I see him every morning at the beach. Well, in the parking lot at the beach. Older guy, but probably not as old as he looks.
George.
A couple of mornings ago, I noticed that the rear window of his beat-up hatchback was blown out. He said that the night before, his car had been parked on the side of the road with the hazard lights on, because he’d run out of gas. He’d embarked on the couple mile walk to the gas station, and when he came back, a kid on an e-bike had gone through the back window and ended up between the driver and passenger seat.
The kid was ok, and the cops pieced enough of the story together to figure out that George wasn’t at fault. The kid just wasn’t paying attention.
George shook his head and said that was all fine and good, but he didn’t know what he was going to do about his ‘casa.’
It took me a second to put two and two together… George’s car was always there, parked in the same handicapped-designated spot a few feet from the beach shower. Sometimes he’d be laid out in the back seat. Cooler and chair next to the car. Shirts hanging from the grab bars. Dishes on the hood. Shorts drying on the side mirror.
About 20 years ago I wrote a song called ‘What’s She Going Home To’ with an old-school country songwriter, about a woman I’d seen walking into a small San Diego listening room. She was there to see that songwriter play a show, but not how most of us see a show.
I knew, because of her careful, measured approach down the aisle with a white cane, because of her large dark glasses, because of the way the bouncer shooed people away from her seat in in the front row. She sang every word to every song, and I walked outside after the show, just as she was feeling her way on to a public bus. She sat down behind the driver, under the fluorescent lights and advertisements, and in a puff of exhaust, was gone.
I wondered what she was going home to.
Here’s how that song turned out:
Anyway, I used to wonder the same thing about George, but like I said, it took me a minute to put two and two together.
I was looking at it.