DAVIE DAYS AND SATURDAYS

It was just after nine at night when the phone rang. The call display said it was Ollie. I wondered what he could possibly want this late on a Friday night.
“Can you open tomorrow?”
Fuck!
“Peggy stubbed her toe and she can’t stand on it. She was crying on the phone.”
I hummed and hawed. If I opened, it meant I would have to go to bed as soon as I hung up the phone. The worst part was, I could use the money. I’ve overspent.
“Can we at least open at seven instead of six?”
Ollie winced into the phone.
“Oh, all right!”
As soon as I hung up the phone, I remembered that Saturday was Davie Day - the business association’s attempt at a street fair. The streets were being closed at ten in the morning. I was scheduled until eleven. There was the potential for it to be very busy and stressful.
It turned out I had nothing to fear. In typical Vancouver fashion, they didn’t actually close off Davie for Davie Day, just the block of Bute on either side of Davie. We can’t interrupt the bus routes you know, it’s very inconvenient. My shift was pretty much a breeze.
Upchuck ended up going back to my place after work. “Guess who I saw on my way up here?” he asked.
“Lurch?”
“Yup.”
I lost my enthusiasm for Davie Day. The last couple of days, I’ve been imagining bumping into Lurch, have even considered deleting him from my phonebook. I’ve practically conjured him. I’m not even sure how I feel about him one way or the other. What’s the point of getting worked up over a fight you had with a friend who was distant to start with. Still, like it or not, I’m going to run into him sometime, somewhere, probably when I’m stoned and least expect it.
“I’m going to need to go to this thing incognito,” I told Upchuck. I put in my contact lenses and wore a button-down shirt.
“That’s incognito?”
“Nobody recognizes me when I’m cleaned up.”
We took Burnaby up to the cul-de-sac at Bute. We were just in time to catch Joan-E do a number. I haven’t seen her perform in a really long time. There’s a reason she’s making a living as a drag queen. The crowd was slowly starting to build. People had to be told to sit down so the people behind them could see. The usual. Then Kim Kuzma came on. She’s a local performer who moved to San Francisco. I guess she used to be really popular or something.
“My ass is starting to hurt. Wanna check out the rest of it?” I asked Upchuck.
“Sure.”
We crossed Davie to the other side of Bute. I was stoned and leading, concentrating on not walking face first into anyone. “There’s that guy from the Pilsner who says he’s straight,” Upchuck said.
“Which one?” Like I cared, but for that instant I did.
“The guy sitting in the pick-up.”
I looked back at the guy. He was kind of average looking.
“Did you hear what I just said?”
“The guy in the pick-up.”
“No. I said, ‘There’s Lurch!’”
“Where?”
“He just passed the bus stop.”
“How close were we?”
“You nearly bumped into him!”
“Did he see me?”
“Judging from the hard right he made, I’d say he did.”
“Whew. I told you my disguise works.”
As we crossed Davie, I wondered what went through Lurch’s mind when he saw me with Upchuck. It was probably his worst nightmare realized. I felt like I was in grade school again. A tent was set up on the other side of Bute St so people could voice their opinions to representatives of the Business Association. There was this really cool aerial photo of the neighbourhood, about four feet long. They should have it on a postcard. I tuned in a little bit to hear what people were saying. People really seem to take issue with the Business Association. There were a lot of complaints about the street people but no viable solutions. Outside the tents were examples of nieghbourhood upgrades. It was pretty cool.
That was it for Davie Day as far as Upchuck and I were concerned. We went to The Pilsner and got really drunk, then he came back here and we watched the documentary,” Little Sisters vs. Big Brother.” It doesn’t get any more Davie Day than that.

GarpinBC