We miss you Billy
It’s a sunny day. Billy scored some hash. Life is good. We take turns goin’ up behind the barber shop. Things start gettin’ loud now that everybody’s stoned.
Pat the Barber comes out of his shop. Drunk on his ass. Walkin’ all herky-jerky like he’s got some kinda palsy. He’s waving his arms and yellin’, “Get outta here, you bastards. You’re scaring away customers.”
Yeah, right. Fuckin’ guy hasn’t cut hair one since the 50s. Stumblin’ around screamin’ and droolin’. A total nut case.
Billy walks up to him, all smiles and charm. Puts his arm around the guy and says. “Pat, you know we all love ya. You been a neighborhood institution since I was little. But Pat, I think I speak for all of us when I say, you fuckin’ belong in an institution.” The old guy pushes away and stumbles back into his shop. Laughs all around. Billy’s a fuckin’ riot.
We hear a siren. Fire engines come rollin’ outta the firehouse up the block. Joe-Joe yells, “Oh shit,” and boogies into the alley. More laughs all around. Joe-Joe’s father steers the back of the ladder truck, and Joe-Joe’s ass is grass if his old man sees him hanging with us. Joe-Joe comes back and pulls out a deck of cards. Then he and Porky, Johnny and Louie sit down in the doorway of an empty store for a game of Hearts.
Ian, one of the Powder House Park guys, shows up drivin’ a new Riviera. Most likely from his daddy’s chop shop on Winter Hill. He tells us Eddie Costas OD’d in the park last night. Bummer, right? Always liked Eddie. But messin’ with smack is just plain stupid. That shit’ll kill ya.
Franny the Queen comes sashayin’ up the street and stops to talk, as usual. He never quits tryin’, even though he knows we ain’t his type. But he’s an okay guy. Always willin’ to do us a favor. We all chip in for a few beers, and Franny goes up to Cedar Liquors. Comes back in twenty minutes with a case of Schlitz, which Billy stashes up behind the barber shop.
Everyone has a few beers. Then things really get rollin’ when Paulie shows up with a dime bag of weed. And it’s really good shit, too. Before ya know it Dennis starts singing the old Platters song, “The Great Pretender”. Kid thinks he’s hot shit. When Dennis is done. Paulie goes up in the alley for a minute. Then he comes dancing out and totally nails the Temptations’ “Get Ready.” I mean he nails it. Including the Temptation Walk and all the moves right outta Motown.
It’s a sunny day. The guys are down here on the corner.
I miss you, Billy
E J Barron
E J Barron 