Okay, Nate, who had given me such a hard time about joining the military, was now pumping my gas. What sweet justice! I was happy as a duck frolicking in a mucky pond in the St. Louis summer.
Until Nate asked, “Hey Jean-Paul, have you seen Eddie since you got back?”
“No, I haven’t. I heard he and Tracy got married though.”
Nate leans down, and rests his elbows on my door. He takes a look around, as if to make certain no one will overhear him, “Oh yeah, he got married all right.”
“Yeah?” I’m getting interested just because of the tone in his voice.
“Yeah, he got married, you know, to Tracy. But she cheated on him, dragged him through hot coals, divorced him, took him for everything he had, and hung him out to dry.”
Since you don’t know any of these people, I’ll just tell you that this news was akin to having lightning strike the tree you’re under -- this just couldn’t be. Eddie and Tracy were one of those couples that you knew were going to stick together through thick and thin. Eddie was just head over heels about her, talked about her all the time. Eddie played bass -- a fantastic bass player -- and was one of the jolliest guys you could ever meet. There was something really wrong about this situation – it was simply too unjust. Something so bad couldn’t have happened to Eddie, and certainly not at the hands of his precious little Tracy. It just couldn’t be.
“Are you serious?”
“Totally! He lives over in Castleton Hills neighborhood.”
“Oh man, I’ve got to go see him.”
“Okay,” his tone was telling me to drop the idea, he stuttered and hesitated, “well, he’s not the same guy.”
“So?”
“Nothing,” again, he was trying to change my mind, “just…well he’s different now than he used to be. He’s skinnier ‘n a rail, you know.”
This too, was like discovering your grandma was a drug dealer – Eddie was, well, big-boned: a bit on the chubby side. The girls always said he was like a big cute teddy bear. That completely fit his jolly personality as well as his musical instrument. Some of the best bass players are pretty big guys, a bit on the hefty side, I think it’s because a little extra tonnage really helps those bass notes come out better. He used to have a great set of meat-hooks that could really give the bass strings a workout.
“No way! Eddie?”
“Oh man, you’re gonna freak when you see him.” Perhaps he was accepting the fact that I was going to see Eddie.
Nate gave me directions to Eddie’s. He was apparently holed up in some nice lady’s detached garage in a fancy neighborhood. So I didn’t pass go or collect 200 dollars, I went directly to Eddie’s.
Wow, was I in for a shock!
J.P.T.
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