it's always 2 am at Oscar's.

On a Saturday night I stopped into Tony's before getting on the train. I wanted to buy a shot of whiskey. I knew it cost $3. I didn't have any cash so I scanned my room for change and collected enough. I walked into a thick scene. I tried to sit at a stool but it was taken. A man, clearly a patron, asked if he could help me. It didn't seem like he was sincere. I stammered, "ah...uh...I...ah...just want..a shot of whiskey."

He pointed to my driver's license and said, "We don't take cards." As I began to explain that I intended to pay with a clumsy pack of coins, a woman, presumably his wife or girlfriend or, now that I think about it, his sister (or total stranger) began to pantomime smacks and blows behind him.

I moved to the other end of the bar where a regular asked me if I'd been served. I told him no and he in turn told the waitress that I wanted a shot of whiskey. He made small talk but I couldn't hear it. I explained, "I'm deaf in my left ear..."

He cut me off - "No need to explain, I am too." I was shocked.

"Really?"

"Yes, it's something that happened to me when I was very young." Bewildered and skeptical I told him I'd contracted meningitus as a child. "So did I." He noticed my meager currency and offered to trade me bills. When my shot came there was no option but to toast this stranger's kindness. His name was Luis and the whiskey (house) was brutal.

crookedlist: ghosts

TOP 5 CROOKED GHOSTS

5. mitzvah crookedmaus
we killed this mouse because she made us feel dumb and now, every night, her essence sits cross leggéd on the oatmeal, weeping and strumming a lyre made of nightmares.

4. chilly willy peen


3. 15th and Chestnut
I was on the 12th floor and needed to go to the 1st. I rang for the elevator and when it arrived it had an arrow pointing down. I stepped in alone and pressed 1. The elevator went up to the 14th floor, didn't open and then stopped on the 13th floor. The doors opened and no one got on.

2. the ghost on the stairs
One night I was walking up the crooked steps that lead to Cesar and I's rooms, when I was startled as though I had run into someone walking down. I didn't have the physical sensation of running into a person but was taken aback / shocked like I would have been if I had suddenly bumped into someone I hadn't seen coming down the stairs. I yelped.

1. Ziggy
As William Penn was the mastamind behind 9/11, Ziggy is the patron saint of Crooked. He only exists at 7 am and only appears to me, but Cesar and Nikki can hear him. He's not actually dead but he will be one day and for that we salute him. He built this weird house.

baby's first heels

red is teaching nikki how to walk in heels downstairs.

dawn of a new era

"...tequila-water."

agh

every time i fly into or out of philadelphia i end up on an american airlines death trip. bad news constantly over the PA and flights that are supposed to take 3 hours tops taking 8. 5 aren't even spent in the air, just on the god damn plane.

tonight it was this:

Jet Makes Crash Landing at Philadelphia International

we couldn't land becase the airport was shut down so we hightailed it to baltimore where i sampled the local tenders. no mouse by christmas.

time of the year

12/03

we wanna go to this party

niknak