See Ya Tomorrow
Small Talk: Consecutive Substack Story 1216
The monitors were doing their little electronic mating calls, a nurse in the hallway had toilet paper stuck to her shoe and Vic had one cigarette he couldn’t wait to smoke though he couldn’t afford another pack.
Rudy made a joke, Vic didn’t catch all of it and tried to laugh anyway. Rudy had cracked a million jokes. Vic remembered his favorite, the one about the Pope and the squirrel.
“Glad you’re still joking,” Vic said.
“Nothin’ else to do. I can’t give myself a kidney. I can’t bum one off one of these nurses. Just crack jokes and wait to die on dialysis.”
“You ain’t gonna die,” Vic said.
“Know what pisses me off, Vee Money?”
Vic was afraid he was gonna get a lecture but Rudy just slapped the conversation in a different direction without waiting for a response.
“That Nyquil tagger.”
“Was years ago, Rudy. Why that piss you off?”
“Just a dude copping a whole product name as his street name.”
“Fuck you think Eminem started out as?” Vic said.
Rudy smiled.
“See, that’s the thing though, Em was…is a lyrical genius. Sold ten kabillion records.Whoever was putting the Nyquil tag everywhere didn’t do shit. Remember? He wasn’t a rapper, he didn’t paint shit cool, just that dark blue tag. His lettering wasn’t even very good. He was just, almost, you know, because he wasn’t promoting himself, he was just promoting a product.”
Vic licked at a fennel seed in his teeth. Felt like a fennel seed from some leftover pasta.
“Why that’s bugging you now Roo? I mean…I remember he tagged the pillar at the library, and then the library told the skaters they couldn’t skate the parking lot no more. Like whoever tagged it had to be a skater. Yeah, that made me mad.”
Rudy nodded. Looked like he was getting weak, sleepy, something.
Vic was gonna excuse himself, go get that smoke, sit outside of Keller’s and bum smokes. Figured he could probably get five before he went home.
“There’s a list of shit I ain’t allowed to have anymore. Nyquil is on that list. I can’t sleep at home because I’m afraid I’m gonna die. Here…they got these machines on me. If I start dying they’ll revive me.”
Rudy closed his eyes.
“You want me to cop you some Nyquil, Roo?”
“You ain’t listening. I can sleep fine here. At home I can’t.”
“Worry about home when you get home.”
Rudy made a farting noise with his mouth but didn’t open his eyes.
“I’m out, Roo. I’ll see ya tomorrow. That kidney is coming. Gonna be like a movie.”
“What movie?”
“I dunno, one where a guy saves people from a burning building but dies and gives away all his organs.”
“Probably not his lungs or his skin if he died in a fire, Vic.”
“You don’t need lungs or skin, Roo, you need a kidney.”
“Thanks for reminding me. I know.”
“See ya tomorrow.”
Vic waved as he walked out, realizing he had already put his unlit smoke in his hand.
***
Vic woke up in a room with a Hello Kitty sticker on the mirror.
He sliced through the brain fog, tasted what might be rum on his half ass mustache.
Terri.
She was at Keller’s.
Worked in materials handling at Centurion Hospital.
He was bumming a smoke off her friend when she said “Good day to quit.”
Terri walked into the room.
“Morning, hotshot. I have the next two days off. Cedar Point? I was gonna go with my sister but she sprained her knee…so…ride some roller coasters with me?”
“I’m dead broke,” Vic said, feeling embarrassment paint his face red.
“You were dead broke last night and I still got ya hammered, didn’t I?”
Vic laughed.
“Thank you, I’ll get ya back.”
Vic had no idea how much she spent or how he would get her back.
They drove to Cedar Point, three hours, Vic jonesing for a smoke the whole time.
Rode roller coasters. Mid afternoon he had eaten three lbs of red licorice trying to keep the nicotine crave at bay, his phone had run out of juice, he was certain his PO would know he was out of state without permission, and he was scared shitless he was in love.
They were on some gondola ride when they heard that the park would close in 30 minutes. Terri said “last call at Keller’s?”
Vic said “Fuck yes,” and kissed her.
They got to Keller’s around twelve, started right in on the shots.
Ended up at the big round table near the Stranger Things pinball.
Didn’t know anyone.
Redhead looked familiar.
Redhead smiled at him.
“I know you from somewhere,” she said.
“Probably just here.”
“No…oh shit, I know. You’re in the hospital. You always have a smoke in your hand and it pisses me off because I haven’t had one in…”
The redhead pushed some buttons on her phone and an app with bouncing red crossout circles popped up.
“Smoke free for 92 days.”
“Gratulaions,” Vic said.
“Wait…you were visiting the really funny guy in 1633.”
“Yep,” Vic said. “Rudy.”
The redhead’s lower lip curled in like someone in her throat was yanking it with fishing line.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” she said.
Vic stood, his knee banging the table, a handful of beers and a Cosmo spilling.
***
Vic woke up and saw the Hello Kitty sticker.
A plate of link sausages and bacon were on the nightstand, light misty steam coming off them.
Terri walked in from the bathroom and knelt on the bed.
“Ummm, last night was a…a special occasion…but you can’t smoke in my house ever again. Kay? I mean it. Never. Not tonight, not ever.’
Vic nodded.
“Sorry.”
“It’s ok. C’mon. Get up.”
“Where we going?”
“Nowhere. But I wanna throw the sheets in the wash. Only about half the Nyquil made it in your mouth.”
***
About 5000 people die every year waiting for kidney.
***
This is consecutive Substack Story 1216. No matter what goes on in my life, good or bad, I always get you a story. I will for as long as I can. Fortunately for me I don’t need an organ. Just rent.
If you can’t afford a full subscription you can always buymeacoffee.com/JimmyDoom
or Venmo James-Graham-80
Thanks for reading.
Vic finally got to smoke. Ha. Good read, Jimmy.
Tough read, J.