JOURNALFor some people, sanity is like a pinball game. It is all they can do to keep the ball in the game. They shake. They hustle. They scream. Me...I am a pinball wizard. I have found out that the secret to staying in the game is to have a fistfull of quarters and to keep on plugging away at it.
Gary's game was always on the verge of tilt. He lived in the art studio next to mine. I got to know him very well. He only had two record albums: The Pretender's first album and "Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash" by the Pogues. And he played them over and over. His parents lived off-reserve and owned a hardware store. They lived above it. Cheryl, another artist, and I used to visit them alot.
I am like flypaper for freaks so I wasn't surprised when Gary told me he was schizophrenic.
One day Gary's life changed forever. He invited a girl out on a date but he had never ever been with a girl before. Cheryl and I coached him for the next week and helped him pick out new shoes. The day finally arrived. Cheryl and I agreed to meet him afterwards to find out what happened.
We bought a bottle of Cuvee Speciale and walked arm in arm to the hardware store. We we got there we arrived in a horrific scene of broken glass, stained red and scattered in shards across the sidewalk. An ambulance was pulling away as we rounded the corner. Gary's dad told us the date never happened, that Gary's date never showed up. In his anguish, Gary hurled himself through the plate glass window of his parent's shop.
I helped the Dad board up the shop while Cheryl opened up the bottle of wine. We joked about how great it was to have a hardware so close and handy.
[Home] [Table of Contents] [Contact]
