Durward and Charles – Night Life

(continued from previous Durward and Charles episodes)

Obviously Durward and Charles had a wild streak, especially when they had a few drinks in them. But together, the effect was magnified. It was against their best interests to hang out together and drink. It was against everyone’s best interests for them to do that.

Durward and his wife, Alice, lived in Florida for a while after they got married. One night, Charles and Carolyn went out for a night on the town with Durward and Alice. The agenda was food and drink—and dancing, maybe, and just generally a good time. Charles was driving the four of them in his car.

Charles became very intoxicated and he was “all over the road” on the way home. His driving was so bad that Alice demanded that Charles stop the car and let her out. Charles did stop the car, and everyone not named Charles stepped out of the car. The fact that his wife got out made Charles angry. He tore off down the street and got home quickly. His former passengers called a taxi. When they arrived at Charles and Carolyn’s home, they found Carolyn’s car parked in the driveway with every piece of glass broken out of it. Headlights, taillights, windshield, side windows, back window—you name it, if it was made of glass, it was broken. Charles was a man of extremes.

On another night, Durward and Charles went to a bar. One of the bar patrons began ragging on Charles, trying to start a fight. At first, Charles ignored him. But the man persisted. Finally Charles agreed to go outside and fight the man. So that’s what they did. They went outside and squared off. The man threw a punch at Charles, and Charles returned a punch so hard that he knocked the man across the hood of a car and onto the ground. The man was knocked out cold. The authorities were called and they took the man to a hospital. The police thought Charles had used a weapon of some kind and intended to arrest him, but the crowd told the police that Charles had only used his fist. The next day the man was still unconscious, which greatly troubled Charles. He didn’t want the man to die. So Charles went to the hospital and prayed over him. The man eventually woke up, doubtless wiser about starting fights. No matter how tough you think you are, there is somebody tougher.

On another night, Charles was in a hotel room with a prostitute. I don’t know what transpired between them, but Charles refused to pay her and threw her out of the room. The prostitute left and came back with her pimp. The pimp demanded money from Charles. When Charles refused, the pimp pulled out a gun. Whereupon Charles snatched the pimp’s gun and pistol-whipped him with it. (See last sentence of previous paragraph.)

One day Charles had a disagreement with a shopkeeper. Did Charles go home grumbling to himself? No. Charles went to his car, fired up the engine, and drove the car through the front doors of the shop. Charles felt better after that. All of us have frustrations from time to time and we think about what we’d like to do. Charles didn’t fantasize about doing something, he just did it.

But as I said earlier, it was a different time in America. Sometimes you could get away with something that, today, would land you in jail. Yet it seems like there have always been people who could skirt the rules with impunity. I see news stories that make me exclaim, “If I did that they would throw me under the jail.” And yet the perp in the news somehow manages to skate past the consequences.

Sometimes, it seems that some guardian angel must be working overtime. I have my own guardian angel that has stepped in to save my butt on numerous occasions. I’ve had good luck too many times to ascribe it to chance. It has to be divine intervention. But if you have good luck and you abuse it, it may not be there when you need it most. I think that is what happened to Charles. But that’s another story and one I’m not sure I want to write about.