Cards, Cold Shoulders and Stolen Papers (Part 2) – Mad Chaos: March 14, 1999

Failing to Rescue Tatton

Keith arrived at my house soon after he called me and I knew I was out of a boring night but far from the doors of a nightclub, full of wanting women and with a crowd of associates consisting of more than two black fruitcakes. If Ralf was an animal he would be a black fly, always buzzing around in my ear and no matter how much times I try to squat him, the buzzing keeps coming back.

Anyway, jumping into Keith’s car I knew that the both of us was not going to be enough to make our night more interesting than dull. Keith I guess felt the same way as he told me he was heading to Tatton’s house so we could try our hand at getting him out once again. With Shawn in Queensland until next weekend, Ralf up at his brother’s house and no one else in our immediate circle around it was just me and Keith, we needed more.

However, when we landed at Tatton’s house he came out with an attitude persistently saying that he didn’t want to come out. Even when Keith said that he was rescuing him and feeding him some bullshit about how Ralf and Preston were going to head to his house he didn’t look like budging from his persistency. Walking back towards his house after a little hissy fit of aggression we made our way out, just the two of us.

Three Is a Good Number

Still in need of someone else to hang with us we didn’t want to be bored for the rest of the night and the Play Station wasn’t an option this time around. Keith’s last bid to get someone out was to call Simon at his house and that didn’t seem like too bad an idea. Giving Lucas’s mobile phone a call Keith was put onto Simon and with no more than a minutes worth of conversation we turned the car around and headed to Simon’s house so we could pick him up.

“Three’s a good number” Keith said to me referring to our bid to play cards but I had seen that as a good number all around for companionship. Just me and Keith would have been a little uneasy and without fun but now that we had a third soul coming, our little party had started.

Ali at the Bus Stop

Heading to Simon’s house and passing the roundabout on St. John’s Road that leads to Airds High School we noticed Ali waiting at the bus stop there. What he was doing there we didn’t really know but we gathered it wasn’t to catch a bus but to get a lift from someone. That was the pickup point and knowing that Ali wasn’t driving his car around anymore because of his loss of license we started having a little laugh about that.

Later in the night when we had picked up Simon and were driving past Burmah on Blaxland Road we noticed the Brown Celica guy who used to work at Mobil. Taking a closer look as we whizzed past I noticed that Ali was in the car and then I realized, he was the one who picked them up. Seeing that Imad was also there I gathered that Imad was driving around with this guy and then they went to pick up Ali for their night out.

Pulling Into the Petrol Station

Keith decided to turn around and head back to the petrol station acting the shepherd to buy something from there when all along we were just parking there to look at them. When we pulled up into the petrol station we gathered that Ali had seen us all the times we had passed him but none of the three looked towards the car as we entered the service station. We didn’t go past them and as Keith parked the car at the bowser he noticed Imad smoking.

A Cold Shoulder From Imad

“Shit, I didn’t know Imad smoked” Keith blurted and starting his car back up again he uttered, “I don’t want to shake his hand when he’s been smoking and I know he’s going to want to shake my hand.” With that we started to head out and I noticed that Stan was also there but in another car. Taking a closer look around before we left I noticed that it wasn’t only the Celica that Ali and Imad had accompanied but two or three other cars.

Passing Imad as we made our way out he looked all messed up and he did look towards us as we drove past but it was a timely look. Imad was the only one that was in our view apart from the driver of the Celica and it looked as if he knew we were there all along but he was giving me the cold shoulder. When Imad did turn around I was winding the window down just to say hello and I did get to wave him a hello but it was only quick and the window didn’t even wind down very much.

Imad wasn’t worth the effort, as he had made no effort to notice or acknowledge me. The cold shoulder he had portrayed when turning around and giving me a gesture with his eyes was a telling tale that he had turned more towards Ali and that circle of friends. Imad detests me in a way and I loathe him in a way also and that showed as we passed each other and felt no hurry or significance to acknowledge each other as friends. In this whole caper I have come out the villain as Ali gets to keep all that I once had and I get what once was.

Ali Finds New Friends

Ever since I had left the scene Ali has found a new bunch of friends to hang out with including Stan and Imad. It was like I was holding both Ali and Imad back from what could have been and I get pissed off in one aspect and I miss being gone in another. When I left Ali found someone else to fill that front seat of his car and Imad never used to come out with the group but now that I’m gone, he’s always out with his brother in law.

What pisses me off the most is that Imad never used to come out with us doing his usual shit but now that I’m out of the picture he’s in it. Imad complained he couldn’t come over my house because he was always at work but somehow he found ways to see Phoenix everyday and he’s found ways to hang out with Ali and the rest of them each weekend. Friendship bites and I can no longer look at Imad and call him a true friend.

Counting My True Friends

There was once a few true friends I could count on, those being Ali, Imad and Jett. To go back even further, I had Johnnie as a best friend but that soon gave way to Imad when school arrived. Now with Lyssa being the cause of me losing Ali as a true friend in his dogging ways I have lost Imad as a result of that battle. Ever since I started going out places with Ali and being friends with Ali, Imad started to loom around in the background and now he’s nothing.

The only true friend I now have and feel I will for a very long time to come is Jett. Being my one true friend he is sparsely seen but even when we are together there is some resisting magnetic field between our ways. Jett has two sides to himself, the side where he functions normally and is a good friend and then the other side, where he robs people and turns into a killing machine.

With both of them I get along with because I have the same aptitude but he runs on more of a high or a different high to me. Therefore, we can never truly be a unity of force and although we get along great, there is something, some magnetic resistance that doesn’t permit us to be on the same wavelength, if only off by a fraction.

Birthdays and Remembrance

Speaking of true friends and friendship, I remember that Imad’s birthday is soon, two days soon to be exact. His lost friendship that dwindled before me these past years dawns no celebration on that day from me nor would he probably be looking for one. Another person soon to have their eighteenth birthday is Jewell on April 2nd and though I am not looking forward to that, I will see that day as remembrance.

Two Years Since the First Letter

Speaking of remembrance, today is the day two years ago that I wrote my first letter to Jewell, the one that has much reminiscence to it. Yet, if I do recall, these were the days two years ago when Jewell began to show her unwillingness and confusion in subtle ways. There is another face lost to the wall of shadowed pictures in my mind. She is just but a memory now, far distant, once close to my heart but now scorning such if I think in such alike ways.

Our Summer and Our Autumn

To look at our relationship in the current knowledge, our summer did show me promise but once autumn was upon us, the dying began. Summer’s February in 1997 brought me to her and our first kiss. However, in March our tenderness slowly began to decrease and as withering is dominant in autumn to bring forth the winter, our relationship did wither with it. Winter had been seen as our winter when I started going out with Lyssa but when summer did once again approach us, it had confused the heat brought with it and longevity was flustered. This view of the lost years would make for a great Sonnet, maybe I should get to work on it.

Cards at Subway in Ingleburn

Getting back now to my original story, we picked up Simon and made our way to ‘Subway’ in Ingleburn. Once there we started playing ‘Asshole’ where Simon came out with a flying start for his second time playing. Simon always seemed to guess it right when turning over his last cards and he always won with this stroke of luck. Keith would get pissed off that he was so lucky in guessing which cards to always pick as he suggested he should try gambling. Simon ended up wining in our game to ten points and while we were playing the goggle eye guy who knows of Gridiron served us a fair meal of chips.

Charity comes from the heart and on this occasion, it ended up in our stomachs. When we finished playing ‘Asshole’ we taught Keith how to play ‘Black Bitch’ and wining the first couple of games I was the President. However, Simon soon took over my role and Keith kept having a sad moment because he was always losing or coming last in the stakes. When the time reached 2:30 a.m. we jumped back into Keith’s car, we had spent at least three hours there.

Nicking the Sunday Papers

Before heading home we decided to look around for the Sunday paper to nick but it wasn’t delivered in the usual areas yet. Keith kept driving around the Campbelltown area looking for a shop with the papers out the front and finally we found one in East Campbelltown. However, the bread shop was open next door and I didn’t want to take any papers so Keith jumped out of the car pretending he was going to buy them if anyone walked out and in the end he just ended up nicking three. There was no one outside to see him grabbing the papers in the dark and even though Keith’s loud car would have given him away no one came outside.