Autumn 1

I went to visit my brother and give him some money. He needs ID. His PO has been after him to get his ID. He said it was something to do with his DNA test. "DNA test?", I said. "Why a DNA test?" I was wondering just how frivolous one can be with one's money. "Anybody with a felony conviction gets a DNA test", he said. "Oh," I mused, wondering at the marvelous technology and the cesspool of the Justice system. One gets a lot on information and hands it over to creeps. His PO says that if he does not get his ID, then it will be a misdemeanor. "Oh...," I decided to be willfully obtuse. "...perhaps they'll give you another DNA test for that." "Yeah," he laughed. It was debated whether he should bring it up to his PO, something like saying that he knew he needed another DNA test for failing to procure ID, producing a plastic specimen cup, brandishing it in her parole official face, and asking for a Playboy. His PO was a good looking lady. I saw her once. Twice actually. Well, more like 11 times, if the truth be told. And that omits the glimpses in the rear view mirror. This all came about one afternoon earlier in the year, in the summer of 2007, when I had taken him to the store. He has no car and no driver's license ( a piece of ID). My job is to help, I guess. So as we were finishing getting the necessities, I asked whether he needed some beer. "Sure," he said. "That always comes in handy." He's not supposed to drink. Whether that is court mandated or comes from his history of hepatitis C, I do not know. I just know he does, and why make him walk to The Licker Locker after I go? Furthermore, he lives, as it were, in the sights or cross hairs of three bars or liquor service restaurants. He is firmly triangulated and they have him cornered. So we got a 12-pack of suds. We checked out and took the groceries to the car, baking in the sun, where we put the bags in the back seat and the beer in the front seat, between us, in order to keep it cool when we drove and the A/C was working. As we arrived at the parking lot by his abode, I turned the car in and noticed two ladies standing in the thoroughfare and talking. "Gosh," I said. "It's nice to see two ladies who aren't talking on cell phones." "Gadfrey," he said. "That's my PO!" Now he said this with a bit of warmth, leading me to conclude that this was not an opportune crossing of paths. He threw his left arm over the 12 pack, trying to obscure its cover, a cover painted and inked with vibrantly cool propaganda. "You don't want her to see the beer?" I asked. "NO." So I ducked down a side aisle and began crusing the parking lot, up and down, back and forth, just as I usually do looking for a meter with time on it. Fortunately, the lot was just big enough that the ladies did not eventually decide that they needed to unlimber their MACE cannisters on us. They were both blonde. Well, who isn't these days? I mean, who of their age and in Port Desespoir. The were paradigmatic emblems of the femme d'affaires; no-nonsense women of the world. Certainly the one called " my PO " must be. I kept trying to get a gander of her in the rear view. I couldn't approach too close. Crash...or Clunk actually...the 12 pack fell forward off the seat. "That ought to be fizzy enough." I said. My brother scrabbled the cube of liquid delight back onto the seat. "Why don't we drive by and pop one open and spray them?" I said. He laughed. Then the A/C quit. It had always been iffy. I usually did not use it. I think what happened is that the freon that was left decided it was time to join its brothers and sisters up, up, way up there in the Green Pastures of the Ozone Layer. So the beer was not only stirred and shaken, but it was now going to warm up. We drove. After a while, I began to wonder what happens to a 12 pack in critical condition. Would it eventually explode and take out half on downtown? Bullets of sweat began to form upon our troubled brows. Finally, the gab fest ended. The two blondes lionesses shook their manes, and each strode off as regally as Aiyesha, looking for men to enslave and yoke to their chariots. Slowly, we crept around a corner, watching the PO get into her car, fiddle with the seat belt, pick up a cell phone, then think better of it, and start the engine. Her red back ups glowed promisingly. I came up slowly, looked around, saw she had 1 hour left on her meter, and slid the 1991 Marquis into the spot as gracefully as a yeoman guiding the USS Forrestall into dry dock. Actually, I think the Marquis has more "flight deck" than does the Forrestall. We slowly got out of the car. The coast was clear. I carried the loot to the front door of his building. It was a close call. Back to the present. We talked about the weather. Since the weather is snafu, I asked whether he'd had any tornado warnings in Port Desespoir. "No," he said, adding "The power went out, though." He sit silently for a moment. "We had two, no, three tornado warnings," I said. " You had a power outage?" I asked, remembering the big outage of 2000 or whenever it was...already forgotten and the power grid is just slightly better than Baghdad's. "Yeah. You know, when there's an outage, the first thing you think is 'Did I pay the bill?' " I pondered. "Yeah. Same with a tornado..." He waited and I wondered how I was going to finish this bit of fancy. "...you see the tornado and you wonder if it's the REPO tornado, you know, if you didn't pay the bills..." He laughed. "Yeah. Gonna take you, your car, your furncher...gonna take your whole house! and repo 'em!" "Like Oz...and dump your sorry ass just over the county line...good riddance." We laughed. We talked a bit more. It was late, so I gave him some currency as well as the check I had delivered. He would not get to a bank until morning. I thought he might need money. He smelled strongly of beer and its by-products. He would probably wish to have another drink. We parted. I did not cry. I did not cry because I had already cried. I had paid my crying forward, as the snappy phrase goes. It is Autumn and one expects to cry. Not as much as at Christmas, of course, because holidays are just made for crying and depression and fighting. In Autumn I regret the passing of time. I only yearn to hold on due to my mistakes, the loves I screwed up, the friends I messed with, the children I let down... If everything was perfect, I'd go right now.