​Mexican Style Stew with Queso Crema

½ pound beef steak, cut into cubes

½ pound pork steak, cut into cubes

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ diced onion

4 sliced carrots

1 diced potato

1 can hominy or corn

4 oz. can diced green chilies

8 oz can Salsa Casera (tomatoes, onions and jalapenos)

2 cups water or broth

½ cup red wine

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon hot paprika

1 teaspoon oregano

4 ounces queso crema (cream cheese)

Flour tortillas

Heat olive oil in pan and season meat with salt and brown for about 10 to 15 minutes and add onions and carrots. In another 10 minutes add the rest of the ingredients to the pot except the cream cheese. Simmer over very low heat for about an hour. Taste and add salt if needed. Add cream cheese and when it is melted serve the stew with tortillas to dunk in the rich flavored sauce. 

Life On The Outside

     The smallish black cat lays on top of the dark manhole cover warming his body on the forest green metal that has absorbed some of the winter sun’s rays. He once thought he wanted to be inside the house but he slipped in there one time when the lady wasn’t looking, she didn’t notice he was on her heels, when she opened the door and was greeted with extreme hostility from the cats and dogs that already lived in the house.

     He tried hiding in the entryway between the kitchen and the bedroom behind the door with a small hole in the bottom just the right size for a cat to go through. He got to lay there in the warm air coming from the wall for a couple of hours before the male cat who lived in the house noticed he was there and started growling and howling from the other side of the door.

     Eventually the dogs came over to see what the cat was having such a fit about and started to whine at him. This brought the lady of the house over to see what the problem was and she discovered the small fluffy black cat with light brown fringe huddling behind the door and she gently shooed him outside to obtain peace in the house again. He had been hiding out at her little farm for several years. She wanted him to leave, and had tried to get him to by not feeding him. She had been told by a neighbor that he belonged to another neighbor who lived on the other side but this kitty wasn’t going to go home.

     His owner had gotten in a bad car wreck three years earlier and was gone for a long time and so he had to start finding his own food. At first he started out by sneaking over to the neighbor who fed his cats outside of the house on the porch where he could steal some of the food when the cats were elsewhere. Unfortunately the man also had two dogs, they were not kept in a fence like the lady whose place he moved on to, and they would chase him and threaten to bite him until he climbed up high. That was when he ventured on to the place off the road which had a barn and a nice field to hunt mice in and he became a very good hunter. He rarely went hungry.

     After two years of hoping the little cat would leave the lady felt sorry for him, even though he didn’t ever seem to be skinny, and after a big snow one winter she started feeding him food outside the house in a small bowl. That was when he started living under her front porch so he could hear whenever she came to the door. He always greeted her and then ate half of the food she gave him and saved the rest for later in the day. If she left in the car he would save some for when she got home so he could be eating it when she came back in the house. She would stroke his fur when she walked by him eating and that felt good. After two years of being on his own he finally had place to sleep and eat again. He tried to go home once to his first house but the man no longer came outside and fed him anymore so he went back to his new place. At least he felt safe and loved in a way. It was better than it had been before he came to live outside her house. 

Quick and Easy Philly Cheese Sans

The other day my friend and I wanted something to eat that was tasty and not fast food for lunch. This was about the same price as buying two sandwiches from Arby’s but oh so much better! This makes 3 sandwiches.

10 ounce rib eye steak, cut into thin 1 inch slices

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 small green pepper, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon butter

4 large mushrooms, thinly sliced

4 ounces cream cheese

3 sourdough hoagie style rolls

Sriracha sauce to taste

Cut up meat and vegies. Season meat with salt and pepper. Heat up olive oil over medium high heat and sauté onions until golden, about 10 minutes, and add green peppers. When green peppers are soft, about 5 minutes, remove to a plate and add butter to pan. Season mushrooms lightly with salt and add to butter. Cook until the liquid is rendered out, about 5 minutes, and remove to plate with onions and peppers. Heat pan again and add steak and sear on both sides until meat is cooked to medium, about 5 to 10 minutes. Toast rolls and spread cream cheese thickly on the bottom side. Pile on vegies and meat and season the top with sriracha sauce to taste.

Fear of Flying

      “She’s touching me.”

      “She’s on my side of the seat.”

      “Quit fighting.” Our mother vehemently said and glared at my sister and me.

        There were a few minutes of silence as we watched our parents fly the airplane and talk about how bad the weather was. We could tell they were tense but it didn’t seem that scary to us and we continued to fight.

     “Knock it off you two.” Our mother spoke loudly this time.

     “She’s looking at me.” My sister answered.

     “Don’t look back.” Our mother replied.

       Then the most incredible thing happened. She actually reached back and slapped each of us on the legs. We couldn’t believe it. We looked at each and started laughing. It didn’t hurt at all. She hadn’t ever hit us before this. Her first attempt at corporal punishment had failed miserably.

     “You girls need to stop fighting. We are going to have to land the plane because the weather is too bad to keep flying. Please quit. Dave and I are trying to find a place to land.”

      We quit fighting. Not because she hit us but because she seemed so genuinely scared.  Our stepfather landed the plane shortly after that at a small airport a few hours away from our home.  This was the last part of our family vacation to Yellowstone Park that hadn’t gone as well as I expect my parents intended it to.

      First off I got air sick about an hour into the flight. It was a beautiful day but there were lots of air pockets and it was like being on one of the rides at the fair that always made me sick to my stomach. The small four passengers Cessna 182 bounced up and down almost immediately after we took off. When I got sick into the small bag I had been given it caused my younger sister to get sick as well. We had two more hours to go before we got to the airport at Yellowstone.

      Having a plane sounds cool when you tell people that you get to ride in it to go to cool places for trips and vacations but the reality wasn’t all that cool. For an airplane ride to breakfast at a town a couple hours away we had to drive to the airport in the car and then wait while our parents got the plane out of the hangar and get it ready for us kids to get in. About a half an hour to an hour later we took off. That part was cool. Our stepfather would hold the plane on the ground until the very last minute and then take off really fast. I always liked the way all of the houses got really small when we took off. He would frequently fly low in our neighborhood so we could look at how our house which looked like a toy down below us.

     Then came the part I didn’t like.  By the time we got to the place we were going to have breakfast at I was usually sick to my stomach as it usually took about 20 to 30 minutes and by the time we landed and walked in to the restaurant at the airport we flew in to I had no desire to eat even though I was hungry. Between the amounts of time it took to get to the airport, then to get the plane out of the hangar and ready to fly and then to fly to the destination and back it took the same amount of time as if we had just driven there. I guess it is obvious what my preference was.

     We weren’t rich but my stepfather was self-employed and had caught the flying bug from my mother. She was the first female pilot in the state of Oregon.  She did acrobatics in an open cockpit plane with my father. My father was an airplane engineer who died in a plane crash in a plane he had repaired to factory specifications. Unfortunately they were faulty and when he tried to take off the flaps on the plane went the wrong way and flipped him upside down and crushed him immediately. My mother was watching and she was six months pregnant with my little sister and I was three months short of being born. The schematics from the manufacturer were backwards and they paid my mother $15,000 for the loss of her husband. This was the maximum amount that could be sued for the state we lived in. Melvin Belli was willing to take the case but my mother would have had to move to California and she wasn’t willing to do that. My father’s death is one of the early reasons that airplanes became required to test the flaps and ailerons before they took off from the runway. Disaster is the mother of safety laws.

     My stepfather bought the plane he had with two partners, Chad Long, who was a policeman, and Bob Haxby, who had been his flying instructor. I don’t like flying and it has nothing to do with my father dying in an airplane. I get sick to my stomach and I also don’t like the fact that I have no control over what will happen if something goes wrong. I am a good driver and I enjoy driving to places in cars. I feel like I have some degree of control over what happens when I drive. Though I do wholeheartedly believe that driving down the road in a car is when a person exhibits extreme faith. It takes an amazing amount of faith to drive down the road and believe that the other people driving will stay in their lane, because frequently they don’t. It is almost more unlikely to believe that people will stay in their own lane than to believe in God. As far as flying goes I do fly if I have to, like when I went to Spain many years ago. It is the only way to get there.

     So, this two hundred thousand dollar airplane, with two partners that they made payments on was not cheap but not as expensive as it sounded like, was my stepfather’s toy. The biggest issue was that he felt guilty for having such an expensive toy, even though he was technically the one who was working and making the payments. He wanted the family to participate in the airplane so he could justify it. So that meant he tried to get us to fly as many places as he could. To any vacation spot, to the twenty acres in Central Oregon that my grandfather bought for us to vacation on which happened to have a small runway a mile away besides the out to breakfast trips.

     Then there was the year we flew to Yellowstone and it was by far the most memorable trip we ever took in the airplane. Besides the part where I got sick on the flight there were other issues. Like the rooms we got at the motel, it had horribly uncomfortable beds to sleep on. Our parents traded beds with my sister and I because the bed was sloped to the middle and I ended up choosing to sleep on the floor because of how bad it was. My sister would lay on the side by the wall and push me out of the bed, she was asleep so we had to assume it was subconscious. The air conditioning in the rental car quit working halfway into the first day so we had to drive through the first half of the park without it working in 100 degree weather because it would have taken too long to return it and still see the entire park in the three days we had to do it in. We did get a different car for the other two days.

     I do have memories of this trip that were good. It was a beautiful place but the things that were bad still live in my memory forty years later. And I still don’t like to fly.

White Christmas

     It was Christmas Eve and the snow had started coming down way before dawn.  Our family had been having our Christmas Eve celebration in the country at my parents’ house for many years. Their house was the only one large enough for everyone to sleep overnight at was the main reason. We enjoyed having hot buttered rums and wine and didn’t believe in driving after imbibing.  Spending Christmas there had become a family tradition for my sister and me, along with whoever we wanted to bring along, to eat, drink and be merry with. It had started as soon as she and I moved away from home after high school.

    This year would be no exception even with the heavy snowfall. Everyone would make it there in their various four wheel drive vehicles no matter how much snow fell. We always spent the night there so we could all be together on Christmas day. This would be the eighth year we had been engaging in this tradition. 

     My sister and her husband Randy, with their two sons who were six and three, arrived at our parents’ house first in their four wheel drive Explorer. Next on the scene was a good friend of both of us two daughters, his name was Aaron and we frequently referred to him as our brother. Aaron usually went to his parents’ house for Christmas. They lived two hours north of us and because of the heavy snow it was too dangerous to drive there so he drove out to join the party in the country with his second family.  Aaron arrived in his old four wheel drive jeep that he owned for just this kind of occasion.

     My boyfriend, Greg, and I arrived last in Greg’s Volkswagen bug which navigated the snow very well. We would be sleeping on the pull out couch in the family room. Aaron would get the large couch in the living room where Annette’s two boys would sleep on the floor in sleeping bags and Annette and Randy would get the spare bedroom. There used to be a third bedroom but our father had turned it into his hobby room after my sister and I moved out and had kicked the bed out of it.

     By the time Greg and I arrived the hot buttered rums were flowing freely and everyone was getting buzzed on the alcohol. The two boys were outside playing in the deep snow. When they came in the house they would steal a drink out of someone’s unwatched glass now and then. The snow hadn’t let up all day and by the time it got dark there was over three feet of snow on the ground.

     “Hey Dave, do you have a sled around here?” Randy asked his father-in-law.

     “There is one up in the barn. It’s hanging on the wall over the shop. Do you want me to go out there and show you where it is?”

     “No I am sure I can find it. Aaron, do you go up to the barn with me to get the sled?”

     “Sure. Let me go put on my sweater and snow pants. I’ll be right out.” Aaron left the room to go get the clothes he brought that were still out in his jeep.

     They went out to the barn and returned with the sled.

     “So who wants to go down the hill on the sled with me?” Randy looked around the room.

      His two sons jumped up. “Let me ride it.” They both yelled at the same time.

     Randy and the boys went outside and everyone else watched from the living room. Randy sat the kids on the sled and shoved it down the hill. After a while the kids got tired of sledding and came back in the house to lust after the presents that were sitting unopened under the tree. Aaron took the sled down the hill after the boys and took an unplanned journey off of the road into the bushes.

     Randy, Greg, Aaron and Dave proceeded to get quite toasted on hot buttered rum. The women were not too happy with the men.

     “Dave, how about you and me and Greg go down the hill together on the sled?” Randy suggested.

     “You have got to be kidding. It’s pitch black out there.” Greg wasn’t too enthusiastic.

     “I can hold a flashlight.” Randy responded.

     “Oh really.  How can you hold a flashlight and hold on to the sled?” Greg asked.

     “I can tape it on my head,” and Randy proceeded to take duct tape and taped the flashlight on top of his head. Michele quickly grabbed her camera and took photos, she figured this ought to be good blackmail material when she got the photos developed.

      Michele, Annette and their mother couldn’t quit laughing as they watched the spectacle unfold. Dave laid down on the sled first and Greg lay on top of him. Then Randy, with the flashlight taped to his head, got on the very top and the three of them proceeded down the hill.

     The women watched from the living room window as the three drunken fools took off on the sled. When they were went around the corner out of sight they went to the kitchen and brought out the Christmas Eve munchies feast. This was the family tradition to have a meal consisting of all appetizers on Christmas Eve and then have a traditional dinner the next day.

     When the three men walked back in the house they found everyone was sitting at the table eating.

     “What took so long?” Michele asked.

     “When we got to the big corner Dave couldn’t get the sled turned so the sled went off the road and ran us into the blackberries. We aren’t going to do that again.”

     “Do you know how stupid you looked with that flashlight taped around your head?” Annette remarked.

     “The best part is I’ve got a photograph. That is going to be a priceless photo!” Michele had trouble talking she was laughing so hard.

     “I don’t care, you girls can screw off!” Randy was drunk and couldn’t really get too mad.

      Everyone continued sitting at the table and ate the munchies the women had prepared. The boys were chomping at the bit to open their presents.

     “It’s getting really late. Can we open the presents you said we could?” Zak pleaded to his mother.

     “Oh you boys sound so pitiful. Go ahead and open them!” Annette laughed.

     As soon as she had given the boys permission they rushed to the tree to find the presents that had been set aside for Christmas Eve. The rest of them would be opened the next morning.  Everyone watched as the boys tore open their Christmas Eve presents. This was the real reason everyone was there this evening. Snow and sledding had been a bonus.

Looking For The Aliens (Revised)

      I awoke to the one sound that never failed to wake me, the sound of silence. It followed when the timer on my television turned off at 3 am in the morning. Most people need noise to wake them up but not me, my brain fills with loud disquieting thoughts when there are no background noises for it to focus on.

      I looked out the window and the dark sky was filled with bright and shiny shimmering objects. I saw a planet and a couple of bright stars I presumed were satellites and one seemed to be slowly moving in my direction.

      My black cat, Mojo, appeared out of the darkness and he sat next to me. He also stared out the window although I doubted he was looking at the stars. Mojo has always been a self-centered dick, he only does what makes Mojo happy, and he walks down my body like I am a piece of the furniture. I was told this is a sign of dominance.

      “Wouldn’t it be cool if we saw aliens?” I said to Mojo since there was no one else in the house. I am not crazy enough to expect an answer, or at least a verbal one. He looked at me with his shimmering liquid green eyes and then he looked back out the window just as I did. 

      I noticed one of the stars, one that I thought was a satellite, seemed to be getting larger so I assumed it was also closer as well.

       I went to the refrigerator and got something to drink and sat back down on the couch. I looked at the stars again. I still saw the one that had moved closer and it appeared to be coming right towards me. Maybe it was a plane and not a satellite and maybe it was turning around so it could land.

      I had been visited by aliens in my bedroom many years ago. At that time I had felt the room was filled with the presence of displaced energy. I felt it was the presence of aliens. I told them I was not ready to meet them and they left. I have always imagined that this was an open ended invitation. After all the years have come and gone, and so many things have happened, I decided I was ready to meet them.

     Who are them? I don’t know. I eagerly hoped that I could find them again whoever they might be. I had come to realize my place in my friends and family’s lives was not as precious as I once thought it was so I was free to seek something new. Things change sometimes.

      I walked out of my house towards where I saw the light back by the well. It was faint and surrounded by the oak saplings that had sprung up around where the underground spring was.     The abyss of murky fog surrounded it and the light evaded my best efforts to locate it.

     “Where are you?”

      I got no answer. I kept walking towards the light. I looked for a sign that something else might be out there. 

     “Why did you bring me here?”

     I saw light coming from inside the cluster of small trees.

   “What do you want from me?”

      Still, no answer and it was very quiet. I was surrounded by darkness but I felt that I was not alone.

     “Who is here watching me?” I asked the air.

      There was no answer but I still knew that I was not alone.  After all I was the one who summoned them in the first place.

     Why can’t I find them? They brought me here, at my request perhaps, but they still brought me. Why aren’t they answering me? What is the purpose of bringing me here if they won’t talk to me?

     I do not understand. I walked on a little farther into the darkness and I saw a dim light up ahead so I pursued it. When they first offered me the invitation to go with them I didn’t feel that there was an end to when I could take them up on it. I am now totally unencumbered by anyone’s expectations so why don’t they show themselves?

     I think I know who they are but I don’t know where they came from or what they want. They offered to take me away that one time a long time ago, but they didn’t tell me what they were offering and now I want to know.

     I kept walking but the light was dim and far away. I wondered if I was going to make it. My body felt heavy, as if something was dragging it down. I was determined to make it if it was the last thing I did.

     I was almost there and I saw figures standing in the darkness of the light I had been struggling to get to. Finally I was there but it made no sense. I was looking at faces, my dead boyfriend, my mother and my grandfather. What?

     I had asked the aliens to take me away. What happened? Did I fall asleep? Oh hell, was I just dreaming! Was I the alien?

Skippy's Lesson

The streets were empty this night in the small coastal community where two women and a man were walking down the sidewalk headed towards the local bar. A faint reddish pink glow emanated from the small faded neon OPEN sign which sat over a large wood sign proclaiming the establishment’s name. They were attached to an old building sporting a log cabin façade which had palm trees painted on it. The bar was called THE OASIS but it looked like anything but that. The neon flickered bright and dim atop its perch and the wood sign was covered with flaking green and gold paint that had seen its better days many years ago.

The front door was ajar and a colorful group of men and women could be seen through the crack.  The patrons were clad in varying styles of apparel ranging from hippie to cowboy to work clothes. The band blasted out punk rock and they wore leather and studs with tight tank tops. Most of the crowd was attempting to dance to a good song that was being performed way too loudly.

The two women and man entered and sat down near the dance floor. They appeared to be in their mid-thirties. The women had dark blonde hair and were attractive with shapely figures. All three of them were wearing tee shirts and jeans, two of them had on sweatshirt jackets and one of the women wore a glittery jacket along with a lot of makeup. The man looked older than the women and he had a sour look on his face.

“This band is pretty good. I saw them play at a bar in Eugene a couple of months ago.” The flashily dressed woman remarked.

“I recognize their name but I haven’t seen them play before. You’re right about their being good. Do you like the band Aaron?”

“I like them though the songs are going to be hard to dance to.” He didn’t sound very enthusiastic.

“Way to have a good time! We are going to have to find some other men to dance with if you are going to be such a drip.”

“We are going to have to wait until the dance floor clears to see who’s available. It looks like we are going to have to go to the bar and get our own drinks. They are pretty slammed right now.” The woman wearing the sweatshirt jacket remarked.

“I’ll go get us some drinks. What do you want Michele?”

“I would like a Tequila Driver please. I can go up and help you with the drinks.”

“This is what I do for a living. I can handle it. Aaron?”

“I’d like Bombay and tonic.”

“I’ll be right back.” Since Annette worked at a bar she was used to carrying several cocktails at a time. She liked working in a bar, most of her clientele were men and they tipped her well.

Annette came back with their drinks. There were a couple of guys sitting at the next table and she started up a flirtatious conversation with them. They both had on loud western style shirts and flashy cowboy hats, though they didn’t look like cowboys.

Michele and Aaron watched Annette behaving in her normal flirtatious manner with the men at the next table. Michele wanted to dance so she walked over to the dark haired man with brown eyes. He had a very muscular build and was handsome.

“So are you a real cowboy or do you just like to dress up like one?” She teasingly inquired.

“I can ride a horse,” replied the attractive stranger.

“Can you dance as well?” Michele was standing next to his chair by this time.

“Let’s go do it.” He jumped up and grabbed her hand and led her to the dance floor.

 Michele felt lucky because the band had just broken into an old rock and roll classic by Bad Company. It had a good beat and was easy to dance to. After the dance she sat down at a table and visited with her dance partner.

“My name is Michele. Where are you from?”

“My name is Marty and I live in Eugene. Jerry and I came over her to go salmon fishing this morning. Where are you from?”

“It’s a small world. I am from Eugene also. I am over here visiting my parents. My dad owns a fishing boat and he and my mother just bought a place and moved over here last month. I used to go out salmon fishing on my dad’s boat a lot but now that they live here I can just come over and visit. I work at Mansell’s American Tire and Brake. Where do you work?”

“I used to work with one of the owners of that place, Randy. He was the manager at the Les Schwab store I used to work at in Portland.”

“I heard that is where he was before he became a partner at Mansell’s. I also heard there was some kind of scandal up there and that he was fired. You say you used to work there?”

“Yes, I quit last month, we had a disagreement on the way the place treats its employees. So I moved to Eugene on a piece of property I have owned for several years. There was a rumor going around that Randy embezzled some money, but I don’t know if it was true or not.”

They spent the evening dancing with each other and visiting. Annette spent the evening flirting and dancing with his friend. Aaron found a couple of local girls to dance with and the three of them had a fun evening, or at least it seemed that way. When it came to closing time Marty asked Michele if she wanted to see the 30 pound salmon he caught earlier. His truck and boat were parked in front of the bar so Michele went out in the parking lot to look at the salmon he had in the icebox.

Annette and Aaron showed up at the boat and Michele could hear Aaron talking loudly to Marty’s friend Jerry. Michele got out of the boat and walked over to where they were standing.

“You shouldn’t disappear like you did.  We looked all over the bar for you. I was getting worried.” Annette was yelling at Michele. Then Aaron walked up and got in Marty’s face.

“You should leave. Michele has more class than to hang out with a loser like you.”

“Knock it off Aaron. Marty was just showing me the nice salmon he caught today.”

“Are you sure that’s all he wanted to show you?”

Michele was getting embarrassed by Aaron’s behavior. “It was nice to meet you Marty. Come by and see me at the tire shop sometime.” She walked away with Annette and Aaron and they walked to the women’s parents’ house a few blocks away. Aaron was going to go out fishing the next day with the women’s father. 

Frequently when Aaron got drunk he took on another persona, a drunken asshole with a belligerent attitude. Because he was so different than he was when he was sober his friends started calling him Skippy, after George Bush’s evil twin character created by Gary Truedeau in his cartoon strip.

The next week Marty showed up at the tire shop Michele worked at. Her boss that he said he used to work with did indeed know him and greeted him warmly. Michele thought that was a good sign. He asked her if she would like to have drinks with him after work and then maybe go out to dinner. She said yes.

 Marty arrived at the house that Michele shared with her roommate Aaron. Aaron answered the door.

“I remember you from the bar in Winchester Bay.”

“I remember you also. Michele is getting ready. Come on in the house. Can I get you a drink while you wait for her?” Aaron was very friendly and nothing like Marty remembered him from the coast.

Marty accepted the offer of a drink and after finishing a couple with both Michele and Aaron he invited Aaron to go out to dinner with him and Michele. It was a casual date and it seemed like the polite thing to do Marty thought.

Aaron pulled Michele aside and asked her if it was alright with her for him to go to dinner with her and Marty. She had just started to get to know Marty and if he wanted to invite Aaron it was fine with her. She wasn’t planning doing anything that Aaron couldn’t be around for.

Aaron and Michele suggested that they go to one of their favorite restaurants called Original Joe’s. It was an Italian restaurant which had the grill set up in the front part of the restaurant so that the customers could watch the cooks as they made the orders. Sometimes it could be pretty entertaining, especially if a customer wanted to change a menu item. The cooks had all worked there a long time and didn’t like customers who wanted special meals. Afterwards they went to a somewhat pretentious bar that was just around the corner called Oregon Electric Station.

Michele was driving and Marty and Aaron seemed to be having a bit of a contest to see who could drink the most. Aaron was a friend and not a romantic interest but it seemed like some kind of a macho pissing contest was going on. Maybe Marty didn’t realize this or maybe Aaron was just screwing with him for some reason.

Aaron and Marty were both getting drunk and obnoxious so Michele suggested they leave. Marty suggested they stop at a western themed bar that was close to Aaron and Michele’s house and on the way back so she agreed to do so and got them started on the way back to the house.

The place was called Bliss’s Steak Ranch and Michele used to go there quite a lot a several years before when she worked at a sign shop located next to it. She discovered that she still knew a lot of the customer’s that frequented the place and also that many of them also knew Marty. Aaron was starting to get pretty drunk and was beginning to turn into Skippy. 

One of the bar maids came up to their table and told them someone was complaining about Aaron’s attitude. Just as Michele was getting ready to say that they should leave Aaron got mad and said he was going to go to the stripper place behind the bar.

“I am going back to the Silver Dollar. You can come pick me up when you finish your drinks.”

“Fine, we will be done in about fifteen minutes.” Michele didn’t feel like fighting with him.

She and Marty finished their drinks and then went out to her car. They sat in the car and visited a little while and then Marty went to the stripper bar to get Aaron so they could go home. After about 5 minutes he came out to the car and said he had looked all over but he couldn’t find Aaron.  The doorman told him someone fitting the description had come in but when he found out they didn’t serve alcohol he left and said he was going to the bar across the street.

Michele drove then to the bar across the street. Marty and Michele both went in to look for Aaron. They were told that there was a guy in there that could have been him. He was really drunk and another customer said he would help him get home and they both left. Michele thought maybe Aaron had walked back to their house on the bike path. She drove to the house, keeping an eye out for Aaron, but they saw no one on the way and no one was at the house.

They waited a little while and then they drove down to the bar he was possibly seen leaving and Marty walked the bike path that Aaron would have taken to walk home. Michele met him in the car at the other end of the bike path and Marty hadn’t found Aaron. She was starting to get worried.

They went back to the house and when they walked in this time Aaron was sitting there with a strange looking man. He looked startled when she and Marty walked in. Michele thought he looked somewhat familiar but she was unsure why that would be. There was a palpable uneasy air in the room and she also felt Aaron was pretty uncomfortable with the situation. 

“What the hell went on tonight? Marty and I looked all over for you. What were you thinking?” She was really mad.

“Obviously I wasn’t thinking too clearly.” Aaron said sheepishly

  Michele looked at the stranger on the couch. He started talking, “I was just getting ready to leave the Eldorado when I saw this guy stumble in and he sat next to me at the bar. He was really drunk. I had the bartender bring him a cup of coffee. He got up and said he was going to walk home so I offered to help him get home. It was really cold outside and I was afraid if he passed out along the way he might freeze.”

“Thanks for helping Aaron get home. What’s your name? Can we give you a ride home?”

“I live in the Shamrock apartments a few blocks from the bar. I’m glad I got him home safely. My name is Jim. I can walk home.” He was a pretty husky man with a flashy tattoo coming out of his shirt collar showing on his neck. He had a scar on one cheek and looked like a pretty rough character.  He avoided direct eye contact. 

“Nonsense, I will drive you home. It is about a half mile from here and it is freezing out.” Marty quickly offered.

Michele noticed Aaron’s wallet was lying on the kitchen counter and it was open and empty. She wondered if they had interrupted a robbery in progress and that his help might not have been that innocently offered.  The man accepted Marty’s offer of ride and they went out to his car. 

Michele quizzed Aaron as soon as the two men walked out the front door.

“That guy gives me the creeps, he is scary.”

“I know. He followed me out of the bar and I was afraid he was going to mug me. I told him I didn’t have any money with me but I would give him some if he helped me get home. I was hoping that you and Marty would be there. I was pretty freaked out when you weren’t. I went in the bathroom and when I came out I could see he had gone through my wallet on the counter. I sat down on the couch and he came and sat down next to me and then you and Marty walked in.”

“You better quit drinking, you have a problem. You get drunk and turn into someone that is not cool. Besides you being an asshole it’s dangerous when you black out like that. I hope this teaches you a lesson.”

“Don’t worry it did.I think he was planning to rob me. I was getting sober by the time we walked here. He is a pretty big guy and he scared me. I was happy when you and Marty showed up here.”

Marty walked in the door. “That guy looks like he just got out jail. He had me drop him off at the front of the apartments. I don’t think he wanted me to know where he lived.”

The next day Michele stopped at a gas station near her house. She recognized that the attendant was the guy who was at the house and that was why he looked familiar. It was a gas station she occasionally stopped at on her way home from work. He hesitated when Michele told him she remembered him from that night at the house. She got weird vibes off of him. 

That night she was watching the news and there was a story about a guy getting mugged and attacked on the bike path behind their house. Then they flashed a picture of Jim and it said he was a person of interest in the case. The next morning the news reported Jim had been arrested for robbing and beating up a guy the same night he walked Aaron home. It also said there were other cases they were investigating. Skippy never came out to play again. Aaron realized how close he had come to getting mugged.