MERCY

Patrick #1 and Mercy take their last trip together ever to New Orleans.

Patrick #1 begins drinking at the Detroit airport at 11am at a sports bar with oversized chairs with slits in them showing their orange hard stuffing. He is drinking vodka neat, double, many.

On the plane, he orders a gin & tonic. He orders another.

On the way out of the airport, he stops at a ratty bar on the outskirts of the airport. He orders a Miller Light.

He asks the cab on the way into the city to stop at a gas station. He buys several mini-shots of rum and a diet ginger ale. He shoots all the shots and finishes the ginger ale by the time they get to the hotel.

He heads to the bar and they sit, he and Mercy and take in the fake gold interior and marble countertops and the pillars and stained glass on the ceiling, the fountains, Patrick's father had gotten them a tremendous deal for the weekend, huge room, sprawling, 30th floor. They are drinking dirty martinis.

It is dinnertime already. They find a restruant close because they will be going out, as far as they are concerned in this moment, for every single meal for the next few days and they have it all planned out so they want to stay in the Quarter, they want to stay close so they find an American food place, not a diner, but something close to it, and he orders a steak and she orders a chicken sandwich and they drink "high gravity" beer as it says on the menu and they drink many beers and Mercy does not eat the chicken sandwich because she does not eat right now.

They take a walk and go down Bourbon Street and each buy two "BIG ASS BEERS" from the vendors and drink them in front of the Christians with their signs boycotting the debauchery around them. Fuck the gays! the signs say. Fuck the aborters! Fuck the Jews! Fuck drinking drugs and sex!

This entire day they have not said a word to each other. Here is a scene where they are sitting next to each other. Across from each other. In the closest of proximities. Here they are holding hands, they are sliding into each other's sides, they are slinking, they are holding each other up. They are not saying a word or at least any words that matter. What have they talked about this whole time? Mercy cannot even begin to fathom.

Here are the words. They come so quickly now. Patrick #1 is telling Mercy how he does not love her and how he wants to be with me and how he is going to hook up with somebody tonight and Mercy you are the only person I have ever loved and I cannot love you because Mercy, I am gay, Mercy, do you believe me, no, no

he is up in her face now

no, no, Mercy, you do not believe me but you must know, I cannot have sex with you anymore, I'm sorry but its over, we cannot be together like this because it does not make sense and it does not work and I'm sorry Mercy but I am better than you, OK, do you know that I am just better than you in every single way you must know that that I can't tell people that we're hooking up or that we're in love or whatever because I am embarrassed of you, Mercy, don't you see, you are embarrassing me

and here is where it gets weird

Mercy, I'm a fugitive, I'm a fugitive Mercy, don't you see, I'm a fugitive Mercy, don't see you, I'm on the run now, Mercy, I'm on the run, don't you see, I'm on the run, I have to go now, Mercy, I have to leave you, and I'm sorry but I have to go now because they are after me, don't you see, they are after us and I have go, I love, I'm on the run now, I'm a fugitive.

3:00 p.m the next day. Mercy is in the California King Size bed alone and she calls Patrick #1's phone repeatedly, 10, 20, 30 times and it goes to voicemail every time where is he where are you Patrick where you I'm worried where you please call or come back to the room.

A knock at the door.

A knock at the door that Mercy does not hear until the third, the fifth. It is the concerige. The concerige is holding him by the collar and saying in a thick jamacian accent dis man dis man jus showed up do'nstairs, dis man jus' called some staff names dis man is havin da po-lice called on him yes he is.

Patrick #1 is stinking and he has no shoes. Where are your shoes, Patrick?

Where did they find you?

They found me a laundry shoot
of a hotel close to here
and these women screamed when they found me
I thought I was in heaven Mercy
all this beautiful white, I thought
I was dead finally and I was elated
and then I realized I was upside down
and I had vomited on all the sheets below me
and it looked like blood
and these women did not speak English
and they thought I was dead, I know they did
and they were screaming like I was dead
and then the cops showed up and they said

Son, why are you upside down with no shoes on in a laundry shoot in this hotel?

and I said

I don't know, I have parents who love me
and raised me right.