LITTLE GURUDWARA ON THE PRAIRIE

And we left the EDM around four in the morning and St. Albert a little before then, of course. My shirt had been nearly torn off at Black Dog a couple of hours before, maybe it was time to call it a night. I dropped my friend off at his house and, since her shift had just ended, picked up another friend. Lake doesn't mind the random, she's a fan, she's smallish and darkish and she likes to wear hats that are too big for her, tams, newsboys. I remember "Chessboxin" dubbed over Warren Zevon pushing through the car stereo—"I'm makin' devils cower to the Caucus Mountains"—and it's a rough stereo in that car, no lie, U-God sounds like he can't speak unless his throat is choked with smoke. I remember John Darnielle giving it his bitter all with "No Children" and I remember Wilco and also Marina And The Diamonds, "Shampain Sleeper" exactly matching the grind of the wheels. Also, of course, Prince and then Hot Chip and then Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. I palmed the wheel and headed into the country-side and we rose and fell over the highways around Edmonton for hours. My car is a bag, no disguising, acceleration is more like an adjective, an idea, than a verb in that vehicle. I remember bumping the car into a ploughed field a little bit after sunrise and, looking around, realizing I didn't have the damndest clue where we were. A few minutes after we got back on the road, I saw a Disney castle, solid as a dream, standing in the middle of the plains. Lake said she would stay in the car. On the other side of the largest room in the world inside that castle, a man sat behind a low desk, four hundred feet of carpeted floor between him and me. He raised a turbaned head when I entered but he didn't move, he didn't speak. I ran back outside and realized my shoes were in my hand. The tires on the car are a little low, the car squealed hard as we left, I looked back to see if I could spot the other men I had seen coming toward me out of the sides of my eyes. It was seven-thirty when we finally entered St. Albert. I dropped my friend off and watched her drive away and then parked the car and fell asleep. No disguises, two empty two-sixes of Plymouth are still rolling around the back seat and the car reeks of Player's, I suppose that's maybe not such a good better best thing.