In downtown Cleaveland for a Grapple Groove house show at what used to be The Subprime Mortgage Corporation arena (it is now between corporate naming sponsors so is just The Arena this evening), Jake and North park about a mile away from the arena to find a free parking spot on the street. "One of my few religious tenets is to never pay for parking," North says, as he puts an anti-theft lock on his steering wheel.
On the walk through the crisp early spring evening through the near-deserted streets of downtown, Jake asks, "So do you think The Pamphleteer will be here tonight?"
"Yeah, man. That's totally a work. There's no way they would have let him get that far with it if it was real," North says, nodding to a homeless man they pass.
"I don't know. I think it's a shoot. I don't think they'd ever run a storyline about a union otherwise. I think he's really trying to form a wrestler union, which makes me bummed because I bet he won't be there tonight because they fired him," Jake says, growing warm as they walk, and unzipping his coat to compensate.
"The wrestling sites are ablaze with rumors, but nobody knows for sure," North says, then pointing across the street, "Hey, look at those guys!"
A few musicians are busking on a corner of Public Beware, the central crossroads of Cleaveland. They're all wearing matching dirty brown overalls. One plays guitar, another scrapes a washboard, a third bangs on a bucket, and the last tortures an accordion. A couple of hanger-ons, also in dirty brown overalls, don't play, but stand around. Two dogs, including a pit bull, looking bored, sit around a telephone pole next to them. Jake and North cross the street and stop to watch the band for a moment.
The man with the guitar sings, "Give me some money because the dogs are hungry and we need beer. Hopping trains and begging for change is why we're here."
North says, "You can tell they're not from Cleaveland. The bums here just expect that you should give them money. They don't try to earn it in any way."
Jake nods, but he and North still only give the musicians "props" and not money. Just as Jake and North start moving again, a woman passing by suddenly leans in front of Jake and hisses at him. She's missing teeth and Jake can smell alcohol on her breath. "Yah!" Jake yells from fright.
The woman laughs as Jake keeps moving. As they walk away, North asks, "Do you know her?"
"No, dude," Jake says, stopping to look back at the woman who now stumblingly approaches the musicians, "She just appeared out of nowhere and hissed at me. Man, that was weird."
"Hey dude, at least you're attracting women," North says and laughs, "Let's stop and watch this. It might be better than the wrestling we see tonight."
The woman starts dancing on the sidewalk. She takes off her jacket and starts swinging it around, then throws it on the ground. Next, she sticks her arms out like an airplane and buzzes the various musicians, who back away from her, try to ignore her, and keep playing. Occasionally, she stops and takes a swig from a bottle in a brown paper bag she's holding. One of the hanger-ons yells at her to stop buzzbombing the band, but she just stops, shakes up her bottle, sprays him and the dogs with whatever she's drinking, and then hisses at the musicians before she clears for takeoff again. The band stops playing, and tell her to get away from them, but she only stops and yells, "Shut up and play some more!" as she tries to pet the dogs, who back away from her.
The musicians grumbling, pack up and leave, while the woman keeps yelling at them to "Play some more! Make the dogs play!" interspersed with Moondog howls by the woman, and barks from the dogs.
"Dude, they should put her on Grapple Groove," North says, "This is probably more entertaining than anything else we'll see tonight, and she still might get in a fight with the squatter band, so it might end up being better wrestling too."
"Yeah, why are they dressed like they're in Dexy's Midnight Runners anyway?" Jake says, then notes that the woman, having apparently tired of the musicians not playing music, is now headed back their way, "Uh, oh, let's get moving. I don't want to get hissed at again."
"OK, but if we get lucky, she'll be sitting next to us. We did buy the cheapest seats," North says, following Jake towards the arena, "If she isn't, I'll hiss at Sir Mulberry in her honor."
Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.
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