Two fisted

We made it to the show, we were minutes away from the start of the victory party, we just needed to wait until the polls officially closed.

He was sent to find me, I was standing center stage about seventy five feet from the front, maybe a little to the right. This wasn’t my normal scene, normally I’d be in some back room setting something up, tearing something down or something not dissimilar. That day was different though, the only thing I had to do that day was to drive some VIP to the gathering and then wait. I made my way around the hall making my greetings to a select few until I ended up where I was, a good view of the stage and in the thick of it. I had a beer in each hand even though at the time I didn’t drink much, but by this time I had realized two things: one was that it’s just easier to take the beer than to try to explain that I don’t drink when after all I really didn’t have a reason not to drink I just didn’t, it never appealed to me; and the other thing was sometimes folks want to be nice to you and sometimes it best to just let them be nice. I also found out that if you are holding two beers, folks stop asking you if you want a beer, although it does make shaking hands a bit awkward. I gave the upward nod with the slightly rising eyebrows a lot. The “hey” was implied.

Earlier in the evening I was concerned about what it looked like holding two beers and I was making the mistake of trying to drink one beer quick so that I would only be holding the one but what can I say folks liked me and wanted to buy me beers so when one hand was empty another beer appeared so I just ended up holding two beers.

I’m not certain how he found me in that dense crowd but there he was by my side shouting something at me. “I was sent to tell you that the candidate has invited you to be up on the stage.” “Okay, thanks” is what I shouted back and added a smile. I looked up at the stage it was already jammed packed full of people, people I mostly didn’t recognize. I looked back at him and he knew he just wasted his time working his way through the crowd. “I’ll tell them you told me” I offered as a consolation. I don’t think he was consoled. There were plenty of people seeking the spotlight, I chose to stay where I was, on the floor with my two beers.