only crashing through in waves

i felt like i had been at the beach all day, waiting for the other David and my parents to show up so we could hop on a plane for Toronto. the beach was impossibly deep, the white sand spanning to forever from the subway station right in front of it. the sea was rough. the waves were coming in at sharp angles and i was instantly reminded of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, minus the surfers. it was even hotter than i expected. my black hoodie was suffocating me and rubbing against my irritated skin. David had already been there when I arrived, barely said hi and headed straight for the sand. i waited further back and ran into Stevie B again in the parking lot. we had met earlier at some strange gathering with Joey and a few other people from my distant past. he had pulled me aside in a different parking lot and told me under his breath that all of them had been staring somewhat hungrily at Amy. nothing serious, he told me. but you could tell he was bothered. i sincerely shrugged it off. besides, Joey seemed more concerned about finding more high rise construction work now that he had mortgaged a house, a car and countless other things. the old cart before the horse routine - typical Joey. i felt almost no pity for him and we talked about just that as i got into Stevie's car. "if i would have done the same thing back at Apple Pie, we would have recorded with the Chandlers," he joked, emphasizing the last bit in his signature way. i was waiting for more jokes about the Digi-02 and latency. instead he made a sharp right and went back to talking about all the equipment he was going to buy for the studio once his business dealings were done and he could finally settle in. i kind of started to feel sorry for him; i felt i had heard all this before. it was only back at the beach that i remembered he was scared of flying. he assured me he'd be fine this time. that's when my parents walked out of the subway. introductions all around. i told them Stevie would be flying with us as well. we would go back to find David and then get going. we started into the water together and then i warned my mom the waves were really rough. i said it in a way that would simultaneously prove my own toughness, except the wave that suddenly formed the second the words spilled off my tongue became a thing of sheer terror. rising in that same impossible distance, it went from six feet to two hundred feet in what seemed like the blink of an eye. everyone screamed and started to run. i saw the wave crash right behind me, then swallow me from behind. i wondered in that instance if i had taken enough of a breath to deal with the aftermath.

hang me out to dry

i was on a giant platform high up in the air in some kind of Cirque du Soleil training facility. joey and i needed to harness ourselves to the zip line that ran over a giant pool below. Although we hooked on individually we could only move together. cursing heights, i wanted no part of this. we started off okay but a quarter of the way in he started shaking the line - the way someone standing on one end of a hanging wooden bridge might stamp in order to shake the other. i begged him to stop. he knew it was freaking me out but he continued for what seemed like forever. he was laughing this exaggerated slimy chuckle and flipping around the line like a tshirt on a super windy day. watching him made me nauseous. at some point i sensed him tire of the joke. he straightened himself out and carried us both to the other side in record time. he jumped onto the opposite platform like a trained acrobat and lowered me in the water - gentle like a hospital elevator. i hit the pool with a violent splash and felt the water rush into my nose. but i was so relieved.

too old for all this

i was hanging out in the old LDV schoolyard - the elementary school i so often revisit in my dreams. joey was there as well. except this time we weren't roaming the hallways or  avoiding tests we hadn't studied for. we were waiting for U2 to show up and play their new single. the school yard was packed and everyone was all grown up. joey went looking to score some Ecstasy from a guy who looked a lot like Keith. he was wearing sunglasses despite it being dark out. i was watching two ridiculous girls with loud Italian accents emerge from a pair of facing whose headlights were kissing. they were laughing hysterically and wondering aloud why their huge breasts no longer fit into their skimpy outfits. i thought i heard one of them say that maybe they were getting too old for all this. or maybe i just filled in the blanks. joey came back with three pills. i didn't mention anything about my own stash. i insisted there was no way Bono was going to play an entire concert in a school yard. not without proper security. the atmosphere reminded me of those old church feast summer nights. U2 finally showed up in a furry purple bus, played a couple of songs and then left for some after party. but we had our own party to get to. as we were descending the escalators to the metro i wanted to ask him about Nathalina but thought better of it. we both knew i didn't really want to be there but he thanked me anyway. i think i said you're welcome. i told him i was already tired and wasn't even sure the drugs would make a difference at this point. maybe we were getting too old for this as well.