This Is Only The Beginning

One evening, Johnno and I walked into the house I lived at on 7th Ave NE to find Winkie sitting on the couch with a bottle of cheap Mezcal, shot glass, limes, cutting board and kitchen knife. He had already made a considerable dent in the bottle. The stereo was trumpeting Dexy’s Midnight Runners at seismic volume. “Hey Guys! Have a shot,” he bellowed as his head shook side to side. He had a tendency to rock back and forth and shake his head when he got wound up. At the old house on 11th, he would add pacing back and forth to this beehive dance as he gave us status updates on the latest short story or research paper. Winkie was a double major - English Lit and Art History. He was (and still is) sort of an academic Iggy Pop; he’s gonna follow his muse full throttle. “Turn that shit down!” I shouted at him smiling all the while. I produced an identical bottle of shite tequila and sat it next to the half empty vessel on the cutting board. “Let’s do a couple and head up to Johnno’s, he’s got Physical Graffiti on disc!”

“Hijinks! Hijinks, baby!” Winkie shouted as we drained a couple more shots and prepared to journey the 15 odd blocks to Johnno’s apartment in Maple Leaf. Hijinks. Winkie grabbed a hold of that word and made it his incantation, his mantra, his password to the Mansions Of The Sun. “What’s that rotgut pizza smell?” I asked as I turned off the stereo. “My pizza!” Winkie broke his recitation long enough to dash into the kitchen and come out carrying a steaming, Frisbee of cheap frozen pizza. “It’s cool enough to eat,” he said as he folded it in half and took a messy bite, “unh… want some?” I told him never and shoved him out the door towards Johnno’s CRX. “Don’t make a mess in the back and don’t roll around. This car isn’t much bigger than go-cart.”

Winkie’s hijinks mantra had rushed up to the edge of annoyance on the drive to Johnno’s. When we got up to his flat, it broke like a dam and became the central point of everything occurring in the time space continuum. “Is he ever gonna shut up?” Johnno asked keeping a wary eye on Winkie as he pinballed around the living room. “Not if I can help it!” I smiled, egging him on. “This is only the beginning!”