The cab dropped me in a little hotel that was once on the south side of the river near downtown.
I had captured the money and safely returned without being tempted to “High Roll” it away.
Now it was time to do what I always do best - translate liquid profit to tangible assets.
I didn’t shave but did wash my face and put on a clean shirt under my safari jacket.
When the cab picked me up I asked him to take me somewhere to buy a used Corvette. He said “sure boss”.
We ended up on Kitski lane driving up and down the road looking into the lots.
It was as you expect. Sitting on the front line, long red and dangerous looking. T tops and that beautiful long look of the early 70’s.
I asked the driver to wait and went inside to the office where the owner and a young helper sit talking.
I asked, politely, if I could test drive the red Corvette.
When he looked at me like I had asked to bum a buck, I recalled that I was not looking my best or even close to what he must envision a sports car buyer to look like.
The gentleman says - “well you know we have lots of people who come in wanting to drive these cars”. I did not let him finish because I have a bit of experience in cutting this type of conversation short. I reached into one of the pockets that held very large sums of money and upon pulling it out I remarked that I was very much looking to buy a nice car this morning.
It all changed. Soon I was signing the papers, a cool $7,500 for the car and tipping the taxi driver.
Time to take a vacation.
I don't know why I threw the pizza, but it was done all the same. The pizza missed her and sailed over the railing to the parking lot below.
Our room in the hotel was on the upper floors and we moved our fight into the hotel.
How did it turn so badly so quickly?
We were an odd couple - married briefly, separated and now trying to save that marriage. I had invited her to visit me in Arizona and she seemed more under control and possibly sane.
It was the volatility that made her so exciting. When she drank, it was if someone had thrown a switch. The small petite lady became a fuzzy eyed demon who seemed to leave violence and chaos in her path. Perfect.
She had gone to jail on our wedding night , which might have given a reasonable man a clue to the ending of such an affair - but alas the allure was just too strong.
One night in Nevada we had married and partied the night away. However, as was often our pattern, we quarreled. The neighbors called the police about the two nut jobs screaming in the house next door.
If she had not thrown the ashtrays at the cops things would have worked out better. Or if I had of gone and bailed her out instead of waiting until the next afternoon. But it went down as written and here we are.
After a few months of mutual assured destruction I had moved to Arizona and drove back and forth to Vegas to play cards.
But I had missed her and I understand if you are doubting my ability to make rational judgments, however I did.
She came to visit and it was not crazy or anything so I suggested we take a trip to Hawaii to see how it goes.
She flew to LAX from Reno and I from Phoenix. We met and went to the airport bar (I am reasonably certain that my motivation was relaxation and not any subliminal desire to destroy the civilized world as we know it) and shockingly we both got hammered.
On the flight over we put away our share of the miniatures and landed on a windy night in Paradise.
Went to the hotel and then for a pizza. Somewhere in that innocuous time line we tried to see just how many hot buttons we could push before someones head exploded.
It turned out that it was mine.
Never before and never since have I ever raised a hand to a lady or a child, but for some unknown reason as we walked on the outer walkway on the upper floor of our hotel it was too much. Just one too many biting, vicious comments by my lovely wife - and I threw the damn pizza at her head. She ducked and hardly seemed surprised. After all she is the expert in getting a bar into a full blow riot.
But I was surprised and not very pleased.
The next morning I gave her a proposition. If you will go on Antabuse then I will let you stay in Hawaii as long as you care too.
We stopped drinking that morning and got an apartment on Paoakalani Avenue in a fully furnished condo that overlooked the Ali Wai Canal.