volume one IN THE D U D L E Y C L A R K - Ohio Vine Tours

he should do. But now he’s gone to all this trouble—the bus trip,
the gay bus driver, Mel pinching his nipples and grabbing his—
No. He can’t stop now.
He crumples the note and tosses it to the floor.
On a fresh piece of paper, he writes:
To room 28, how are you? I hope you are as
fine as I am. Here is a little something to eat I
cooked to welcome you to the building. Hope
your time here is good. Also, you can play
your’re music louder if you want, since it is very cool
sounding…I wonder what its called?
Fondly, anonomus.
That doesn’t look right, anonomus. He doesn’t want 28/RR to
think he’s dumb. Also, since the guy was in the building before
him, how could Roy be welcoming him? For all he knows, the
guy’s lived there twenty years and that’s what the RR on his
door stands for: Revered Renter.
He balls up this page as well and adds it to the one already on
the floor. Roy is making a mess.
He starts over:
Hello, room 28. I am in room 23. I liked
your music I heard the other night. It made me
happy. I want to make you happy to. Here is
something I made to say thanks for the nice music.
It is nothing really. Hope you like it a lot as I liked
your music lots too.
That’s it. Simple and direct. He reads it over again. And
then once more. Maybe he should sleep on it. Water cascades
down his windowpanes. He is feeling leaden-eyed. If he sleeps
on it, maybe rats will tear into the plastic Safeway bag and gut
his lasagna. He wishes he knew how to spell lasagna. He would
have liked to use that word in his note, telling the tenant of 28/
RR what it was he was eating. But, most people know a lasagna
10 ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY