Tony Redux

I am tired and can feel that I might just say, “fuck you” to someone who doesn’t deserve it. I’m gonna try to keep this brief.

Tony shows up about an hour late and drunk. He is overly-interactive with the customers in that drunk kind of way where random conversations, handshakes, high-fives spontaneously erupt. The show is started so I can’t talk with him long, but essentially I tell him to sober up and return two hours later. He does, he’s more sober and he’s wearing a different shirt; a red t-shirt with “volunteer” on the back. Hipster points are sure to be scored with such a shirt. He does a tolerable job of cleaning up. Pretty much what I’d expect of a fifty some alcoholic homeless vet with colon cancer. At the end of the night the judgment is that the Cradle, one loud voice of the Cradle, doesn’t want him working there. The verdict? He’s going to spend the money on alcohol, so giving him a job is counter-beneficial. Fucking Christ, of course he’s going to spend some money getting drunk. Do I really think that some job picking up bottles is going to help him turn his life around before he dies of cancer? At least we can give him a reason to not get drunk and maybe some task which could build some minor self esteem.

After the show Tony tells me its the first full shift he’s worked in 10 years and he’s gonna celebrate by getting himself some pussy. “Quality pussy.”