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Blogs by Dennis A Cardiff
Sirloin Tip 7/17/2014 11:16:39 AM
17 July 2014
Jacques waved from where he was sitting in the park. Mariah reached into Shaggy’s caboose to get a newspaper for me to sit on.
Jacques said, “I’ve got something better than that — a big, fat flyer. It will be so soft, you’ll think you’re sitting on a sofa.”
“Thanks, Jacques.”
I approached Wolf to shake his hand, he said, “I won’t shake your hand, Dennis, I’m still sick. I don’t know what it is I got. I think I need antibiotics. What pisses me off the most is I can’t talk and you know how I like to talk.”
“I know how you like to talk, Wolf.”
“So f*** off then. I didn’t mean that. You know me. I won’t be here tomorrow. I’m going to the walk-in clinic. I passed that pink building on my way here, but I’m half in the bag now. I don’t think they’d take me. If I could get in, there’s no way I’d wait an hour and a half to see a doctor, just for a piece of paper. I’ll go first thing in the morning, when I’m sober. I’ll lose out on about thirty bucks by not panning, but my health is more important. The thing is, I never get sick. I only go to a doctor, maybe once a year. I stay away from most medication, just let things run their course, but this morning I took some glucosamine and a Tylenol for arthritis.
“Another thing, I feel so weak. I ache all over. Listen to me whining. Shaggy had to walk the whole way this morning. I didn’t have the energy to push her. She was alright, after she got started. That’s why you don’t hear her barking, like she did yesterday. She’s pooped.
“I’ve got two books from my ladies, so I’ve got my reading taken care of. I’ll show you what I got.” Wolf sorted through Shaggy’s caboose and pulled out two books. One was by John LeCarre, A Most Wanted Man. The other was by John Connolly, A Darkness More Than Night, in the Detective Harry Bosch series.
Harry Bosch is up to his neck in a case that has transfixed all of celebrity-mad Los Angeles: a movie director is charged with murdering an actress during sex, and then staging her death to make it look like a suicide. Bosch is both the arresting officer and the star witness in a trial that has brought the Hollywood media pack out in full-throated frenzy.
“These look good, Wolf.”
“Yeah, I thought so. I’ve read a lot of John LeCarre, but I don’t think I’ve read that one.”
I asked, “Does anybody know if Loon got home yesterday?”
Wolf said, “Nobody’s seen him. Maybe he disappeared. He’s a strange guy. I’ve known him for a long time, in fact we even shared an apartment together on McLaughlin. He was a nit picky sort of fellow. One day, Shaggy and I got caught in the rain. Loon wouldn’t let us in because we were wet. We were only allowed to stand just inside the door. You can imagine how long I lived there.
“He’s a straight shooter though, what you see is what you get. I’ll smoke pot with him, but I won’t drink with him. You saw how he was yesterday.
“What I can’t understand is how got such a beautiful daughter. She doesn’t look anything like him, or her mother, Scary Mary. She was a crackhead stripper and really lived up to her name. She was scary.”
Gnome asked, “Have you cleaned your apartment, Wolf? I know you go all out sometimes.”
“My apartment is clean. Mind you I let it go for a long time, to the point that people wouldn’t even come in. The floor was completely covered with beer cans. I’d finish a beer then just throw the can behind me. I collected all the cans and turned them in at the beer store. I got quite a lot of money for them. That reminds me, Jacques, will you take this beer bottle. I found it here and threw it in Shaggy’s caboose, but I don’t want her to get cut if it breaks.
“I’ve got something to show you, Dennis. Jacques, have you still got that flyer? I’ve always known that Loblaws was expensive, but look at this, they’ve got sirloin tip steak for $69.00 a pound. Do you think that’s a misprint? One pound wouldn’t feed very many people. Can you imagine, two couples having dinner. It would cost a fortune. I’m going to keep this.”
Jacques asked, “Why you want to keep that? Is it to prove to people you’re not lying, when you tell them that story?”
“I’ve got a lot of people to tell about this. They wouldn’t believe it if they didn’t see it in print.”
