Louie's Mother Wants To Kick My Ass
Louie never stops talking. Even sitting he isn't still so Louie is always in motion. In his apartment or in a bar, or outside on a park bench, he gesticulates with his hands, moves his feet, bobs his head, and lights cigarette after cigarette, joints, gnaws on his lower lip. At night I look over at him sleeping-he mumbles, rolls around, still not still. Once I woke up drenched in sweat. Louie was fast asleep, not moving. Still haunted by the images from my nightmare, I started, thinking he was dead, and reached for the phone. Louie opened his eyes and immediately said, "What’s up are you OK wanna fuck?" I rolled over, pulling the scratchy blanket back over my body and tried to ignore his hands fumbling for the drawstring on my pants.
Louie works at the OTB and fixes cars. He steal coffee, drives a truck for Little Debbie Snack Cakes, and drinks up his paycheck at his local. He is forever moving from place to place. "I’m easily bored," he explains.
Louie loves his mother. Her name is Bathsheba and she’s never read the bible but goes to church every Sunday to light a candle for Louie’s father who’s been dead a long time. Bathsheba is five foot two inches with long sturdy black hair and a way of looking at you as if she already knows everything about you and doesn't much care. She has beaten up a few of Louie’s past girlfriends and there are tales of her throwing her own lovers out of an impressive variety of moving vehicles over the many years she's been alone.
Louie and I meet every Sunday at noon for drinks at Milanos. We drink until we’re drunk and then go home and fuck. Even though it’s only once a week, Louie exhausts me and I wish he didn’t always want to sleep over. Louie says he’s in love with me, "I want you to be my girlfriend."
But I tell him, (he’s) not the right material. I say, "I’ll never stop looking for someone else." Late at night he asks me to list all the things that he’s not. "I can’t, I tell him, it would break your heart."
Louie hangs his head, kisses me, and says he understands. Then he says "I hope my mother never hears you say that. She’d kick your ass."
