he got a bad grade on a test and needed some time to “reflect.” Of course he was back by Sunday and drunk by Sunday night. We were never sure if he was more of a wimp or more of a jerk. Whatever the case, I told him to forget it and just kept drinking. The guys kept up the religious stuff, but then got onto other topics like farming and how their high school football teams were doing. At the moment I was too distraught to hear about Centennial High so I decided to give Chuck another call only this time I left a different kind of message. I guess the whole thing was just getting to me. Being in a bar in Idaho, drunk and discussing high school football is not how I expected this trip to go. There was no familiarity or certainty to any of it. Of course, those were the things I was trying to get away from, wasn’t I? I’m not really sure what I expected by coming up here…but it wasn’t this. By the time I got up and was
ready to drive I realized I didn’t have anywhere to go. I had run out of friends in the area which meant I should just start exploring on my own but for some reason that didn’t seem so appealing. I’m not exactly sure why though. I mean, this was the kind of stuff that I had envisioned when I originally left LA. I wanted to see what was out there and now that I was out here I wasn’t interested in seeing anything. That was a cause for concern but before I could get into all of that I got a phone call…from Chuck. As it turns out, the number I had for Chuck was actually his parent’s number. And since the message I just left him was more
coherent he could tell it was me so he called me to tell me he was staying with his parents and that I should come by. Conveniently enough they lived in Idaho, although Bliss was also right here and I had half a mind to just head there and stay there. Much as I wanted to yell at him and not even deal with him this would allow me to finally get rid of those golf clubs. Besides, there’s no way I could choke him over the phone and he actually wasn’t that far away so I figured I’d withhold my full wrath until then. For whatever reason he seemed excited to see me and even told me that I should check out some gorge which was on the way to his parent’s house. I was about to tell him I wasn’t interested, but when he said Evel Knievel once tried to unsuccessfully jump this particular gorge I was sold. I love seeing testaments to human failure. They make me feel better about myself. I couldn’t believe how big the thing actually was though. The scale of it was what got me and just seeing how high up you were and how huge across the thing is was something to behold. It’s mystifying that anyone would attempt to jump something so wide and deep. The man certainly had guts. No brains, but plenty of guts. Although Chuck and tons of other people remember him over numerous