Hiram 2

August 21, 2010

Wandering about the village last night I found the Dugout Sports Bar, which had opened only the night before, which saved me the drive to Garrettesville, and which occupies the space formerly occupied by the Hub. Two rums and coke cost $5.00. I met Julie, the central casting pretty blond honky tonk waitress, who for some reason wants to move to Greenville. Neither she nor the bar owner knew how to run the computers. I met Brian, with his big white football jersey and his backwards baseball cap and his shiny face. Brian hauls furniture for a moving company, and does a little mechanic work on the side. He lives in Mantua. Brian’s life changed when he became a father at seventeen, His son is now fourteen, and is the center of his father’s concern. Brian wanted to watch NASCAR rather than football because his son, invited to Bristol by a friend, was in the audience. The son’s name is Dominic. Dom had been heavily on Brian’s mind. He talked about buying him school clothes and shoes, and about how his ex-wife, a hippie, is no help at all. Brian and Dom want to move to Myrtle Beach. Brian reminded me so much of Marco that I thought this is who Marco might have been had he not found art. I was very grateful I sought company that night, and found whom I did. I also thought Dom must be one of the luckiest boys in the world, to have such concentration on him at absence and distance,