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

He counts them—there are four in all—then folds them neatly
and stuffs them into his right, front jeans pocket.
He takes down from its nail the stained, yellow raincoat
purchased for a song from Value Village, and slides it on. It
is unlined, but its hood still has its drawstring and not all used
hoods do. To make up for its lack of lining, Roy wears two
woolen shirts over a tee-shirt. But, then, Roy wears two woolen
shirts over a tee-shirt winter, spring and fall so even if the
raincoat did have a lining, he would still have worn two woolen
shirts over a tee-shirt.
So the fact the raincoat is unlined is hardly worth mentioning.
He awakens his curled-up, dozing headphones, expands their
bandy legs so as to span his barren dome, then snaps their foamcovered
drivers over his ears.
The Sony tape player assumes its rightful place on his belt.
He is like a superhero suiting up.
But there the comparison ends.
Roy’s enthusiasm for his music, although certainly not gone,
has somewhat dimmed from its normal level of intensity. For the
first time since he can remember, he thinks about not listening to
anything at all but, instead, exposing his ears and thus himself to
the Noises of the World.
Alas, the Noises of the World are a poor substitute for the
accustomed clangor of his tunes and, anyway, Old Ways are hard
to break.
He seizes upon his most recent acquisition—the Suzie
Quattro bootleg—and introduces one of its rewound sides into
the yawning player. He clicks the player closed, re-tapes its door
securely shut, and plugs in his earphones’ dangling cord.
He will wait until he has successfully maneuvered his way out
of the ponderous, flyblown building before pressing PLAY.
Then he gasps as he remembers his batteries are dead.
This new twist in no way alters the previous decision to wear
his headphones. He may not be able to fill them with really loud
droogy shit, but they will serve to warm his ears.
0 ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY