Toute vie véritable est rencontre.
Martin BUBER


Day 15

am (smog)

pm (smog)

Rides = nil
Arrival = Chicago
km travelled = nil
$ spent = $12.00 (Youth Hostel book, a book ?)
Time passed on the road = nil
km walked = 3


The Sears Tower

I walked to the Navy Pier and looked at the water. The lake is like an ocean. I went back to the Y around 6 pm. I ended up hanging out outside. There were some people on the steps talking and some more in the parking lot playing basketball. I met Sabrine. She said that we should go for a beer, which we did. We started walking away from the YMCA. The City was humid and quiet. We walked in zigzags. The sun was setting and it was getting dark. The neighbourhoods looked more rough as we went. There was a lot of garbage in the streets. Finally we found a bar. It was a three story brick building standing by itself in an empty lot. The neon sign had some letters missing. The building was kind of leaning a bit on its side, like the Tower of Pisa. We went in. There were a few people inside. They all looked at us in silence. The music was faint. We walked toward the barman who was standing at the far end of the counter. Sabrine ordered two beers and the barman said that we were too young to be there. The legal age to drink is 21 years. Sabrine and I are both 19. We went out and sat on the curb, on the other side of the street, just outside our Tower of Pisa. We smoke a cigarette and cursed the system until Lopez arrived.

Lopez: Hey what's up you guys?

Sabrine: They don't want us to drink..

Lopez: Why is that?

Sabrine: We're not 21.

Lopez: Give me the money, I'll get you you some beers.

We gave Lopez enough money to buy 6 beers. He went in. The neon sign flashed only a few times before he came back with a paper bag dangling at the end of his arm and yelling some kind of victory cry. He said: "Come with me, my friends are just out there," pointing the parking lot beside the bar. We followed him and our beer and met up with Jim and Jorge who were paying Frisbee. We shared the beers. Jorge stood in front of me and said, "Just stay there, don't move, I will show you a karate trick." It didn't sound very good. I said that I would prefer not to participate. He said, "Its Ok, just don't move." He seemed very excited about showing me his trick but I kept saying that I would rather be not involved. He started dancing in front of me, and all of a sudden, he throws his whole body in the air, turned on himself and gave a good kick forward. I made the same kind of movement but backward. If I would have stayed there, he would have decapitated me. He shouted, "Fuck I said not to move man!" He was getting louder and started once again to move his hands back and forth. Then Jim came in. He was a big guy and he came between me and Jorge and said to him, "Leave the 'Frenchy' alone!" That was enough to stop the karate séance.

We drank more beers. I played mouth harp with Jim. I realized at the end of our jam that he did not have a harmonica. He was making a perfect impression of one using his hands! At some point I realized that Lopez, Jorge and Sabrine were not there anymore. I zigzagged back to the Y by myself.




-Daniel





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dugas

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