Night-time walking

Sometimes I go for a walk.

Last night, I was in the walking mood. It's a mood kind of like the mean reds...you know, like the blues except for you're not getting fat and it's not raining. You're just sad, that's all. (And if you get that reference, I will kiss you.) So I grabbed my pack of Camel Lights, and my wallet, intending to buy a Mountain Dew at a vending machine down the road.

I don't smoke much, in fact I do very rarely. More often than not I just put the cig behind my ear. It's for show mostly. To look cool. However, last night I smoked four.

I set the tone immediately, my legs striking pavement cleanly and methodically. It was a bereaved walk. I walked on the left, tensely waiting the passing of each car as it came over my right shoulder. Everyone drives well over the speed limit here.

I made it to the mini oasis where my green slice of America awaited me. But somehow when I went to push the button my body betrayed me. I was convinced last second of the power of 50 lemons worth of Vitamin C packed into one can: CC Lemon. I had been feeling a bit under the weather and Vitamin C is at the very least a placebo for the trickle in my throat. I stood there next to the vending machine like a good Japanese boy sipping my soft-drink. It gave me time to hide in the shadows from the on-coming cars and to further investigate the selection. There was Pepsi-Cola in limited edition cans...that almost took 120 of my yen. There were family sized bottles of sweetened sports drinks for only 200 yen. And then I saw it: "American Coffee." The beige colored can was star-studded with an etching of a giant Cadillac and a voluptuous American woman lounging on the hood, one shoulder up, accentuating the hollow of her collar-bone. I had to have this. I put in my 120 yen, pressed the button, and picked up the can. It was an "American Coffee" but it had a different picture on the side by the same artist. So I tried a second time. This time a second separate design dropped down the chute. So calmly I tried again. We all know that the third time's the charm, but I was fully prepared for a 12-set design, and was going to keep popping hyaku-en coins until I got what I wanted. Anyway, it's not like I don't drink coffee.

As luck had it, the third try was the charm. I slid the other 2 cans down each front pocket and kept the prize in my coat, my pack of cigs opposite balancing her out. And that's how I walked through the rest of the mean reds; my thighs warmed by coffee, my baby linking fingers with mine.


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