Uncle Drew's Lysergic Backbrain Apocalypse (Slight Return)
David pulled me aside. “Hey, Uncle James, check out what I got in the cooler tonight.” I took a pull off his cooler and warm tequila poured down my throat. David looked at me with twinkling, permafried Santa Claus eyes. “Not everyone is cool here, bro…you know what I mean?”
I looked around at Nick Armstrong, chopping away at a side of beef. Across the banquet area, Fat Brad had Terry and a couple of the peanuts peeling the shells off jumbo shrimp.
“It’s okay,” whispered David, “but you need to simmer down in earshot of those who don’t understand. How’d you like that Curtis Mayfield tape I dubbed you?”
“Great,” I said.
“You want to hear some more good stuff? Tonight I’m gonna give you a tape of Jaco Pastorius. You ever heard of Jaco?”
“No,” I said.
“You’re gonna like Jaco. Jaco’s a player. You just go kick some ass for a while, don’t worry ‘bout none of this other stuff for a while.”
“Cool,” I said, and ran to the dish pit. Ralph Johnson was yakking with the Chef. It seemed as though he was giving me a dirty look. I wondered what his problem was.
Later, David made good on his promise and gave me a Jaco Pastorius mix tape. I took it home and listened to it. He was right; Jaco was a player.
C.F. Roberts is a writer, visual artist, videographer and antimusician living in Northwest Arkansas with his wife, writer Heather Drain and a small menagerie of animals. He published and edited SHOCKBOX: The Literary/Art Magazine with Teeth from 1991 to 1996. He sings lead for the rock band, the S.E. Apocalypse Krew while also commandeering his own industrial project, 90 Lb. Tumor. He most recent publication credits are in Fearless, Paraphilia, Pressure Press Presents, Crab Fat Literary Magazine, The Birds We Piled Loosely, Blue Collar Review, Corvus Review, Antique Children, and Guerilla Genesis Press. His book, The Meat Factory and Other Stories, is available from Alien Buddha Press.
