Catching Up On Events

Catching Up On Events

fiction

This Friday past I caught up with Ruby at the bar in Cedarhurst.  The ancient dive is still a place where some of the ‘family guys’ from the ‘old neighborhood’ come in to have one or two cold ones before they go home to the old lady.  Ruby’s lament was about Dino.  

Dino is living in Ruby’s girlfriend’s place, which Dino hasn’t paid rent in for several months going on a year. (Probably because girlfriend is fighting the bank to keep the place.)

But the other news about Dino and his escapades is heartbreaking and some may say, criminal.  Dino has been in a few accidents, industrial and automotive.  Dino gets around in a hoveround type wheelchair, often under the influence of pain killers (oxycodone), but this doesn’t mean that Dino has lost his mind or is void of common sense. 

Back in May, ERL, Evie and a few others had informed me of a terrible accident that resulted in a fatality.  Apparently Dino rode his hoveround into the street just shy of the crosswalk into oncoming traffic that had the green light, on a major street going through Inwood.  Dino was struck by a motorcycle and thrown several feet into the air, he hit the street, unconscious and unresponsive.

The ambulance crew and the EMT’s saved Dino who miraculously got away with major bruising and a concussion.  The motorcycle rider, a father of three and a working man was pronounced dead on the scene.  There are rumors that Dino is suing the motorcyclists insurance company and looking to get whatever he can, because he is, according to aforementioned sources, legally disabled.

Slim, womanizer and hard rock fanatic lost his mother to Alzheimer’s Disease late last month.  Our condolences go out to him and his family.

Yaega Lee’s good friend Jeany, lost her best friend to cancer.  A woman all of 42 years old was told by her Doctor she just had the flu. 

After the last hospitalization they realized they mis-diagnosed her and discovered she was in stage 4 or lymph node cancer.  Jeany lost her friend on Memorial day weekend, she got to say goodbye before the family had the Doctor pull the plug.

It’s alleged by rumor that a patron of a bar in Cedarhurst made a bar loan for over 10 grand.  The loan guarantor, Sal Ribeye and his accountant, Frankie Nine-Fingers, expected payment from Slick Ricky over three days ago.  Rumor was that Ricky took off to Puerto Rico, then to anywhere south of the equator.   This day, Sal and Frankie came by to see Ruby and they were in a good mood.

A patron at the bar mentioned Slick Ricky’s name and that some cops had been to Ricky’s house.  Apparently a one ton gun safe had been stolen and Ricky had disappeared after meeting with some friends in Puerto Rico.  Sal and Frankie bought a round for the bar and sipped their beers straight faced.  When the patron asked Sal if he knew anything of these events, Sal said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’

And if the bad events didn’t add up, a young bad ass who frequents Ruby’s bar pulled up in front and parked his 90’s Cadillac.  Upon opening his car door we heard this god-awful crunch.  As he emerged from the car pale as a sheet of paper, the car door would not close (as it was twisted and mashed).  As we ran out to see if the young man and the SUV carrying the woman who hit him and her kids were OK, the young man cursed God and his luck in life. (All souls involved were O.K.)

One of the old men at the bar looked at him and said, “Kid, your ungrateful punk ass is alive, when you get home kiss your wife and kiss your kids.  You can fix a Cadillac, you can’t fix dead.”  About that time Candy came in and Ruby was elated.  They hadn’t seen each other in almost three years. 

After leaving the bar Candy and I went elsewhere to catch up on the week’s events.   As bad as things are I thought about the piece of wisdom the Old Man at the bar gave to the Kid, “you can fix a Cadillac, but you can’t fix dead.”  As we left the bar in Cedarhurst the old song on the juke box played the refrain; “many a teardrops have to fall, but it’s all in the game…”

if these events happened, what would you say?

RJ