Where I'm Calling From

floor. The bars and nightclubs were still serving, so people hadn’t turned up in any real numbers yet. I helped Donna take off her coat. We picked a booth and put our cigarettes on the table. The spade waitress named Hannah came over. Hannah and me nodded. She looked at Donna. I ordered us two RC specials and decided to feel good about things.
    After the drinks came and I’d paid and we’d each had a sip, we started hugging. We carried on like this for a while, squeezing and patting, kissing each other’s face. Every so often Donna would stop and draw back, push me away a little, then hold me by the wrists. She’d gaze into my eyes. Then her lids would close slowly and we’d fall to kissing again. Pretty soon the place began to fill up. We stopped kissing. But I kept my arm around her. She put her fingers on my leg. A couple of spade hornplayers and a white drummer began fooling around with something. I figured Donna and me would have another drink and listen to the set. Then we’d leave and go to her place to finish things.
    I’d just ordered two more from Hannah when this spade named Benny came over with this other spade-this big, dressed-up spade. This big spade had little red eyes and was wearing a three-piece pinstripe. He had on a rose-colored shirt, a tie, a topcoat, a fedora—all of it.
    “How’s my man?” said Benny.
    Benny stuck out his hand for a brother handshake. Benny and I had talked. He knew I liked the music, and he used to come over to talk whenever we were both in the place. He liked to talk about Johnny Hodges, how he’d played sax backup for Johnny. He’d say things like, “When Johnny and me had this gig in Mason City.”
    “Hi, Benny,” I said.
    “I want you to meet Nelson,” Benny said. “He just back from Nam today. This morning. He here to listen to some of these good sounds. He got on his dancing shoes in case.” Benny looked at Nelson and nodded. “This here is Nelson.”
    I was looking at Nelson’s shiny shoes, and then I looked at Nelson. He seemed to want to place me from somewhere. He studied me. Then he let loose a rolling grin that showed his teeth.
    “This is Donna,” I said. “Donna, this is Benny, and this is Nelson. Nelson, this is Donna.”
    “Hello, girl,” Nelson said, and Donna said right back, “Hello there, Nelson. Hello, Benny.”
    “Maybe we’ll just slide in and join you folks?” Benny said. “Okay?”
    I said, “Sure.”
    But I was sorry they hadn’t found someplace else.
    “We’re not going to be here long,” I said. “Just long enough to finish this drink, is all.”
    “I know, man, I know,” Benny said. He sat across from me after Nelson had let himself down into the booth. “Things to do, places to go. Yes sir, Benny knows,” Benny said, and winked.
    Nelson looked across the booth to Donna. Then he took off the hat. He seemed to be looking for something on the brim as he turned the hat around in his big hands. He made room for the hat on the table. He looked up at Donna. He grinned and squared his shoulders. He had to square his shoulders every few minutes. It was like he was very tired of carrying them around.
    “You real good friends with him, I bet,” Nelson said to Donna. “We’re good friends,” Donna said.
    Hannah came over. Benny asked for RCs. Hannah went away, and Nelson worked a pint of whiskey from his topcoat.
    “Good friends,” Nelson said. “Real good friends.” He unscrewed the cap on his whiskey.
    “Watch it, Nelson,” Benny said. “Keep that out of sight. Nelson just got off the plane from Nam,” Benny said.
    Nelson raised the bottle and drank some of his whiskey. He screwed the cap back on, laid the bottle on the table, and put his hat down on top of it. “Real good friends,” he said.
    Benny looked at me and rolled his eyes. But he was drunk, too. “I got to get into shape,” he said to me.
    He drank RC from both of their glasses and then held the glasses under the table and poured whiskey.
    He put the bottle in his coat pocket. “Man, I ain’t put my lips to a reed for a month now. I got to get with it.”
    We were bunched in the booth, glasses in front of us, Nelson’s hat on the table. “You,” Nelson said to me. “You with somebody else, ain’t you? This beautiful woman, she ain’t your wife. I know that. But you real good friends with this woman. Ain’t I right?”
    I had some of my drink. I couldn’t taste the whiskey. I couldn’t taste anything. I said, “Is all that