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This ti I went back to my hotel rooo to the ht the speaker was a housewife from Ozone Park She told us how she used to take the first drink of the day as her husband's Pontiac was pulling out of the driveway She kept her vodka under the sink, in a container that had previously held oven cleaner "The first time I told this story," she said, "a wo jar and drank the real oven cleaner' 'Honey,' I told her, 'get real, will you? There was no wrong jar There was no real oven cleaner I lived in that house for thirteen years and I never cleaned the oven' Anyway," she said, "that was s have different fors run an hour and a half, and the Friday nightupon one of the twelve steps of AA's progra was on the fifth step, but I don't remember what the speaker had to say on the subject or what particular words of wisdom I contributed when it was my turn

At ten o'clock we all stood to say the Lord's Prayer, except for a wo part in the prayer Then I folded my chair and stacked it, dropped my coffee cup in the trash, carried ashtrays up to the front of the room, talked with a couple of fellows, and turned when Eddie Dunphy called my name "Oh, hello," I said "I didn't see you"

"I was in the back, I got here a few minutes late I liked what you had to say"

"Thanks," I said, wondering what I'd said He asked if I wanted to have coffee, and I said a few of us were going over to the Flame, and why didn't he join us?

We walked a block south on Ninth and wound up at the big corner table with six or seven other people I had a sandwich and fries and some more coffee The conversation was mostly about politics It was less than twowhat everybody says every four years, that it was a da to vote for

I didn't say much I don't pay any more attention to politics than I have to There was a woman at our table nath of ti with the idea of asking her out Now I placed her under covert surveillance, and I kept coot entered in the , she needed some dental work, and every sentence out of her mouth had the phrase you know in it By the tier, our roreat way to operate You can run through women like wildfire and they never even know it

A little after eleven I tucked sooodbyes, and carried my check to the counter Eddie rose when I did, paid his own check and followed otten he was there; he'd contributed even less to the conversation than I had

Now he said, "Beautiful night, isn't it? When the air's like this it ot a ave you a call earlier At your hotel"

"What time?"

"I don't know, ot theiht, you don't have a phone"

"Oh, I got one It sits right there on the bedside table It just don't work, that's the only thing wrong with it Anyway, I just wanted to pass the tiirl soh the motions, anyway"

"No luck?"

"Not so far"

"Well, ainst his thu on about back there," he said "Politics I have to tell you I don't even knohat they were talking about You gonna vote, Matt?"

"I don't know"

"You gotta wonder why anybody wants to be president You want to know so? I never voted for nobody in my life Wait a minute, I just told a lie You want to knoho I voted for? Abe Beao"

"Gimme a minute and I'll tell you the year That was '73 You reuy, he ran for hed "I must of voted twelve tih you were highly ie really ot hold of a school bus and ran a bunch of us all over the West Side Every precinct ent to I answered to a different naistration card for me in that name, and I went in the booth and did my civic duty like a little soldier It was easy, I just voted the straight Deht his cigarette "I forget what they paid us," he said "I was gonna say fifty bucks, but it could have been less than that This was fifteen years ago and I was just a kid, so it wouldn't takefor a meal, and of course there was free booze for the bunch of us the whole day long"

"Magic words"

"Ain't that the truth? Booze was God's gift even when you had to pay for it, and when it was free, Jesus, there was nothing better"

"There was soic," I said "There was a place in Washington Heights where I didn't have to pay fora cab there from way the hell out in Brooklyn It cost me twenty dollars, and I drank maybe ten or twelve dollars worth of booze, and then I took a cab hoht I really put one over on the world And I didn't just do this once, either"

"It made sense at the tiet who it was ran against Beaet This poor bastard, I voted against him fifteen ti that's funny After the first two, three tie to cross 'em up You know, vote the other way, take their money and vote Republican"

"Why?"

"Who knohy? I had a couple of belts in ood idea And I figured nobody'd know Secret ballot, right? Only I thought, yeah, there's supposed to be a secret ballot, but there's lots of shit that's supposed to be, and if they can take and vote us fifteen ti So I did what I was supposed to do"

"The straight ticket"

"You got it Anyway, that was the first I ever voted I coulda the year before, I was old enough, but I didn't, and then I voted fifteen tiot it out of ed and alked across Fifty-seventh A blue-and-white patrol car headed north on Ninth with the siren screa We turned to folloith our eyes until it was out of sight You could still hear it, though, whining faintly over the other traffic noises

He said, "So bad"

"Or it's just a couple of cops in a hurry"