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**CURRENT PRINT: FRIENDS FROM CINCINNATI: Installment 24 features this part coming-of-age short by Chicago's Patrick Somerville, author of the Trouble collection of shorts out in 2006.
**WEB: A TRUE OHIO STORY Fred Sasaki
ADDITIVE HEADLINES: EXPERIMENT #13 Paul A. Toth
FAQ: THE AFGHAN HOUND IS A TATTOOED ARISTOCRAT Mickey Hess
FAQ: BATS IN THE CHICKEN HOUSE Zach Plague
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE WAITS FOR A DATE -- FINALE C.T. Ballentine
THE ANTIPURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE: BUSHBABY | Andrew Davis

A TRUE OHIO STORY
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Fred Sasaki

Our "Mixtape: Stories About Songs" event at Ronny's in Chicago July 11 spawned a healthy dose of new stories. This story, written for the performance, was delivered by Literago.org's Eugenia Williamson. Sasaki is the prime force behind Poetry magazine's annual Printers' Ball, taking place this Friday (July 20) at the Zhou B. Art Center in Bridgeport in Chicago. See the events page for more.

Joe liked pot and drinking and LSD and that was what he and his best friend Jack did all the time in Dayton, Ohio. And it was a fun kind of thing they did, driving around and hanging out and listening to music or watching movies or taking a walk to see girls.

They were something like seventeen when they were tripping on acid in Jack's basement room listening to music when Joe first heard Sweet Jane. They were peaking. Joe was hearing this amazing music. What is this? he kept asking. This is amazing, he kept saying. What is this? And Jack kept saying The Velvet Underground, but Joe didn't understand. How many bands is this? Joe kept asking.

The next day they woke up and got stoned. Jack put in Sweet Jane and Joe said, What is this?

Fiction on Demand


Jack started selling blotter acid, buying one-hundred-dollar vials, one hundred drops each sold for ten dollars. He made a fine time of it. For a whole summer they dropped the acid on their hands and on their tongues and on sugar cubes. They got really tight.

A new year came and Jack and Joe had cocaine. Jack was always the type to have a hit of a joint and say he was OK. A moderate drinker. Smart kind guy. But he would like his cocaine all the time and liked the new way girls were around him on cocaine. And he started selling it.

Joe had some here and there and would party. But Jack made new friends. Local drug guys who would drive to local bars and take over. Patrol the lots. Keep house order.

Joe said This is not fun. What you are doing is not fun. It is something else. Jack said Relax. It's not a big deal.

One night Jack said Come over and Joe did. Jack had a mound of cocaine. Really, just like you'd imagine. Three really hot girls came over. Jack took down a mirror off the wall and they had cocaine and started acting crazy. This is going to be good, Joe thought, I am going to get lucky. The girls started acting really crazy. One of the girls disappeared with Jack. The other two checked their hair and teeth to leave and go to the next place. One of the girls came back and then another disappeared with Jack. This time a little longer. She came back and the three girls left. Jack and Joe did a lot more cocaine and Joe wouldn't stop talking about Rimbaud and Baudelaire. Joe told Jack that Rimbaud invented the word rimjob and Jack believed him.

The next morning Joe said to Jack, I don't like your new friends. They are not cool people. They are something else. Jack said Relax. It's not that big a deal. I'm just having fun.

And Jack and Joe stopped being friends but saw each other on occasion. Joe read a lot more poetry. Jack sold lots of cocaine.

And here is how it ended. It was a special party at the local bar. Jack and his crew listened to classical music to start fights with jocks. But no one bothered them and his friend Oscar poured a bag and said something that Jack did not understand. Jack made himself a long fat line. Everyone was amazed and took their turns as Jack slipped into shock as he understood he snorted Chinese white heroin.

He sort of fell over a chair and his friends finished lines and decided to put him in the car to calm down. They closed the door and went back to change the music. Jack went into a coma.

Two or three of Jack's friends went back to the car and found Jack barely breathing. They thought he is almost dead and decided to take him to the hospital. We have to take him to a hospital, someone said.

They got into the car and started driving around to decide Where should we go and Who has the heroin and Who should go in and What the fuck are they going to do and Fuck, we will fucking get arrested. They decided to drive around until he died.

Where the fuck are we going to put him, someone asked. Fucking drop him off on some old person's lawn, someone said. They dumped him on the front yard of a senior couple they knew and drove away and Jack was either dead or breathing so shallow and slow it didn't matter.

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