It was a week since my mom had left and I was still in a fog of mixed feelings about what to do. Part of me wanted to just go home and get it over with so I could be with family and the friends I grew up with, but an equal part was fighting back with thoughts of having to go through the American gulag system for a victimless, non-violent activity. It would all be pushed into the background the day I returned home to find Etienne propped up on the living room floor with his sister there to attend him. He was in bad shape as he had just been in his 3rd motorcycle accident in 2 years. He had broken his heel and his tailbone and was lucky to have had a helmet on or else he would have been dead. His sister told me that he would be needing someone to help him for the next few weeks and since Etienne was not only my boss but I also considered him a friend, I told her I would be happy to take care of him. It was testing at times as Etienne was a very demanding person but in the end he made a full recovery and our friendship grew by leaps in the process. Most people told Etienne that he should give up motor cycling but he was also a very stubborn person so he ignored them all and was back on it the first day he could walk. I came to see that we were very much alike and admired his unwillingness to just follow the crowd as I would have done the same thing. By the time he was back to 100%, all thoughts of leaving were deep in my mind as I was determined to stay until I could go home a free man. I also had a new reason for staying.
There was an American guy from Boston that I had known for a few years and he had been telling me about a baseball team he was playing on and had invited me to join over the past couple of years. I had not given it much thought as I thought him to be full of crap with most of the things he said but one day I see him wearing his team jersey and I ask him about it. he tells me it is for the team he has been telling me about and that winter practice would be starting soon. I told him that I was interested in playing and he told me to come to the first practice to see if I could make it. I spent the next month getting myself in shape to play baseball again at 40. I hadn’t played since my teenage years but I felt as strong as ever and was psyched for the opportunity. The first practice came on a cold and rainy January day and I had to ride my bike 40 minutes through it to get to the sport-hall. I knew I must really want this to have gone through that kind of weather and I arrived soaked from head to toe. The team was a mixed bag of folks from all over, about half were Dutch and the rest from various places, they were all very cool as they welcomed me in with open arms. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that my skills were still intact, I felt like a teenager again. It only took the one practice for the guys to officially invite me to join the team and of course I said yes, I was now a proud member of The VATOS, the coolest bunch of guys I would ever play or party with.
The winter indoor practice schedule soon turned to spring outdoor practice and it felt great to be back on a baseball field again. I was getting to know the guys better and they were all unique in their own way. There was my friend Willy who had initially told me about the team and he was a loud, proud fan of anything Boston and made sure everyone knew it. There was Bif the Canadian who I had actually know ever since the first summer in town as we had met at the Hill and he was just about the nicest guy I had ever met. There were the brothers Mel and Knip both very cool and also Clyde, Ralphie, Bubba, Mokie,and Rubin, all great guys with various talents. There was Ricky from California who had also just joined up and he was very good at baseball but even better he loved the ganja as much as I did and we were friends from day one. We also had Weeds, he was the ace pitcher, the best hitter and the best fielder on the team. He was the best player I had ever played with and I felt honored to play on the same field as him. Then we had Hans, he was forced onto the team by the field we played on and the team welcomed him with open arms, the only problem was that he was almost 60 and could not play very well at all. To his credit he was in good physical shape and I admired that he could even still run around at his age. I felt very lucky to have been invited into such a great bunch and with my return to the baseball field, all thoughts of packing it in vanished. my focus and determination were back and I wasn’t going anywhere.
The season started and it felt awesome to be back on the field again. I was able to dust of my skills enough to make the starting line-up playing left field. Unfortunately the team had been promoted by default as the club we were playing for had lost its best team and we were moved into their position in the league. We were literally out of our league and it showed as we were beaten soundly, time and time again. The best thing about the team is that it didn’t matter that we got beat every week because we had a blast either way. we would finish each game the same win or lose, by drinking beer and smoking joints. The summer seemed to fly by much too fast and before I knew it the season was ending. We ended up with 4 wins out of 20 games and needless to say were sent packing back to the league the VATOS had played in the previous year, a bit of a disappointment but at least next season we will be more evenly matched. With baseball season over, the rest of the year floated by fairly mundane. I was just working, playing pool and generally enjoying life. The new year was just around the corner and little did I know what changes 2008 would bring.
The year started with Etienne coming to me and saying that he would be switching apartments with his sister. She had been illegally sub-letting her apartment and the neighbor from downstairs had gotten her in trouble for it. Instead of just following the rules she decided that she would get Etienne to switch with her so she could continue to sub-let at the place we were in. He told me that I could move with him and I would do it as I had no other options but I didn’t like it one bit. We were leaving a great place in a cool neighborhood with very friendly neighbors for a place on a busy street with 2 tram lines going down it and a potential problem neighbor. I couldn’t see the logic in it but as I had no real say in the matter, we were going to move. on the day of the move Etienne rented a motorized ladder to help as we were going from one 3rd floor to another 3rd floor. Things went smooth with loading it up and taking it over to the new place, but when we arrived it all started heading south. Etienne was attempting to maneuver the ladder into place under the 3rd floor window and being unfamiliar with the controls he was jerking it around a bit. When he thinks he has it at the right height, he hits the button to push it towards the wall. Unfortunately he misjudged the height and instead of resting on the wall beneath our window, it smashes through the living-room window of the neighbor from downstairs, the same neighbor that his sister had a problem with. This was going to be a fine start with our new neighbor who Etienne’s sister had given the title ‘dragon lady’.
A Continuing Story About Life On The Run