system. Hardly anyone knows if he will have the same job, live in the same place or own the same store a year from now, much less ten. The era of a father handing the family business to his son is a quaint and ridiculous notion, is already mythical. There is no continuity here, only anxiety, if not outright fear. How can a society move forward like this? Something will have to blow. Radical changes are in store, and it's up to us to ensure that we don't become permanent casualties of this arrangement.
Jim had been drinking since 10:30 in the morning, and it was creeping towards midnight, so dude was well lubricated, and running out money also. Jim was down to three bucks, so I gave him two for one more shot of whiskey. Earlier he had said to me, apropos of nothing, "You look like a dangerous guy."
"Me?! f*ck! I'm the biggest p*ssy in the world!"
Jim turned out prescient, sort of, for when I heard him refer to me a "Chinese guy" who had just given him two bucks, I immediately hopped off my stool to strangle him, with my thumbs pressed deep into his jugular. The motherf*cker froze. Now, if we have been chatting, then I'm no longer a Chinese, Vietnamese or any kind of ethnic guy. I'm Linh, or even Lee, if you can't quite pronounce my name. You wouldn't appreciate it either if I called you "this black dude" or "this white woman," after we've had a conversation, or even before.
Though my logic was sound, my action was foolish, at best, if not suicidal, for I couldn't knock down a Justin Bieber standee with a right cross if you gave me three tries, but Jim, as I've already noted, simply froze, which prompted Ginger to comment, "I'm impressed." Letting go, I actually said, "Next time I won't be so tender."
Stoked by booze and Lynyrd Skynyrd on the juke box, we had all become fast friends, though before the night was over, Ginger would lose her cell phone, start to sob, "This is why I don't drink," and get into a fight with boyfriend Terry over a Doug Supernaw song, the one with mom being run over by a freight train just after being freed from prison. She thought it was hilarious. He didn't think so.
"I don't like country music. I just don't get it."
"You don't have to like country music to have a sense of humor!"
So ended my first day in Cheyenne. I saw and heard enough to know that things were rough here, as they were throughout my recent travel. Downtown, there was a sign on a handsome high rise, "THIS BUILDING IS NOT EMPTY. IT IS FULL OF OPPORTUNITY," and nearby, the art-deco theater advertised movies for only $3.50. Here and there, posters warned against meth addiction.
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