pals, part 1

pals should be true and blue pals should be there for you but since the truth will set us free let me tell you what my pal did to me i was working for the phone company, northern line and didn't think much at the time about anything but getting smashed after my monthly check i cashed a kindly soul named mrs brown ran the cleanest boarding house in town i was her most faithful boarder and she kept my life in order fried eggs in the morning, a sandwich for afternoon mashed potatoes at evening, smooth as a breeze in june clean sheets every night things couldn't have been more right but sometimes a strange restlessness came over me, i confess and under a mocking moon i would head for the local saloon bertha boone, the bartender was a solid sender her heart was halfway good and you always knew just where you stood my tab was just so much a month and though there was no free lunch i could sit with half a glass as flickering shadows behind me passed the free lunch was just a memory an ancient tale told hesitantly by my pal henry's uncle dan an intermittently taciturn man henry himself seemed without guile we used to chat once in a while that's why i refer to him as my pal the only one i had, withal henry was a deep cuss never made much of a fuss unfailingly polite night after night he could discuss any subject and would never object to any opinion or party line even mine if i advocated anarchy he would smile pleasantly if i pleaded for world government he would nod a half assent all opinions are the same he asserted without shame just something to pass the time without reason or rhyme this easygoing attitude he extended to the passions rude and affected a weary glance toward love and romance and would laugh at any poor john who'd become a female's pawn and professed but little respect for the fair and gentle sex at his views i felt no shock but liked to listen to him talk i mean, the price was right and so passed night after night but the universe slices and dices even the humblest paradises and my serene little world into a dark abyss was hurled she didn't seem blessed or cursed we hardly noticed her at first she sat in a corner of the room portending no particular doom one night henry didn't show i had no place else to go i just sat there like a lump feeling down in the dumps and then the anonymous lady apparently not afraid of me came over and sat in henry's seat without missing a beat and looked at me with an eye that was neither wet nor dry that wasn't blue or gray or brown and she didn't smile or frown she seemed neither young nor old fat or thin or hot or cold and only aroused in me the faintest flicker of curiosity little did i know that this feeble flicker would grow into a bonfire of despair into which my soul would dumbly stare part 2: jane