The cab ride from Boston to New Bedford was expensive, but the driver was good company and my Ohio friend had made sure I had enough money to cover expenses to get back home without hitchhiking, which he knew I had a tendency to do. For the love of adventure as much as for the logic of free-ride -vs- expensive ride.
As I entered Joe's apartment, the first thing I noticed was empty medication bottles on the table, and a phonebook opened to a page that listed what at first appeared to be things Joe didn't need... Draperies. Dredging. Drilling and Boring Contractors. Driving Instructors. The last two made me concerned. I wasn't sure which Joe had called. The first was Drug Abuse and Addition-Information & Treatment. The other one was Druggists, which underneath it said: See "Pharmacies". With the empty medication bottles, I at first assumed Joe must have been looking for a 24 hour pharmacy place to refill his prescriptions. Then it dawned on me that the phonebook would have been left opened to the page that listed Pet Shops, Pet Supplies, Pharmacies and Photo Finishing-Retail, if that had been what Joe had been looking for.
The cat awoke on the bed and sleepily let out a meow of hello and then curled back up to sleep some more.
Two tenants began to talk loudly in the hallway, friendly and apparently discussing the weather, which had been rainy the whole time I was in Ohio but had suddenly turned sunny, hot and steamy from all the condensation in the soil and left on rooftops and inside leaf-clogged gutters.
Outside the window, I heard a garbage truck backing up with the warning beeps and cussing two man crew.
A dog barked, another dog replied with a louder bark.
I sat for a while just listening to these things, wondering what to do, where to look, who to call.
And that's when Joe walked in with a bag of curtains. And a white paper bag full of his prescription medicines.