I met Ray Kowalski on a cold March evening in 1979. I had taken the semester off from college and was working a retail job at the time which pretty much took up most of my nights and weekends. My days off usually consisted of a couple during the week.
One night off, I was bored and couldn’t find anything to do. It was either a Sunday or Monday night. Nothing much was going on so I ended up pulling into a small bar on the outskirts of town for a couple of shots and some beer. I would drown my boredom and go home and sleep it off.
The bar was called, the Lucky Stiff. It sat on a small road that faced the highway and the adjoining township where a huge drive in movie theatre screen faced it. The place itself was dark and smoky and filled with sad looking middle aged patrons; men and women who seemed like life had passed them by. But that was ok, I just wanted to drink, I did not want company.
I sat at the bar and ordered a cold one and a shot of Southern Comfort. The barmaid, a huge woman with a bad dye job left my drinks without comment. The jukebox was playing songs from the 50’s: Elvis, The Platters, and The Flamingos.
After my second beer and shot someone sat next to me at the bar, I heard him before I saw him, “Joplin Juice”, he said. I looked over, and in the gloom saw a man of about thirty five or so, he wore a jean jacket and his hair was plastered back in a duck’s ass. His eyes flashed in the muted light like green flints, “Joplin Juice”, he said it again.
“How’s that?” I asked.
“Janis used to drink Southern Comfort all of the time”.
I nodded and smiled and noticed that my bar mate was smiling also. A blinding set of white teeth off set by a coarse five-o-clock-shadow that framed his angular face. He pulled a cigarette from a pack he had in his jacket pocket offered me one, which I accepted, lit us both up and took a puff and then said, “Name’s Ray Kowalski. You don’t look familiar”. I told him that I never had been here before and he grinned even wider and patted me on the back, “Well son, this is how the other half lives”, his voice was deep and gruff, and yet at the same time it was filled with something like warmth.
For the next hour or so we exchanged life stories. His was amazing, a Vietnam Vet, married and divorced, father of two girls, his ex had taken them to Arizona three years ago and he had not seen them since. Later on he told me about a job he had as a bouncer in Las Vegas and how he’d actually met Frank Sinatra one night. Then he said something that stayed with me for years, “Son, life’s got away of just pulling the rug out from under you when you least expect it. For awhile I was on top of the world but then, it was all gone thanks to a bad marriage. Today, I work in a little garage doing car repairs. Funny, just a few years ago I was making close to five hundred a night, today…well at least I’m still alive.”
Trying to keep up with his drinking was getting to me. I stood up to go to the bathroom and found the floor slip out from under me.
“Whoops, son” he said grabbing me under the arm and helping me, “Getting a little wasted, aren’t you?” I nodded and the room began to spin, “Come on he said, let’s go get you some coffee.”
He walked me out side and then around the back of the bar to a rickety set of wooden steps and we walked up them. The cold night air whipped at my skin it was raw and wet, but it felt good just the same. “You live here?” I asked. “Yup”, he said as we got to the top of the steps and made our way inside.
The apartment above the bar was small but comfortable. The paneled walls were mostly bare but I noticed that the place was clean as he led me over to the sofa. I flopped down unceremoniously and watched as Ray hovered above me turning on a lamp. He was pretty tall, and broad shouldered. When he took his jacket off he was wearing nothing but a white t-shirt that encased a very well developed torso. At the neck line I could see a tuft of black chest hair peeking through. His arms were muscled and hairy also but on the left arm I could make out a variety of tattoos. He turned his back to me for a second and I caught a fleeting glimpse of his denim encased butt. It was tight and firm and mouth watering. Damn, but I wanted to rock and roll with this guy.
“Sit tight”, he said as he walked into the kitchen. I looked around and saw some photographs here and there. Pictures of Ray’s past, no doubt. One of him in his uniform from Nam, another of him with long hair standing in front of a theater, I could not make out what the marquee said in the picture so I leaned a bit closer to have a look, “Fillmore East”, he had come back into the living room, “That’s me two months after I got out waiting to see The Who”.
A few moments later he went back into the kitchen and brought a steaming mug of coffee. I sipped it and marveled over the sweet taste, “A bit of the hair of the dog is the secret, you’ll be right as rain in no time” he said.
I asked him about his tattoos and he showed me them up close, moving his left arm in front of my face. I caught a whiff of sweat and Aqua Velva as I examined the dragon that scrolled around his bicep. He got closer to me and took the coffee from my hand and put it down on the side table. “Let’s go”, he said softly.
He helped me up and walked me to the bedroom which was lit only by the glow of a space heater. The bed was huge and neatly made. He motioned for me to sit and then said, “Are we on the same page, son?” I nodded. “First things first, how old are you?” I told him and he sighed and laughed, “Good, legal tender then.” I asked him how old he was, “39”, he said.
I was feeling sturdy again as we undressed each other. When his shirt came off and I saw that hirsute chest with the pink nipples and the rock hard abs I nearly burst. When he took his pants off and revealed a cock the size of a small missile, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
He pushed me down on the bed and straddled me and gently kissed me on the stomach working his way up to my chest and neck. I let my hands roam over his solid back, up and then down, until they found his rock hard ass cheeks and I gave them a squeeze and he snorted. I could feel his cock pressing up against mine and I felt insane with desire. He kissed me lightly on the forehead and then quickly darted back down to my chest first giving my right and then my left nipple a quick bite. I groaned
Continuing his straddle, he worked his way up until his cock was at my lips and he lifted his hips and ground my face with his member. I could smell his musk it was sweet and heady.
I opened my mouth and took his cock like communion. He plunged down my throat and surprisingly I did not choke. I relaxed and let him fuck my face. I heard him cursing under his breath as I had my tongue work on the head of his monster and then under it. I could feel his balls slapping up against my chin. At one point he reached down and with his left hand he twisted my left nipple. I felt my cock grow even harder.
When he finally slid out of my mouth he moved back to a sitting position on my chest, his dick jutting forth, and then he guided my hands up to his head, to his hair which was thick with some kind of pomade. I ran my fingers through his locks until they were slimy with the stuff and then he guided my hands to his cock which I covered with the the grease.
Ray slid off me for a second and lifted my legs with ease to rest them on his shoulders. He looked down on me and gave me a crooked little smile, his hair was corkscrewed now and he looked like he’d just woke up. I met his eyes, those green fire emeralds and as I gazed into them he slowly entered me until I thought I might break in two. I’d never felt anything like this before. I was by no means a virgin, but I’d never had a cock like this before.
The pain was sublime. I wanted it to go on forever. And it did, and eventually it morphed into pleasure.
At one point, with him in me up to the hilt, he pushed even further and I thought I’d die. Then he pushed my head to the side and covered my face with his left armpit. The smell of him and the taste of his sweat were alarmingly overwhelming I was going into sensory overload.
Crouching again over me, he began to pound me in earnest, my head was slamming into the wall behind the bed, he was cursing under his breath again, and his body was shiny with sweat, his body hair glistening. I thought he was about to come and suddenly he pulled out and lay next to me.
He kissed me roughly on the mouth and began to stroke my dick like it was some kind of car jack. I returned the favor, and we jerked each other off, kissing and sweating until finally he came. I could feel his hot load squirting all over my chest and the next thing I knew I returned the favor.
We lay on the bed now, both of us panting for breath, he leaned over to me and asked, “Want to spend the night?”
“Yes”, I said.
He got out of bed and brought some towels over and gently cleaned me off and then did the same to himself. A few moments later we lay chest to chest.
As I began to doze, I noticed that the bass of the jukebox could be plainly heard from the bar downstairs. “Doesn’t that bother you,” I asked.
“No,” he said sleepily, “It’s comforting, like god’s heartbeat”.
The next morning I woke up and Ray was still sound asleep. I gathered my clothes and dressed quietly out in the living room. On a table by the front door I noticed a picture of Ray with two beautiful little girls in his arms. I surmised these were his daughters and I hoped that somehow, someway, they’d all be reunited soon.
I never saw Ray again. I never went back to The Lucky Stiff again. Nights like the one I spent with him are the stuff of legend, and legends live on forever.
Ray, wherever you are, whatever became of you, I hope you are happy …
Stu and I used to spend a lot of time in his basement listening to music. He loved rock music and was always playing something from Led Zep or Jefferson Airplane/Starship or The New York Dolls... Often we'd smoke some dope down there and chill out in the dark musty confines of his parent's cellar sitting together on this huge old sofa.
