On Thursday you work a standard closing shift at Old Soul. Slow, uneventful evening. Joe's the baker that night and he seems a bit off, so you ask him what's up and he tells you about his near-death experience during the bike ride from home. Heavy stuff. You head out of there with decent tips with plans to meet Jenny around 8:00 at her place, with the intention to go see a poetry reading at Luna's. You're really starting to love riding your bike, how it feels like an extension of you, how you can ignore stoplights if the traffic is clear. Jenny's surprised to see you because Luna's is closer to your side of town and it would've made more sense for her to come to you, but whatever, and soon enough you're both riding across Midtown and locking tires outside of Luna's--this tiny artsy cafe venue near Fremont Park. Inside, it's a packed house and someone's reading poetry on stage and so you and Jenny get a beer and idle near the bar while the performances continue. Jenny seems a little distracted, not really digging the poetry being shared, and you both almost leave after the shabby guy reads his entirely inappropriate rape poem. Seats open up near the stage in time to hear the headliner, who had his guts ripped open during a car accident a while back, survived, found Jesus and a rhyme scheme. It's not half-bad. You have a good time because you're just a sucker for people who can talk fast. Afterward, you and Jenny ride off and talk about how horrible that rape poem was, then recover in her room with some Billy Collins and Pablo Neruda.
On Friday you ride over to the Co-Op in the morning to give Jenny her wallet, which she left at the foot of the bed, and while you're there you drink a hot chocolate with a poppyseed muffin and do a little writing in the lounge. As you leave you see Jenny training at one of the check-out counters. Next, it's a quick ride home and a long day of nothing much. Resting. Writing. Browsing. Playing videogames. Researching medical and dental insurance options. You convince yourself not to bike out to Oak Park for tutoring, though you really should, knowing you wouldn't do much actual tutoring anyway. So whatever. Jenny gets off work later that evening and you guys make plans for dinner at Shoki Ramen. While waiting for a table, you and her grab a drink at Shady Lady and you see that Kelly's working, but you don't say hello. Back at Shoki, it's noodles and Asian beer. Next, frozen yogurt that sounded better in theory from Top This, though at two-bucks a cup, it's totally a steal. As the sun starts to set on the work-week, you and Jenny ride to your house and spend the next hour laying in bed talking about your state of minds. It's good to check in every once in a while and you both fall asleep content and full of noodles.
On Saturday you wake up early to open at Old Soul with Shaun. Standard stuff, as usual, although Mayor Kevin Johnson stopped by for about an hour with his bodyguard who looks like Wyatt Earp. You take over the register for most of the shift to give Shaun more practice on the espresso machine and also because it's more of a chance to interact with people. You clock out and head home to nap. Soon after, you and Jenny are hurrying Downtown to catch the next train to Davis, finding the rainy weather disagreeable and the wind an unforeseen challenge, but with dinner plans with John and Amy, you power onward. You both drink a quick Blue Moon in the Food Car at a table with an adorable little lamp and watch Central California blur by. Back on your bikes, it's a fight through the rain on an eight-minute ride over the freeway and down Covell, which ends at John's grandfather's house which he shares with Amy and a roommate named David. A tad early, you and Jenny are in time to help prep the ingredients of homemade pizza, which turns out delicious and goes well with the wine and beer. The house is quaint. John and Amy are good people, young and clear-headed on their first steps into adulthood, and the conversation is lively and entertaining. They have a diabetic cat named Peaches. After the tour and the cooking and the eating, you're introduced to a board game called Saving Dr. Lucky, which would've been a lot of fun to finish if it didn't get too late. There's a train to be caught in less than thirty minutes, so you and Jenny suit up and say goodbyes and bike off into the night. Less than a minute later, plans are made to stay with Arielle instead, who is thankfully still in town. Jenny feels a little ill from the mozarella cheese, which was at least two months past the sale-by date, and doesn't really feel herself until after she's relaxed for a while in the Scottish woman's house that Arielle is still house-sitting. The three of you hang out sipping passable homemade wine and listening to jazz for a while before Arielle leaves for her own bedroom next-door. You and Jenny stay in the house and sleep in the master bedroom with the cat, Flossie, who likes to rub her face affectionately against yours as you're sleeping. After dinner-time discussion with John and Amy turned to ghost stories, you can't help but wonder if a ghost wanders the halls of this old house...
On Sunday you wake up in Davis in a Scottish woman's house in a strange bed with Jenny and a fluffy cat named Flossie and no agenda other than a noon-time yard sale in Midtown. After gradually kissing each other awake, you and Jenny shower and get dressed and start the day, which begins with breakfast at Delta. Unfortunately you'll arrive at the train station two minutes after the Sacramento train leaves, which means the next one won't be coming until about 12:40. Fail. Thankfully your phone has enough juice left to connect to Google maps, which says the 42B will be leaving in a few minutes and get you to Sacramento in about an hour. The bus is hardly as romantic, but it works, and Jenny's never taken the bus with a bike before so you get to feel like a hero when you effortlessly show her the way it's done. An hour later, you guys are crossing Tower Bridge and telling a foreign visitor what stop to depart as she excitedly embraces the Capitol City before you two hop off at Capitol Park. Fast forward another hour and it's time for the yard sale, which takes place in the empty lawn next to Daniel's house. Daniel's out of town visiting his girlfriend, but his roommate, Alan, contributes to the sale and the three of you set up a nice little gallery of old belongings. Ashley and Allie show up a bit later to add more goods. Jenn comes next with a couple trinkets and DVDs. Sales are good, though it's more about shedding excess than making money. Decent showing of customers. Jenny sells the old bike, a few dresses, some jewelry, books and sea shells and makes about a hundred bucks, all told. It feels nice to be outside in the sun, hanging out with friends and listening to music and bartering and meeting neat people. Jessica stops by for a while and you teach her how to play speed. Eventually the sun begins to set and you all pack up and leave the yard and the night transitions to dinner with Jenny and she cooks a tasty little lemon-dill codfish and polenta with tomato sauce that you pair with chardonnay. Later, Nick shares some of his herb on the balcony and it works wonders as you and Jenny test out the "Afrodesiac" channel of Stereomood and find it wildly successful.
On Monday you wake up early enough to bike home from Jenny's and make it to Old Soul on time. It's an easy shift with Jessica that drags by because you're exhausted and your throat hurts and you can't wait to take a nap after work. You find out that one of Jessica's friends is the guy who's been tagging GORE all around town, as you've noticed in your photo-walkabouts. After work you take your nap, but it's not enough, and then as you're on your way out of the house to go to tutoring you remember that it's Memorial Day. There's no school today. Secretly grateful but already up and out, you just walk over to Old Soul instead for a coffee. Turns out Chelsea, Shaun's fling from earlier this year, has decided to hang out for a while and say nothing to Shaun, who hasn't seen her since the morning after. He struggles with this experience for a while before coming to the important conclusion that there's no need for him to blame himself for other peoples' behavior. This is good. Yet another positive realization he'll take with him to Colorado. Jenny comes by around 5:00 to say hello and grab a bite to eat before heading out to Davis to have a barbecue with Arielle, which you would've gone along with if you didn't have that sore throat and an urge to write a little fiction tonight. So quit procrastinating and do it already.
- Left to Fry
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