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

Metasations; Chinese, Thai, Salvadorian, Cajun, Ethiopian,
Vietnamese and Tex-Mex restaurants; two pubs, Moe’s Malts
(a Scotch bar), and Shaken & Slurred (a Martini bar); thirteen
massage therapists; a potpourri of psychological counselors; Bun
Heads (Ballet supplies), Snippits (a hair salon), Apocalypse Tao (an
upscale tattoo/piercing parlor), and a Safeway.
This last happens to be Roy’s goal.
Buses in Seattle mostly suck. North and South are the worst.
East and West are OK, if you know the city pretty well, but
just try getting from, say, south Seattle, where Roy lives to, say,
Capitol Hill, where his brother lives—it can take hours. This
doesn’t bother Roy so much today, since it affords him time
to doze. It is not a restful sleep, as he is awakened frequently
by the unfamiliar sounds of travel. So used is he to the white
noise of his tunes that the clattertrap of the bus—conversations
of the riders, snapping of newspaper pages, ding of the pulled
bellcord—all serve to disturb his slumber.
How he longs for his tunes!
Until that time arrives, he rests his weary head against the
window’s cool, rain-beaded surface. A head that sways with
the motion of the bus. The bus that is one of the big articulated
models, with an accordion bellows middle. The bus that whines
along like the trolleys of old, powered by overhead cables.
As the driver calls out stops, a portion of Roy’s brain listens to
his chronicle of their pilgrimage, but another portion of his brain
thinks about other things.
Briefly, these are some of the other things Roy thinks about:
1) —the music, of course. This is, after all, what started
the ball rolling. Odd, how he’s so willing—eager, even—to
destabilize his world because of some muffled music heard
through a door. Music he barely remembers now, and couldn’t
hum if he had to. He might not even recognize it when he hears
it again. And, what if he doesn’t hear it again? What if the guy
doesn’t like lasagna? What if the guy turns out to be a bigger
asshole than Rick? Until now, Roy has been driven along by
a passionate infatuation, a manic zeal. It hadn’t occurred to
question the reasons of his undertaking. It just seemed to make
0 ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY