Page 22 of A Little Campfire Blues
“Are you only into littles?”
“Nope. I’m a pet handler too, and I’ve always strived to live a poly-positive life when I could find partners who were on the same page with that.”
“Roman’s a pup. He rarely gets to explore it, though. He used to be in the Coast Guard, and now that he’s out, he coaches swimming, so he’s gotta be careful that none of the judgy people back home find out he’s in the lifestyle.”
“Where’s back home, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“We grew up in Eugene, but I live in Portland now,” I admitted. “Roman just moved back to Eugene a few years ago, and Ezzy’s moving back after camp, which is really cool. At least they’ll have someone to play with. Are you from Oregon too?”
“Yup, Klamath Falls, all the way down at the southern part of the state.”
“I know where that is,” I blurted. “We camped out near there once, when we were still in high school.”
“Oh yeah, where at?”
“The KOA.”
“Shit, I’ve stayed there a time or two myself, just to get away from my apartment and spend some time outdoors without having to go too far.”
“I liked it. We had fun. When I think about the best memories I have, it always involves one or both of them.”
“Sounds like you guys have been close a long time.”
“From elementary school until the night I fucked up everything and said shit I never should have said, then took off with my band without so much as a goodbye to either of them,” I admitted.
“And yesterday was the first time you’d seen each other since?” he surmised.
“It was the first time I’d seen or talked to Ezzy. Roman and I have been emailing, video chatting, and texting since a few months after I took off.”
“From what I saw last night, I don’t think Ezzy is holding any grudges.”
“Maybe they should. They’ve always forgiven me way too easily,” I blurted. “The last thing I deserved was a hug, but that’s what they gave me the moment I apologized.”
“Because they love you. I caught a glimpse of it last night. Wanna know what else I saw?”
“What?”
“That you positively love and adore them too. Doubt anything or anyone else would have gotten you to play until they hit you with those puppy dog eyes.”
“You saw that?”
“Hard to miss.”
“I didn’t wanna play.”
“I noticed that too,” he said, before inclining his head towards the guitar case between us. “What I don’t get is why you bothered to bring your guitar down to the circle if you didn’t want to play it.”
“I was on the fence, then I saw you, and my brain immediately kicked intohell nomode.”
“Why?”
“’Cause you’re Mackenzie frickin’ Redding.”
“First off, it’s just Mack to my friends, and I do hope that we can be friends,” he said. “Secondly, I’m just another out-of-work musician, same as a lot of guys who have gotten to the top and fizzled out spectacularly. I happened to have enjoyed your playing last night, and before you snark off with some bullshit, that’s not me blowing smoke up your ass, kid; you’re good. You should be proud of that. You’ve clearly spent a lot of time honing your craft. Running into someone who made it a little further in the industry than you shouldn’t make you afraid to show what you can do. At the very least, you should view it as a challengeand see what the hell you might be able to learn from them along the way.”
“Compared to where my band was at when we imploded, I’d sayalittle furtheris an understatement.”
“Why, because you hadn’t caught a break yet?” he remarked, chuckling a little and sounding just as bitter as I had earlier. “It’s all about luck, kid. Trust me, if you stick with it, you’ll get where you want to be.”
