joe

When I was first in Vancouver I used to go to a shop, it used to be an apartment, a two bedroom apartment, and that was the shop. It had a phone and I had memorized the number and used to call it from a pay phone, just like a real business. I started going out with a guy who ran it, his name was Joe. Joe's shop on Commercial Drive had the best weed in town. He had a co-worker and I'm stupid now to forget the name but I think his friend's name was.. I can't remember. The cops used to bust in all the time steal all the weed and leave the shop a mess. Joe one time wanted to tell me he had a crocodile or an alligator, I can't remember which one. So of course to prove himself to me he brought the alligator to the shop one day and lo and behold, one of the bedrooms of the shop had turned into an enclosure for amphibian, not just any amphibian but I really large toothed alligator. Because I had just arrived in Canada then, I was Rife with all of my personal problems, many of them unknown to me. As it happened Joe had to leave town frequently, and one summer the first summer, he phoned me from his house in the kootenes, and asked me if I wanted to fly out there. I don't know why I said no. I'm sure today if I had said yes I would have had children by now and they would be grown and I would still be able to live my life as an adult free from responsibilities of children. But I said no and in consequence I lived the rest of the life that I had in Canada suffering with my problems. To date it's my biggest regret. Sometimes I'll see something that reminds me of Joe. These days somebody's been spray painting his name everywhere I am. I don't know who's doing it but it sure does make me cry. Sometimes i see joe in my guy friends, specially darryl. Which is totally weird......