‘I’m not heading for Hollywood until tomorrow…Why don’t you quit your job and join me just for the hell of it! It’ll be like old times and no more shovelling snow! You can tell them where to shove their job!’
Jackson gave him the details of the hotel he was staying at. As his yellow and green express train arrived from Kenosha, Ray said goodbye without walking down the stairs to the platform. As he watched the afternoon express journey south along the shores of the lake, the call came back to him.
The call was the feeling that he first had in his grade school when he suddenly wanted to be outside in the freedom with his best friend and to ditch the schools, the rules, and the fools. It was that joyous feeling of being able to do what you wanted to do in a place and a time you weren’t supposed to be, laughing the afternoon away and breathing the air of freedom that was the wind blowing in the trees. It was what his Dad called ‘A W on the loose’ when he was in the military before he was shipped overseas. The call was never any fun when you were by yourself…
When he finished work, he didn’t go to Rico’s like he usually did; he hadn’t been there for his usual lunch either. He pondered his future at the counter of a drugstore soda fountain as he twirled his straw amongst the ice and Maraschino cherry of his cherry Coke.
Was it time to go?
Between his schooling and his current job, he had only left his small city permanently to take a well-paid job in Bismarck that led to a marriage that ended up in a painful disaster. He returned with his proverbial tail between his legs and vowed no more adventures into the unknown, especially those encouraged by his family. His family was more attracted by his job in Bismarck than he was, due to its lucrative salary. He found Bismarck and its people as miserable as its weather, unlike the local characters of his hometown who always had time to laugh.
What had he been missing all these years? In his mind he combined the fun he had with Jackson with the reruns of his favourite television show, Soldiers of Fortune, where John Russell and Chick Chandler found themselves in different faraway places with strange sounding names every episode and shared two-fisted he-man adventures, laughs and beautiful interesting women.
‘Just for the hell of it’, had always been Jackson’s battle cry of spontaneity as they launched into their high jinks. By contrast, Ray’s careful scheming and planning had been over half the fun of his activities. Even if things didn’t come off, he had a hell of a time preparing their plan of action, and there was always ‘better luck next time’.
What would he do when he hit California? When Jackson made his pitch, Ray’s mind had gone no farther than their cross-country train trip where the pair of them would swap jokes and funny stories all day in the club car, then he’d share a sleeping compartment with a rich woman who looked like a combination of Miss America and a Playboy Bunny. Jackson was always one of the biggest chick magnets in the school, so Ray had plenty of his second choices.
They naturally had fun together and could tell stories of their antics; you couldn’t do that with just anyone. The weather was better in California; Chicagoland only averaged 84 sunny days a year. He had always desired to see palm trees and the ocean. As a life-long movie fan, he had always been fascinated by Hollywood…California girls were pretty, but the pretty girls in Bismarck led to marrying one, that led to…nothing made a confirmed bachelor more than a nasty marriage…
Or would Hollywood just be the beginning? Maybe they’d work their way on a ship to the Orient that was so Far East you had to travel West to get there…then Down Under to Australia…even when they were living low they’d be living high.
On the other hand, he had always counted his blessings and knew what he had here. He had advanced to be a supervisor and had the respect of both the workers and management and could ‘get away’ with bits of free time. On the downside, he knew he’d never go any further in his job.
He would be starting all over again…How long would it take him to work up to a comfortable niche? He’d be competing with the locals. Hollywood had massive rewards for some, but massive failures for everyone else.
It was purely ridiculous, or reallydiculous as Joey would say, to quit his job overnight, then there was organising a transfer to the California National Guard.
With a pile of coins, he telephoned Jackson’s hotel from a phone booth.
‘Hay-Heyyyyy, Ray! What time will you get here?’
‘Why don’t you get yourself established first, then I’ll give notice and join you.’
He was totally unprepared for what happened next.
‘You’re a punk! You’ve never gone all the way, Ray!'
Jackson began whining like his former wife; he had never done that before. He was hysterical, almost as if he was in tears.
Ray kept feeding money into the pay telephone, as he let his old friend talk on and on. Jackson acted like a woman in a confessional booth telling him how everything he had done in his life had ended in failure. If he was like this, Ray would have to find a job for him as well as himself. Was that what Jackson was hoping for?
He went to his downtown apartment and remembered their times together, but in much more detail…Who would have predicted what Jackson would have turned into? He always had self-confidence…or did he? Was Jackson leaning on him even then?
Ray returned to Rico’s for lunch the next day. Everyone, even Rico seemed relieved he had returned, and asked where he had been. Ray merely said he had run into an old high school friend.
‘Ray!’
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