Hats off to Larry Beaujolais

Hats off to Larry Beaujolais

Talking with Clifford Oliver,
he says...

"Remember Lawrence?"

Yes, he had a French name
like Larry Baudelaire?
As I recall.

"More like...
Larry Beaujolais,
he worked up in the office
at the lumber yard."

We liked him
down at the warehouse
waiting for him to send down
a customer.

"He was an amusing guy...
but sad."

Lawrence had a drinking problem
plus had been injured
from a mugging
in an alley down on Lucky Street.

"You had that tape recorder, Doc
recording found sounds..."

I still have
some of those
recordings
I tell Clifford.

"One recording you were making
way back in the warehouse
tapping an iron beam
with a hammer
loud layering echo
through the warehouse
drove old Roy Harper crazy."

I might have erased that one.

"Larry was uptight
but he loved his drinks and smoke
after work
in his little rented room
near Piedmont Park,
Orme Circle...
you were delivering his green bud
about every other night."

Yes, one of nights
was the last night
I ever saw Cindy Covington.

She gave me a ride
I can still remember
staring into her
smoky blue eyes.

"Well, one afternoon
Lawrence strolled down
to the warehouse
and placed another weed order
not knowing we had been
recording improvisational banter."

Right, our podcast
on the edge of forever,

"Long story short
dope deal got recorded
and we spent a week
making Larry sweat
playing that snippet endlessly
until finally a boss man
overheard it...
shit hit the fan that day."

Lawrence comes running
around the corner
yelling...

"Don't do me no favors!"

Nobody got in any real trouble
Larry had simply
been revealed
to be one of our ilk after all.

"Then Larry was a no show
for a couple of days at work
we'd sit there all day
wondering about him.
Knocks on the door
would get no response...
so I took his front door down
and he wasn't home."

And, as it turned out
that was the last any of us ever saw
of old Larry Beaujolais.

-Will Dockery