Flautas part 2

Inside Esta Noche, there was some quiet latin music in the background. There were two others besides Laura, Joe, and I. The guy who had hustled us in, Emilio (apparently he went by Antonio as well), was sitting next to a man in a navy blue pirate suit. Emilio had his arm wrapped around the pirate's shoulder and was whispering soft words into his ear. We ordered some drinks, and Joe generously got the first round. I downed my margarita like it was ice water on a hot day. We talked to Emilio who was now ignoring the man in the pirate suit. The bartender kept glancing at me. Emilio told me that the bartender liked me, so we talked and I practiced my mediocre Spanish with the two men. The pirate slinked away in the background muttering something about his parrot. The bartender gave Laura and I two bigass Long Island Iced Teas. Emilio started telling us his life story. He was from Salvador. He studied medicine there but his units didn't transfer to the U.S. when he moved at 23. Now he teaches Special Ed. He said his bosses were kind of racist (they told him that he couldn't speak English well enough), and so he couldn't move up, but "I still love my job and my kids," he told us. I didn't know what to think.

He told us about his French boyfriend who wasn't as horny as Emilio was, about the problems they were having. Emilio was getting more and more shitfaced. We listened for a while, but soon decided that we should get going to the spoken word performance at the Bart Station.

We dragged our three drunk asses a few blocks over to the BART station. There were lit candles in a semi-circle. Probably about 20 people in heavy overcoasts and scarves were attending. There were a few dead cats that had been killed in an earlier satanic ritual. Up at the mic (well there was no mic) was this guy going off on Oprah. He was saying some funny and poignant shit, but I was so drunk it didn't make sense to me, and I thought he was probably just some nutty homeless guy. So I laughed.

We watched another act, but weren't too impressed and hit the streets of the mission once again. I went into a liqour store to buy a 40 and the clerk brownbagged it for me. Outside it was getting colder and more homeless people were starting to come out from their hiding spots. Warm steamy air was rising from the sewers. There were lots of noises. Bums negotiating for their fix or loudly arguing with one another. Voices would rise up into the air and then die down into the stillness of night. We passed bums on every corner and I handed out lots of singles. I guess I'm more generous when I'm drunk.

Finally we returned to Esta Noche, and the Drag Show was in full swing. We went up to the stage and danced like drunkards. The queen invited Laura up to the stage and Laura went up there. They grooved well together to the latin music about love and longing. Maybe the folks at the bar would find love this night.

As for me, I was hungry as shit, so I went outside to look for some food. I talked to a bum about God knows what and he told me to tap on a restaraunt's door that was on the corner. The dude inside the Mexican restaraunt was mopping up all the dirt from the day's business. He opened the door and handed me a bag. Inside were flautas, big and bountiful, greasy, grimy, and phallic flautas. I offered some to the homeless dude, but he just wanted some money so I gave him a single.

I started back to the bar.

So what happens next? These were no ordinary flautas, no, in fact they were magical flautas. What special powers did they give to me? Stay tuned.