I was at my Venice gig when the
drummer in the band came up to me and said, “Can you do me a favor? Can you
watch the restroom door while I go to the bathroom?”
He’d
been having stomach problems for the last two weeks. His stomach had him running around
looking for a nice safe place to crap.
“Where
are the restrooms?” he asked me.
“I
think they’re right over there,” I pointed to a building that I thought were
the public restrooms near the beach.
“Those
aren’t public restrooms,” he reported back to me after checking them out.
I had a simple job. I was to stand in line to give the appearance that I was
waiting for the restroom, while “Gus,” we’ll call him Gus, did his business.
At
first it was just me in line, and every thing was easy, but then thirty seconds later another guy showed up,
and fifteen seconds after that still another guy showed up to be third in line. We
were all standing there waiting. We weren’t waiting long, but it seemed long,
because it was the restroom and the fellows had to go. The guy third in line
got impatient.
“Hey,
there’s two urinals in there!” he said to me.
I
just smiled and threw up my hands. I was thinking the guy had too much information. I
had a bad feeling about him. He was a loose cannon.
Sure
enough, the guy third in line took matters into his own hands and rushed past me toward the
door. There was nothing I could do to stop him, it happened so quickly. In my
deviousness I was curious to see his reaction once he opened the door.
He
flung the door open and saw “Gus” sitting on the toilet taking a crap. He made
an awful face and shut the door as quickly as he could.
In my mind I had just taught the guy a valuable lesson about patience. I subsequently abandoned my post. I
was sitting at the bar when Gus walked out of the restroom. He was tucking in
his shirt and looking for me at the same time.
He caught up to me.
“What
happened?” he asked me in a whisper.
“The
guy stormed the door. There was nothing I could do to stop him,” I whispered
back.
“What if we were at war, and my life depended upon you?”
To
that question I had no good answer.