6-8-00 Th 2:57 PM

I was riding up La Brea to meet Nattaz at El Coyote when, like déjà vu,

6-9-00 F 5:46 PM

[ticket stub, Chicago Cubs vs Detroit Tigers aisle 220 row 14 seat 5 Fri Jun 2 2000 2:20 PM]

What else? Shadows play in the shape of a man’s desire. A stiff wind blew in our faces from centerfield. It was probably seventy in the sunshine and fifty in the shade. I didn’t mind it much, though. Somehow the present setting remained in the background even though I was thousands of miles from home, or because of it maybe. Mac went back to the house for jackets. I stayed in my seat and admired stray cones of sunshine falling through gaps in the A-beams of the old place, splotching a few clumps of fans with it warmth. I spilled a beer. I hollered a few “Let’s go Bob!”s Had Buds, Coors, Old Styles. The Cubs won. Rick Aguilera recorded his three-hundredth save. Bob struck out a couple times. I ate a Wrigley Pig. I bough a dog, just to say I had a dog there, but I only had a bite. We walked back to Bernie’s pad after the game. We put on the Pacers/Knicks game and drank and cleaned up a little. Mac talked to Bob on the phone. We drove Lakeshore Drive in a cab we hailed on Addison to Houston’s on State Street. I wish I had written every day while I was there. Vick picked up the check. Walter, the Tiger, was there with his wife and his girlfriend. His wife was wearing tight, shiny leather pants, which she bent over the table to show off as Walter gave her a hand whip to the ass. The wife and girlfriend bounded off to the bathroom giggling as Walter leered at us before following them. Vick’s chick is a dream. They met in junior high. Mack joked, “I always ask her how she knew he was gonna be a major leaguer.” I ordered two thick, lean pork chops and some chowder and beers and bourbons. Mack and Bob wen to get cameras at Walgreen’s down the street. I watched Bob’s brother, John, fool around with Bob’s girl all night. Apparently, it was just some harmless joke she tolerated. She said I was funny and that she like me. Then she talked about which Tigers and their wives she liked or didn’t and why or why. I got up to go to the bathroom.