Rain, Rain, Rain & Death

My Life: It continued to rain all morning. I was the only bartender on duty and it seemed the whole town was at the bar. Some people thought is was a good reason to party while others sat and tried to drink away their worries. I was so busy I didn't really have time to drink or think. The only food we served were hot dogs and they were all gone by noon. I just couldn't wait for my shift to end at 3. Did I mention that even the homeless were in the bar? If you were claustrophobic, you would have freaked out.

The news was on all day and we kept seeing the river rise and rise. The first bar/hotel that I had worked in there had already flooded up to the second floor. I so wanted to get out of town. The news said that there were helicopters evacuating people from the cemetery (Just a little higher ground than where I worked). When three o'clock came, Ron & I bolted to the cemetery. I left the poor afternoon bartender to fend for himself. I just couldn't take anymore screaming, crying, laughing drunks.

We were wet and miserable when we got there. It was cold and all we had was what we were wearing. People everywhere were crying and shivering. The news camera came up and interviewed me and I found out later that my boss from the bar saw me on TV and realized that I would not be back for work that day or the next. We flew to the nearest town and our friend picked us up where we stayed for the next 2 days. It finally stopped raining that night so we waited for the river to subside.

I thought for sure that the bar had gone under and would have been closed. When we got back to town we found out the bar only got a few feet of water and that all the booze on the lower shelves had to be thrown out. As an alcoholic I found this news appalling. The boss seemed pissed that I had fled. The bar was reopened after only being shut down for 2 days. Almost all of the other bars and clubs took weeks and for some, months to reopen.

I thought the flood was the worst thing that could ever happen to me, but I was wrong. A friend of mine suddenly got sick and was put in the hospital. I went to see him and he looked fine. The next day he was dead. He was in his late 20's. All of a sudden a lot of people were getting sick. It wasn't just a cold or flu but all kinds of illnesses. One friend starting going blind, another was losing his mind and a few were getting red blotches all over their bodies.

It seemed like it all happened overnight. The news said it was gay cancer but we knew it was much more than that. Straight people in town started to die, drug users were getting sick, men were getting cat diseases and nothing was being done about it. The government had given a name to it: AIDS. I knew I was going to die young!

Love & Peace,

Clayton