Alex Tedesco - I Don’t Want To [mp3]
Tallboy tender, tellingly tethered until the cold caved into my hands. The rotational pull of escaping air from a puncture the size of a thumbtack. En route for tacos on a Tuesday, we encountered a flattened wheel flattening and embarked to walk the remaining distance between the site of the incident and the site of fifty cent taco shells full of sopping wet beans slopping from their crevice onto a paper plate too thin to conceal the moisture from the table and we’ll use plastic forks to scrape up those lost toppings, peeling imperceptibly the bleached cardboard fibers and maybe scraping all the way through just slightly to the unwashed surface below, consuming from our forks whatever substances happen to happen upon the tines. She walked with the injured bicycle, her limp mimicking the lopsided reeling in the front and her forearm tensed at having to lift the frame slightly away from the pavement so as to prevent any damage to the rim. There was a slant in her words delivered at the angle of one who cares deeply about challenging the notions of “setback” or “inconvenience” as we considered the probability of having to journey homeward from the bar exactly as we arrived.
She asked, “Precisely how much beer does one need to drink to be OK with walking a crippled bike three miles through the cold night?” We settled on four and once arrived, we secured our bikes to whatever signposts were available in the vicinity and actually the sidewalk was far more free of bicycles than in times past on account of the nearing snow above in the sky, and downstairs in the basement bar the seats were far more free of people than in times past on account of the nearing snow above in the streets, and at the bar we received service far more free of pretension and disdain than in times past but probably that had nothing to do with the snow. Tacos and beer were consumed in a predictable fashion and as the time neared to depart, the snow began to fall.
For as long as I could remember she would walk with her bike in one hand and a can of beer in the other, silhouetted against an array of sordid soaking fabrics falling through the hot bright streetlights of Main Street. The snow left wonder racing through our minds at such a tropical locale being visited upon by the solid moisture mainstays of our long forgotten motherland. It sat awkwardly on the palm trees before sliding from the leaves onto our bodies and we rolled walking in the sheets of foam melting into our clothing. The four beers fell short of warming our souls for the three mile jaunt and we soon found ourselves on the outer periphery of downtown, tallboys in hand. The snapping crack echoed through the menacingly manicured welcome rug which sat at the foot of the only skyscraper in town causing the both of us to laugh presumptively at our brazen display of public intoxication. Her hands were home to superior circulation and I found myself soon unable to contain what little warmth remained in my fingertips. The can was abandoned at the corner and for the remainder of the walk, she cackled wildly at her perspective by incongruity, at the settling sun in my heart, at the sheer abuse endured to do something just a little different that night and once upon the porch smoking a parting cigarette, we agreed that it were quite alright to do stupid things sometimes.
Alex Tedesco is a rhythm and blues band from Michigan. The featured song is from the album Future Strains. Purchase the music at Bandcamp.
