Night Train
(2)
Today I was running the NC 400 encapsulating machine. You have to wear a mask. It looks like a WWI gasmask, with a canister and all. Inside the canister are paper filters and charcoal filters. But still the dust gets through. The worst is the wormwood, the dust you get when we encapsulate the wormwood powder. The turmeric is bad too. But the wormwood is poisonous. It’s worse than mustard gas. If you get sick? We don’t have medical, no sick days and no vacation days. That’s Big Bluto. Complain? Not unless you want to hit the bricks. There are hundreds of desperadoes camped out there in the tall weeds who’ll snap up your job in a minute. Don’t fuck with Hoppy!
But we did have a good laugh today, Dionisio and I. We learned through the grapevine that some of the monkeys in shipping boosted a whole shitload of Dr. Sharpe’s Shakti Tonic and sold it on the street at five bucks a pop.
The time is coming, however, when I may have to put some distance between myself and Dionisio. I’m going to have to cut this joker loose, that’s what I’m thinking. The other day we were over in the barrio on Sixth Street near Lafayette Park and Dionisio goes up to this ice cream vendor. I thought he was going to buy me an ice cream sandwich, but the guy opens up the top of his jingle cart and—guns. My man gave the ice cream guy some bills and pocketed a snub-nosed 38. Later on, when we were sitting in the park with a jug of Mona Lisa tokay, he told me, “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman.” He was serious, too. When Dionisio talks English he talks like Al Pacino. Bottom line is, he’s bought into the dream, hook, line and sinker. But it’s not for me. I’m not cut out for that sort of thing. If it’s that hard to get the woman, I’d rather live under a bridge and jack off. But he’s challenging me now, all the time. Do I want to be a callejero all my life? Where’s your cojones, man? You do what you gotta do to survive. If you want something, you take it. The Pacino business again. I don’t like being around Dionisio when he talks English. He’s becoming a dangerous man.
Continue...