Pretend This didn't Happen

The New Job Offer

Back at the home in the two bedroom suite where Gary had started to set up his gym the night before. Crawling from his bed, Gary, still groggy as all muscles in his body refused to cooperate, he laid in bed a whlie longer. Geting up he made himself an instant coffee before going out the front door to retrieve the paper.  Sitting down to read the paper and drink his morning coffee' Gary first pulled a coffee pot from a cupboard below and to the right of the kitchen sink and opened the can of coffee he made himself a pot of coffee before putting together the rest of the gym and deciding to work himself up a bit of a sweat. After twenty minutes on the gym, Gary sat back at the kitchen table with a freshly brewed coffee, he opened the newspaper to the classified section to see what was going on in the world around him today.

After two or three coffee's Gary remembered he had Jerome's card in his pocket and decided he would make the call. The telephone was beside the loveseat in the livingroom of his suite, Gary dialed the number and sat down to wait for the response. "Hello, it's Jerome here" the voice on the other end announced. "What can I do for you today?" Jerome questioned. "Or better yet what can you do for me?"

Gary laughed at the proposal "that is what I am calling you about. This is Gary here we met outside of the service station lastnight and you gave me your card asking me to call you" Gary explained "what's up?"

"Yeah" Jerome pondered on the other end of the line for a moment and the line fell silent. "Right, right, right, Gary, man it's been a long time" Jerome started. "I was just a brat still wet behind the ears when I last saw you." Jerome went on "You were giving me guitar lessons before you disappeared, I found out later that you'd went to jail for murdering someone who raped a friend of mine." Jerome cleared his throught "Good job by the way, she is still a mess though. I was wondering if you still played. I play shows at a lounge and could use another guitarist and vocalist in the band. Our last one overdosed on some shit a few days ago and the one we have as a back up is leaving the country in six months." Jerome cleared his throught once more "I will give you a week to think about it but I will need to start looking elsewhere afterward."

"Wait, wait." Gary's memory of the boy that used to cut the lawn around his appartment building from a whole lifetime ago surfaced. "I remember offering the boy who did lawn care where I lived before going to prison, guitar lessons." Gary stated "Yeah, yeah, yes, Jerome, I remember you now." Gary continued "I'll do it but you need to come pick me up and drive me to a music store where I can get another guitar. I have not played in years but I am sure if I have six months to practice I will get myself back in the groove."

"It's a deal." Jerome  got directions to Gary's "I'll be there to get you in about an hour tops." The line fell silent and then a click to the dial tone, Gary hung up the phone  and went to the kitchen to finnish his moring coffee.  After finnishing his coffee Gary threw two burritos into the microwave for two minutes and twenty two seconds and taking a paper plate out of the cupboard and a fork and knife and a can opener from the drawer before removing  the burritos from the microwave and a can of beans to open and poured over the burritos before sitting down to eat. 

Gary finished his coffee and soon after Jerome showed up in the driveway while he was tossing the ball around with Jayden, one of his neighbors. Tossing the ball to Jordan, Jayden's twin brother who was now entering the feild, "my ride's here, I gotta go" he climbed into the trucks passenger seat and closed the door behind him. "So where are you taking me to?" Gary aked Jerome.

"We're going to go get you a guitar at Music Universe," Jerome looks over at Gary while backing out of the driveway "they have everything there, all types of musical equiptment. And many varieties and brands also."  After driving a ways jerome asks Gary what he thinks he'd be getting.

"I haven't thought of it all that much" Gary replies, "I think I remember the ones I liked the most being the Ibanez six string electric, and the Fender twelve string acoustic" Gary notices a few butts in the ashtray and so doesn't find it necessary to ask if he can smoke in the vehical. He takes his tobacco from his pocket and rolls two smokes, one for himself and one for Jerome. After putting the a smoke in the ashtray Gary light his "It's a toss up between the Fender bass amp and the Marshall stack as to the favorites I remember using." Gary explains between puffs of his smoke "I think I will get both."

After an hour of driving through traffic the truck came to a stop outside of a two story brick building, with a large sign displaying a logo and in bright blue lettering 'Music Universe', the two old friends exited the vehicle and went inside. Instruments adorn the walls inside the building. Without hesitation Gary collected the equipment and all of the accessories he had spoke of earlier and purchased before leaving the store. "OK, now I have some direction as what to do next," Gary states once back inside the vehicle "give me the playlist of songs to practice and we'll be good to go come six months time, together we'll shine."

"I like that" Jerome says. "Shine" Jerome nods his head in a show of approval before they make their way back to Gary's home. 

"Hey," Gary pipes up after setting a second smoke in the ashtray and lighting one for himself "stop somewhere that I can get a pouch of tobacco. "

"Yeah sure," Jerome chuckles "my girlfriend is going to like you already if you intend on leaving smokes in the ashtray for her." Jerome gets back to paying attention to where he's driving, while Gary lights smoke after smoke until they reach the dinner about a mile from where Gary lived. Gary went to the counter and ordered a whole tub of Tobacco this time and an entire box of rolling papers. "OK, I will get you home now to get yourself aquainted with the instruments I remember you playing so well," Jerome tells Gary after he climbs into the truck "I am really looking forward to hearing you play again" driving Gary home.  Jordan and Jayden both walk off the field to help Gary unload his new equipment from the truck box. "It's been really nice seeing you again, Gary" Jerome states before driving away.