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At The Hop, And Afterwards




errol miller




In 58 I was going steady
with Barbara, but I had met Lily Pearl
from Pea Ridge, and I'd go over to see
her on Sunday afternoon before going
out with Barbara on Sunday night.

Farris and I had been friends
through all of high school. He was
the mayor's son, and his family owned
the Chrysler-Plymouth dealership
in our small town. But
Farris didn't let his status go to
his head. He was just a regular fella.
He was always A-OK in my book.

Anyway, one Sunday afternoon Farris
asked me if he could ride over to Lily Pearl's
with me. He wasn't going with anyone then.
I said sure, so we went. Coming home,
Farris pointed out I already had a
steady girlfriend + Lily Pearl
and that he didn't have any. He
asked if it was alright for him to ask
Lily Pearl out. As a friend,
what could I say?

Farris had been going to college
at Auburn, (a family tradition) but honestly,
I don't think he was making the grades.
What he needed the most was
some intense loving. I think
Lily Pearl gave it to him, at least
that's the way it looked at the
Rebel Drive-In Theater.

So shortly thereafter they got married.
(why rent when you can own, right?)
Then things changed, especially expectations.
Farris said it was hell to pay for years,
that he could do no right, that the only
sex in their marriage was when Lily Pearl
was slipping around on the side...
That was in the Sixties.
And then the divorce.
There was one child and three wounded.

I saw Farris the other day
(October, 92) for the first time in 16 years.
He wasn't the suave halfback from
the football team in 56, he'd blossomed
up to 240, drinking many beers, smoking
many cigarettes, placing many bets
on his portable phone, said life
had been hell for him, that
he'd married his second wife just
for her money but now she required him
to make a lot of money too 'cause
she wanted another new house
in the Ritz Subdivision. And there
was the mother-in-law that lived
with them who had a nervous condition,
that they couldn't have company
and that was why he had to
meet me in a bar...

I matched him beer-for-beer,
but I was drinking Sharps, he
had changed, of course, giving up on love,
it seemed to me, destined to bloat on
up to Heaven pretty pretty pissed
about the scheme of things...


(originally appeared in Mobius)



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