his name was manny. mexican american. he lives in mexico, and works in altadena where he wipes an old man’s ass.
he’s a caregiver i picked up at LAX when it had been dead all over la.
so when the $41 ping came in asking if i wanted to haul him across town with an hour ETA i said, hell yes.
not sure how he was an american citizen but he said he was. he had an accent but not thick. fucked up teeth. laid back style. happy. comfortable.
we immediately bonded.
manny makes way more money than me. the old man pays him $300 a day to live in a big house with he and mrs old man in the nice part of pasadena. no days off during the week, but every three months he’s allowed to fly back down to mexico to see his wife and son, freddy.
freddy had just turned two.
after little bonuses, manny makes out with $100k a year to do the things this man couldnt do any more like get out of bed, sit on the can, make eggs, and mow the grass.
manny also does the laundry for the old lady cuz shes getting old too.
boss was an executive back in the day. plenty of money but got parkinsons in his late 50s and it never got better.
i hate to say it but it sounds like a boring job, manny.
it is. and its led me to gambling because i sit next to him as he mumbles and i study the horses.
oh at santa anita? (which is nearby) i said.
everywhere. los alamitos, belmont park, i even bet on races in Japan.
what’s your system? i used to read a lot of Charles Bukowski who would drive from san pedro to santa anita and he’d study the racing forms in the passenger seat as his wife drove.
i dont have a system, he said, and i lose a lot. but i try to stick to betting on hot jockeys and trainers.
when LA is dead at night you imagine everyone watching tv inside their perfect homes. thats where the cars go when theyre not out, right?
we were flying. i had briefcase full of blues on low through the blue tooth
manny admitted he has a bit of a gambling problem where he loses $300-$500 a day on bad days, breaks even on good days and wins on very good days.
he blamed it on his phone.
it’s the app, he said. it lets me play all day, all night. i have to cut down.
when things turn sad and it’s only halfway through a trip, i try to redirect it to happier paths.
what was the best day of gambling you ever had?
manny perked up. i won $5,000 on a daily double. i put down $100 on a long shot and a favorite and it paid off.
what did you do with the money?
well, im saving for a bar i want to build in my hometown in mexico. so i put $1,000 into that account and i bought some clothes and went to the strip club and fucked the best one there.
wait, what?!
her name is salena.
was this in mexico or here?
in east LA amigo.
wait, wait. you can have sex with strippers in east la? i asked.
manny laughed so hard he started hiccupping. yes amigo!
how much do you have to pay?
$500, $600. she takes you to a little room. theres no bed, no couch. its just a little platform with some cushions. but theres enough privacy that you can do what you want to do. and i did everything.
everything?
everything: ass, mouth, i ate her out. excelente.
i paused and said, manny, whats wrong writh me? i dont think id go down on a stripper. i mean, ive kissed a stripper once in vegas because she had this tongue piercing and i kept staring at it. she said buy me a glass of champagne and you can kiss it.
same thing, amigo. these girls are no dirtier than the ones you’re already kissing. i ate her out good.
so what kind of bar are you saving up for?
a strip club!
are there no strip clubs in your hometown down there?
yes, but they’re all crowded. we could use another one.
and your wife would be ok with this dream of yours?
she knows me. just last night i was fucking her and my son was on one side of her and i was behind her, but i didnt care and she didn’t care.
she knows im loco and loyal. strippers dont count.
and she likes the money i make here and send down to her. and she likes the house i built for her from cleaning that old man. and she knows this bar will be what gets us a bigger house.
but you just built one!
si, but tony we learned a lot building that house and i will never start from scratch again. the next one will be a house thats already built and i will just add little things to it
and then rent out the house my wife and son are in now.
we were going to the mall next to the race track. manny was hungry.
where do you want me to drop you off?
the cheesecake factory.
but of course.