Sedalia, Missouri
by
Jacob Potashnik
Winter, 1990. The walk from the hovercraft to the train station was short but left me wet and thoroughly chilled to the bone. The weather, a mix of wind and pelting rain and snow was an affront. On the quay for the train from Boulogne to Paris, Mr. Six/Four bent low and easily hoisted a limp sack of a young man out of a wheel chair and into his huge arms. A porter folded the chair and lead the way. A woman, grey-haired frail, thin, at least sixty-five, follows.
My seat was across the aisle from theirs and they were quick to smile and nod to me as they settled in. He who I had taken for a young man, was not a young man and his story was very clear. Forty, remarkably thick dark hair falling like a wave over his forehead, thin, gray, gleaming skin, Kaposi’s sarcoma, full blown AIDS.
At the first pass of the car snack service Six/Four ordered coffee.
“Teddy,” the woman stage whispered, “Will you look at that?”
It was the standard French train café filtre, a two stage plastic unit, hot water goes in the top, filtered coffee drains into the bottom. Six/Four was so pleased he was beaming but Teddy has seen it all before.
“Wait till you taste it,” he muttered, smiling gamely.
“Well, I never,” said the woman in admiration. “They make such a fuss.”
“Smells heavenly,” Six/Four agreed. “After the English stuff.”
JONAH magazine 