Last Exit to Montauk by Phillip Vega
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About the author:
Comfortable in a room full of people or one on one, he welcomes opportunities for guest appearances, interviews, and book signings.
What inspired you to write your book?
That all changed when she read my manuscript. She fell in love with it, my writing style and potential. She changed her mind, and we’ve now been working together since December 2015. Janet has become an integral member of my “team”, which includes my wife, older and younger brother, and some close friends, who’ve been kind enough to provide me with their insights and feedback.
Here is a short sample from the book:
The bowling alley was located at a strip mall near my house. We checked in with the guy behind the counter, who assigned us a lane, then gave us each a score sheet and a pair of really fashionable bowling shoes. You know the ones. Red and black separated with a white stripe down the middle, white soles, shoe size emblazoned on the back. To this day, they still remind me of clown shoes.
We found a couple of black bowling balls and put them in the ball return area. I placed the score sheet on our bowling desk and wrote our names down.
Back then we didn’t have electronic scoreboards, so you had to know how to keep score. You had to know the difference between a strike and a spare, how to score it properly, and what happened in the last frame if you threw one. Of course, each table had the rules written down, so if you didn’t know how to keep score, you could read the directions and learn the rules. It was bowling, not rocket science.
We were playing the best of three. Like tennis, the loser would buy pizza. “And don’t take it easy on me. I plan on winning again,” she warned me, grinning.
I laughed. “Oh don’t worry; I don’t plan on losing two days in a row. I hope you brought your wallet.”
I wasn’t much of a bowler and only played now and again. I was lucky if I broke a hundred, but don’t judge. How many famous Hispanic bowlers do you know? I bet you could rattle off a few hundred Hispanic baseball or soccer players though, right?
Besides, most kids in the neighborhood didn’t come to the bowling alley to bowl. We came
to play video games. I remember when they got Ms. Pac- Man. Adults and kids would put their quarters down on the lip of the machine and patiently wait their turn. While you waited, you could play another video game, like Asteroids, or play pinball.
They had the classic pinball games like Kiss and Pinball Wizard. Today, it’s all about X-Box,
iPads, Sony PlayStation, and online computer games. Man, times have changed. But that day, we were there to bowl.
She bowled first. She did a quick stretch, blew into her right hand, and picked up her ball. Before making her approach, she bent over and stared down the bowling pins as if to say, “You’re mine.”
What a view.
She inhaled, held it, and exhaled. Then in a very fluid motion, she took a few steps and released the ball, knocking down nine pins. She twirled around, smiling, and looked over at me, raising her eyebrows. “I hope you brought your A game!”
Oh, crap!
I just smiled back. Her ball returned, and she picked it up. She went right back to her previous spot and picked up her spare. She yelped and did a fist pump. She then turned around and bounced back to the bowling table as if it were no big deal. So, she can bowl.
Who knew?
Maybe she got lucky. Yeah, that’s what it was—luck. Just like tennis yesterday. Luck.
“Do you know how to keep score?” she asked.
“Yeah, I know how to keep score. This isn’t my first time bowling,” I replied. It’ll only look like it.
We spent the rest of the afternoon bowling without a care in the world. Strike! Spare! Gutter ball! Seven/ten split! Spare! We laughed. We high-fived. Most importantly, we had fun. We only played two of our best of three games. Yes, Charlie Brown lost again . . . sigh!
I just laughed it off. Besides, she had distracted me with her awesomeness.
“So where do you want to go for pizza?” she asked.
“I know a joint,” I joked.
Like most Long Island strip malls, this one had a grocery store, liquor store, card store, record store, Carvel ice cream parlor, drugstore, dry cleaner, Chinese food, and, of course, a neighborhood pizza joint.
On Long Island, every neighborhood has a locally-owned Italian pizzeria in every shopping center. You had Tony’s, Vinnie’s, Mario’s, Johnny’s, and an assortment of other places that were names ending in a vowel.
The very best pizza on the planet, in my opinion, was our neighborhood’s local pizzeria—Giuseppe’s.
If you want to get into a pissing contest, make the mistake of saying your pizza place was better than someone else’s. You know the expression about never discussing religion and politics? Well, when you’re on Long Island, add pizzerias to the list. You will argue for hours.
When the pizza chains started to open up, people would order from them only if they didn’t feel like driving, or were in a jam; otherwise, people looked down their noses at those places.
You never admitted to ordering from Domino’s, or being seen in Pizza Hut.
It wasn’t raining very hard, so we walked a few stores down to Giuseppe’s Pizzeria. We ordered a couple of slices each and Cokes and found a booth toward the back. And that was how you ordered it: “Let me get a couple of slices and a Coke.”
Back then, you didn’t have a great selection. You couldn’t order a Hawaiian slice or a Meat Lovers slice.
Gourmet slices like goat cheese and truffles or escargot pizza were not yet in vogue.
For those of you wondering, yes, I was the one who once had eaten escargot pizza. Yes, it was awful, and yes, there was a girl involved. Fortunately, the girl I was trying to impress that day, still agreed to marry me the in the mid-’90s. The lesson I learned that day? Don’t be a shmuck! When in doubt, go with pepperoni.
Okay, back to the story . . .
“Did you let me win again?” B teased.
“You were there. Did it look like I let you beat me? Besides, you only beat me the last game by two pins. And I do recall someone coughing real loud as I threw my last ball. I’m not making any accusations or excuses, mind you, I’m just saying.”
She tried to hide her smirk.
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