Editor-In-Chief
PANAMA CITY, Panama - Somewhere else, the world spins as it has spun forever. Somewhere else, it is jobs and politics and cars and crime and that steady diet of bullshit society laps on you from Day One until you die. Somewhere else, but not here. Here, the pull of crazy love has reared its lovely head and thrown two friends together - yours truly and Elaine Benitez, the former wife of my good friend, Ron Mexico.
Don't bother throwing daggers at me, or at her. Love wants no meddlers.
It is an unfolding tale of friendship-turning-silly. Elaine wonders, and I have few answers for her. Is the love real, she has asked. "I swear it feels like it," I have said in reply to a beautiful giggling that makes people who overhear it giggle even more. Is it possible to take a stab at love inside a Central American cafe? I dunno, I dunno. All I can know is my own time.
How long have I known Elaine? A long time. Maybe 10 years, give or take a year. I met her soon after I met Ron in a Mexico City bar, Ron springing for three-four rounds and then waiting for me to do the same. Elaine walked in out of a December rain and I thought she looked pleasant. There was no attraction back then. I was traveling with another woman whose name I lost five-six years ago, a redhead from Canada. Ron spoke breathlessly about Elaine, about her work as a circus acrobat, about her beauty and about her class. I recall I would look at her, smile as a friend would smile, and drink-up. Those were the 36-hour days, days that largely came after sundown and hours of drinking that slowed the clock.
When Ron died last month, Elaine came to see me in the offices of The Tribune. She wasn't crying or even grieving. I even told her I thought she was taking Ron's murder rather calmly. But I also knew Ron, and I knew he'd blown it with Elaine there near the end. In fact, that's why he'd flown to Amsterdam, to as he put it in a note to me, "Get the mud off the windshield, man." I'd shrugged and said something about Amsterdam being a dangerous place. "Elaine's gone," he'd gone on, and I sat back on my highchair, frowning. "Yep, she's bolted the ranch, man," Ron threw out. "Can't go cryin' in the Goddamned barn at this point in my life, so..." Two weeks later, he was dead, the victim of a bizarre attack in the Red Light District of Amsterdam.
"Did you come for his stuff?" I asked Elaine, thinking Ron's notebooks, beat-up leather jacket and a pair of rain hats he kept in The Tribune's supply room. "No, no," she said. "I wouldn't want any of whatever he left behind, no." That night, we had dinner in Brownsville and somehow the two glasses of wine we drank pushed us into something else. Elaine is a beautiful woman. And I am no fool. You could say it was our way of saying goodbye to Ron Mexico, but it was more than that. There are clues. I kissed her as hard as she kissed me, and tried like Hell to move in synchronicity atop the bed, pausing every fourth or fifth stroke just to elongate the feeling, to maximize the gorgeous moment.
That was a week ago.
Today, I am here - wanting to do nothing but be with her, wanting to talk to no one but her, needing nothing but her. What's a guy to do? A few minutes ago, after sipping from my bottle of wine, I called the front desk of my hotel to tell management I'd be staying indefinitely...
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13 comments:
All:...I would like every loyal reader of The Tribune to rest easy. I am the new editor, but we'll have to see how long I keep the post. I have learned much from Patrick Alcatraz and can only hope to be half the editor he was... - Juan Jones, Editor
(Tuesday, August 31, 2010CRAZY COCK:...How I Fell For Elaine Benitez, My Friend Ron Mexico's Wife...)
Whoa, the makings of another Harlequin romance novel, huh?
ANON:...Bro, true love is not about books; it is about an extremely rare arrival of something beautiful from somewhere in the far ends of the universe, a place where no envy exists. Patrick Alcatraz is lucky in having found the woman of his life. I can dig it, you can dig it, he can dig it... - Juan Jones, Editor
Juan Jones,never, I mean never, in my life, could I have imagined that Alcatraz would pull something as low as what he has done.
I truly believe, he "had" something to do with the trajic end of Ron Mexico.
Elaine, is simply gorgeous, what a "find" to make such a move on his forme remployees wife, "is simply cruel."
Has he ever consider, that Ron Mexico Jr. might not take those moves kindly.
Alcatraz, the truth will set you free, as the saying goes.
You are and were complicit to the trajic incident in where Ron Mex. became the victim.
It was the lust for his wife that pushed you over the brink.
And now you have callously admitted that you have set your eyes on Ranna.
My advice to you is as follow: Remember the old saying, he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.
Mr. Editor, so Mr. Alcatraz starting playing footsies with Ron Mexico's widow. I don't know about the staff at the Tribune.
I have a gut feeling that this little romance was on going prior to Ron's departure.
My gut feeling tells me that maybe that's why Ron, went on drinking and sex binge. It must have been devastating to know that your lovely wife, is gavalanting around with your supervisor, as always the husband is the last one to know.
Something tells me, Patrick Alcatraz had something to do with the outcome of Ron's demise.
Alcatraz, what goes around comes around. If the lovely acrobat did it once she will do it again. Once a fox always a fox, "brother."
Brother Jones & Anon:...We do not blame Patrick Alcatraz for sliding-up on Ron Mexico's ex-wife. Our concern was Journalism, and, really, Patrick's ability and desire to stay on task at The Tribune. Everything else will shake-out... - Editor
Juanito Jones quit trying to cover up for bad behavior, the previous two writer's comments are probably true, hanky,panky was developing, somewhere along the line. As for him (P.A). leaving the Tribune, it's simply a farce trying to cover his bad behavior.
Having said, that the lady is very good looking and we are sure she will drop him (like a hot potatoe) for another man.
No one is questioning his abilities as a writer.
ANON:..Are you saying Patrick Alcatraz is a louse? I disagree mightily. Patrick is The Most Interesting Man in Town, even when he is not in town. He's just fallen for a woman, and every man knows about such falls... - Editor
Juan Jones, "put the glass wine on the table" , quit making excuses for the former Editor of the Tribune.
He isn't denying any culpibility about Ron Mexico's trajic ending, is he???
Ofcourse as a male, I will admit that man fall over women, like ants on Honey.
But, we will grant him a pardon, since the lady looks like a "Lots" of fun.
I think even Brother Jones, would agree, that falling for a woman here in the Valley is easy.
Have your fun Patrick, while it last, for you to will be like a passing dream for such a beautiful woman.
What, your side bar has Benites prcaticing her wedding bows with the former Editor, jumpingh of a plane????
What are they planning on getting married while jumping off an airplane. Helllllpppppppppp, the Tribune staff has gone bananas!!!!
I bet that Elaine chick - beign a Gymnastic and Contorsionist - she " CAN PERFORM " some wild, crazy and exotic movements with her lovely Body ... That Ron Mexico dude, must had gone crazy from all that over - exhitment !!!
CHANO:...Interesting theory. It could be true. She may have driven Ron Mexico crazy-wild. The lady is a looker. But Patrick Alcatraz is no slouch. Trust me, he will exact from her what he wants, as will she from him.... - Editor
I could sit and watch Benitez smile at me all day and nite long.
Ron Mexico, you should have taken care of this lovely woman. I would write day and night just to keep her happy.
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