I had a party last night, and it had been planned for over thirty years!
I held it at my flat, and there was me and fourteen ghosts.
Between 15-20 I "hung with" a group of lads, and we weren't nice boys, lol. We rode m/c's, got onto brawls, got arrested regularly, and generally had a GREAT time.
Half of us ended up serious bikers, not me though. Two thirds of us did time, me too.
But a couple of us were killed early, so, in the way of such things, we made a "Last Man Standing" pact.
We've kept in occasional contact across the years, and one by one they've dropped away, a murder here, an o/d there, cancer has taken a couple and accidents some more. A short while back we were down to two. The other guy started a project to carve all our names deeply into a basalt cliff down south, and that continues.
But he has died, a stroke, and the time has come.
As LMS I have duties. I have already fulfilled some, and cannot others, certain messages etc can't be delivered as the intended recipients are also gone now. I have the sealed diary of a friend who died over a decade ago, and I was supposed to give it to his father. I've contacted him but he told me to shove it, he doesn't want to know what's in it. I'm posting it to him anyway, he may feel differently when he has it in his hands and that way I'm fulfilling my promise.
The Party was always to happen, and the deal was that if they existed in any way on any plane, they WOULD be there!
And I think they WERE!
It sure felt like it, I could almost see them, all those grinning hard-men, those loutish boys, those mad pranksters of my youth.
I drank till I dropped, and they were right there with me, swilling down their doom. I talked to them, laughed with them, told them what I knew of their families and friends fates.
We shared a choof or three, and remembered old foes and battles fought. We reminisced over women and woes, fools and funny days, and I swear to god, THEY reminded me of things I had forgotten decades ago!
I am not ashamed to say I shed a tear, or seven, but there was laughter in my heart, they were great days and great mates, and they all had me down as unlikely to be the LMS!
I would wish that it hadn't been me, but am not so terribly sorry that it was.
For a dark moment last night I thought seriously of joining them, I don't have long anyway and there seemed something "fitting" about stepping off at the Party. But it would have been wrong, I have duties still, promises unfulfilled, and when I DO go it will NOT be drunk, that would be a betrayal, of myself, and my kids, on many levels, and that I just can't commit.
I have NEVER believed in ghosts, but those blokes were with me in spirit last night, and between the grog and the ghanja, and my emotional state, they lived again for a time, and I believe they somehow knew that, sometime, somewhere.
So, whoever you are, where-ever you are, raise a toast to the passing of a mob of mad bastards with hearts of gold, they were all wonderful guys in their own individual ways.
We may not have changed the world, but by GOD, we gave it a damn good shaking!
Vale you drongo's, I miss you, and always will.