'Yeah man...who knows. She's like that with everybody...'� I said.

we kicked down the alley by the market. The bar had closed and we had made it to the late mart for more beer and little bags of spicy hot peanuts

we ripped into the little bags of nuts and each cracked open a new sud. Ready for another round of bullshit

"she said if I showed up at their barbeque last week...that we should hang out...and talk...'� said my friend Jame, while contemplating the label on the hots nuts bag he held in his hand

"FUCKING...the TALK?" I rather yelled at 3:10 a.m.

"yeah...I think so. I don't know." went Jame

"oh fuck man. Pick a number, dude. The amount of other motherfuckers she has currently on the same sick plan would have filled the last bar we were at...FUCKING-."

then I shut up and heard the familiar quiet microwave oven-like hum of the motor and turned around and the cop car was practically on our heels

the lights kicked on and we stepped over to a nearby curb and set our bag down and set our opens down too

we both held on to our hot nuts and got a hot, spicy mouthful and then slowly reached in our pockets and fished out our I.D.'s

we stood there looking probably pretty stupid

we each still had a mouthful of spicy peanuts
wishing we had a tall beer in our hands

and what to say to the ladies

the cop got out of the car and I did my usual hands up disco dance

I did a twirl

and she said
"put your hands down...do you guys have identification?"

whoa

hold up

she

wasn't expecting that

it was late and we were drunk

but we did have I.D.
and maybe a chance

we handed them over
and backup arrived

a young blond rolled up and secured the scene(?)
she turned her head to one side to speak into a small radio speaker attached to the top of her uniform

she looked like she might have been doing what we were doing right now
maybe just a few years ago

so
while they were cops
they seemed more like ladies
and I tried to think
what would these ladies want
right now

I turned
and emptied our opened cans onto a bush
and put the cans back in the bag

I said to them-

'you can see our house from here...'

and something else that put us in the dumbass harmless category

the flashing lights turned off
and the I.D. cards came back

they didn't say anything to us

what could they say?

they probably both knew
we would be doing the same fucking thing
next weekeend
in the same fucking spot too

we were pretty much a joke to them and we all knew it

they both got back in their cars
and backed away from us

I got the old familiar feeling of when
I said something at the bar
that doesn't go down like you want it
but a little different
this time

I picked up our bag
and we kept going up the alley

finally the night
goes a little our way

I looked in the bag
4 tall cold beers
and more hot nuts

I felt another round
of bullshit
coming on

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