Page 58 of Two Chances With You

Then a difficult silence as we search for some way of saying goodbye.

“Ciao.” And I end the call.

“Hey, who was that? Another one of your women?”

“Well, yes and no.”

I smile, pretending to be amused, trying to shake off that difficult phone call. “That was my mother. So, now what? Shall we go out for this pub crawl?”

Chapter 19

We’re out in the night on my motorcycle, Pallina and me. I let the 750 unwind. An unhurried velocity, thoughts in the wind.

She holds tight to me, but without overdoing it. Two equivocal human beings, astral conjunctions of a strange destiny. Me, her boyfriend’s best friend; she, my ex-girlfriend’s best friend. But all that belongs to the past.

I shift gears and race away fast into the refreshing wind, which carries away my thoughts. Ah, I sigh. It’s so nice sometimes just not to think. Don’t think. Don’t think…

Wind, speed, and distant sounds. A series of clubs. Akab is the first stop.

“Come on. I know everyone here. They’ll be delighted to see you,” Pallina says.

I let her guide me in. We enter the place, and I say hello. I recognize a few faces. “I’ll have a rum, thanks.”

“Light or dark?”

“Dark.”

Another club. The Charro Café. I decide to cut loose. “Another rum, this time with ice and lemon.”

And then on to Alpheus. And another rum. Ice and lemon. Here they’ve got all kinds of music. Seventies and eighties, hip-hop, rock, and dance.

Then Ketum Bar. I forget where I parked my motorcycle. Who cares? “Another rum. Ice and lemon.” We laugh. I say hello to someone. Some guy jumps up and hugs me. “Fuck, Step, you came back! Let’s start making a ruckus, what do you say?”

Yes, let’s start kicking up a fuss again. But who the fuck even was that guy?

Another club and another glass of rum and then another and yet another. And two more rums. Who was that guy who just jumped on me? Oh, right, Manetta. He’d fallen asleep one time in the mountains. That’s right, we were at Pescasseroli. Under the quilt, his feet sticking out. We put some matches between his toes with the heads sticking out and lit them. Fuck, the way he jumped in the air when he woke up with his toes on fire. And we both fell on the floor laughing like lunatics. Me and Pollo. And he was jumping around the room with his toes all burnt, shouting, “Fuck what a nightmare! What a nightmare, fuck!” And we were just falling over laughing so hard that it hurt. Oh, how we laughed. Like crazy.

But Pollo’s gone now. A wave of sadness sweeps over me, powerfully.

Another glass of rum, throwing it all back at a single gulp, glug. As I dance with Pallina, his girlfriend, the friend who’s no longer there. But I dance, I just dance and laugh, and I laugh with her. I laugh and I think of you. Another glass of rum, and I don’t know how, but I’m outside my building.

“Hey, we’re here.” I get off the motorcycle, a little wobbly. That last rum was one too many.

“Where did you put your vespa?”

“No, I came by car. Now I have a Fiat 500, the new model.”

“Ah, cute.” Actually, there’s no kind of car I hate more. But is it going to help anyone for me to tell her so? No, so I keep quiet.

“Fun night out, huh?” Pallina asks.

“It’s been great.” I’m not kidding about that. “The clubs in Testaccio have changed.”

“Changed how?”

“They’re better. Great music, everyone’s dancing. Yeah, a great night out.”

Pallina rummages through her pockets and in her jacket. “Hey, I think I must have left my keys up at your place.”

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