Doghouse

Malone

Malone is the only one that got away.

I mentioned this to Reese yesterday and she reminded me that there is still time and I have friends in Philadelphia where I heard he ended up.

Good points.

Malone was an interesting guy. He hated me immediately. He hated me the way people hate others when they are 40 and he was only 20-something...but inside? Malone was always 40.

He worked at an all-night Chevron station they no one ever came to. Okay...maybe twice a night...but that was it.

I would show up at around 11:30 p.m. after a date and just hang around. Malone never stopped hating me. He had no idea why I would come out every Saturday night and sit in the big garage will 4 a.m. when we both knew he hated me.

He never gave the slightest sign of not hating me. I'd show up and he would sigh and continue cleaning one of the bays.

Now anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a rascal. Just last night Reese accused me of having a singular objective and I reminded her that I never do anything that does not have five different reasons or sidebars. I'm a rascal. All of my ex-wives will tell you this or simply post a deposition if I am not available to be yelled at.

So it's true. I am a rascal. But I have a good heart and I also mean well. I am certainly one of the most loving persons you will ever meet...or if not, surely the tallest.

My sons are rascals by the way. It's genetic.

But back to me.

And Malone.

Now I am a very good listener so when Mitch told me about Malone and his hatred for me I also noted on old story about Malone having put his "testimony" of Christian conversion to music. He confided this to Mitchell in a moment of weakness and also to a man who is better than I will ever be.

But I knew.

And I led him for a few weeks (I can be very patient when it comes to legitimate entrapment) by simply showing up and listening for hours to this man who hated me.

Again, we don't know why. I had never done anything to Malone. In fact, he had helped pack The Brick with newspaper and had made snide comments about me within earshot.

But as I said, Malone was 40 twenty years before the rest of us and he knew the fix was in somewhere...just not where. He looked at me the way a doctor does when viewing cancer cells on a negative.

All of this went unsaid...but if you ask Malone today he will tell you. "I hated that guy".

And maybe, just maybe, that is why I respected him as much as I did. No two-facing with this guy. No...from day one he looked at me like I was a hair on his biscuit.

I kinda loved him for that.

But also the sort of guy who would put his young conversion to music.

Well...ya just cannot pass that up...the sheer hubris...I mean Martin Luther can do it...or Eugene Peterson at 70 or J.I. Packer...or even Bono...but this guy in a Cheron station at 3 a.m?

And I know.

I could have been meaner and done it publically...I didn't.

It had been maybe 3 months of Saturdays by then and at 4 a.m in the Chevron I said "Yeah know Craig...you seem like the kinda guy who would be very thoughtful about your conversion".

He nodded

"In fact...maybe the sort of guy who would actually set his own story to music..."

I don't remember what happened next. I think I remember running away...and running fast.

So maybe he didn't get away.

posted by Obi-Mac BakDon @ 8:07 AM