Page 22 of The Fire Walker
“What kind ofwork?”
“Waitressing. I’m pretty lucky my boss understands. He’s met Georgie, so he cuts me some slack,” she said with a laugh, shaking herhead.
“How do you do it?” She looked at me confused, so I added, “Put up withher?”
“Georgie might be…you know, but she’s good at her job. I can learn a lot from her, and Ihave.”
“By doing herwashing?”
“There are worse things than washing Georgie’s dirty panties,” she said, making aface.
That’s when the waitress decided to come back and place our order in front of us, her expression reading ‘what the fuck?’ I stifled a laugh and thankedher.
“What’s Australia like?” Jessie asked, grabbing one of the cheesyfries.
“Compared to here? Well, it’s not as fast. Everyone says hello when you walk into a shop. People ask how you are even if they don’t care. We drive on the opposite side of theroad…”
“So it’s like living in amirror.”
I got her meaning andsmiled.
“Where do you want to travelto?”
“Everywhere,” I replied, not put off by her constant questions. “I guess I’m lucky to come here on Galaxy’s tab, and hopefully, I’ll get to do a lot more touring with theband…”
She sighed dreamily. “That would be amazing. Touring Europe insummer.”
“Have you been? Do you want togo?”
“I’ve never been, but I’d love to go. Paris in summer. Berlin… Oh, imagine the music scene in London. They have amazing festivals overthere.”
“So you’d go for themusic?”
“I like to visit museums and stuff, but the music scene is where you really get to know a place, you know? Like it’s different in LA to Seattle to New York. They all have their different genres and fashion and people. It’samazing.”
“That’s true,” I said, thinking about Australia vs. theUS.
“Did you like playing here? The gig last night wasbrilliant.”
“Thanks.” Ishrugged.
She gave me a look and narrowed her eyes. “What? Didn’t live up to yourexpectations?”
“I dunno, I guess I feel more separatedhere.”
“Why’sthat?”
“Back home, you can go out into the crowd and meet people. They don’t want to mooch off of you for drugs and alcohol. People want to talk toyou, not the thing you’re meant to be.” I glanced up from my burger and right into her confused face. Herbeautiful,confused face. “Why are you looking at me like I’ve got twoheads?”
“Everyone who comes to make it big in LA, or anywhere here, wants thosethings.”
“Well, I dunno what mailing list you’re subscribed to, but it ain’tmine.”
“You’re straight edge?” She cocked her head to the side, a hot chip in her fingers dripping melted cheese into thebowl.
“Alcohol I do,” I said. “But I’ve never done a drug in mylife.”
“Really?Smoked?”
