“I would like to sit down with 1/2 dozen chosen companions & drink myself to death but I am sick alike of life, liquor and literature.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Boston ~ It’s a summer morning in Boston and the delicious bite of a Bloody Mary is sinking its horseradish-spiked teeth into my stomach. A stalk of celery rises out of the highball glass, its color and fragrance the embodiment of summer. Laughing and talking with my friends, I think how I’d like it to be this way always, and I have one of those moments where the world is in tune and I’m right in tune with the world, the kind you usually only notice long after the fact. Our breakfast arrives and I acquiesce to another Bloody. The world is brighter at the beginning of a buzz. We talk about the trivial things that occupy most people before marriage and kids and mortgages and homes. Even our worries seem carefree, and on mornings like this I think we sense that.
Provincetown: It’s a summer morning in Provincetown and the disgusting bite of a Bloody Mary is sinking its horseradish-spiked teeth into my stomach. A wilted stalk of celery weeps from the edge of the highball glass, its bruised leaves tinged with brown decay – another victim of the heat of summer. Along the sidewalk the brunch-goers meander by, laughing and talking, as I sit there sneering at such Sunday morning silliness, all the while wanting to be part of it, wanting to not be so hung-over, wanting to take more interest in the conversation that goes on around me. My friends do not see my wandering eyes through my sunglasses, do not sense my shame and fear at what I have done. I sip at the hair of the dog, hoping for a bit of that feeling of flying, hoping it settles or at least quiets my raging stomach, hoping for forgetfulness of everything that came before. It does not come, either in sips or gulps, and by the end of the second one I realize it’s a waste.
{‘FireWater’ is a project from 2009 that has gone unposted until now.}
[See also Scene 1: Bourbon Street, New Orleans
Scene 2: College Ave, Ithaca, NY
and Scene 3: Union Square, San Francisco.]
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