Henry awake by 10 AM, in his Queen’s apartment, smoking a bowl of hashish and drinking Screwdrivers, thinking about his father, Benjamin Lucowski, who they called Benny.
Benny Lucowski, a traveling salesman who ran away from 10-year-old Henry and his mother, Helen Lucowski for assorted reasons, the primary reason being that Helen was a lush. The Lucowski family hired a maid because Helen couldn’t do much in her condition, she would lay in bed for days and drink, or run away for months at a time, leaving little Henry with his deaf maid, Nil.
The dysfunctional and strange family lived in a small wooden framed house in Queens.
Benny Lucowski, spent most of his time on the road, selling sleeping apparel and shower curtains. He came home late one night, drunk.
Benny Lucowski, spent most of his time on the road, selling sleeping apparel and shower curtains. He came home late one night, drunk.
Benny and Helen, who was also loaded, go at each other head-on while little Henry and his deaf maid Nil are hunkered down in the kitchen, Henry can hear the shouting, Nil can feel the angry vibes, Benny says,
You’re a lush Helen, you're a fucking bum, you lay in bed all day, Nil does everything for little Henry, he is a mess and will never amount to nothin, then Helen says roaring insanely,
shut it Benny, you know God Damn well that you fuck everything that moves when you’re on the road, you’re a rotten salesman and an even worse person, we don’t have enough money to make ends meet.
Little Henry is the way he is because you’re never home, you’re a lousy father!
Well, that was it for Benny, he simply says,
I’ve had enough of your shit Helen and I don’t have to take it anymore!
He walks out the front door, gets in his Cadillac and drives away into the night— never seen or heard from again by Helen and little Henry
It's 11 AM in Queens, it's sometime between 1970 and 1980.
Henry sitting on his futon in his apartment knocking down Screwdrivers, thinking about a dream he had last night—he, talking with his father Benny who says,
Henry sitting on his futon in his apartment knocking down Screwdrivers, thinking about a dream he had last night—he, talking with his father Benny who says,
look at you Henry, you’re a drunk like your mother Helen and even worse you’re on dope. You don’t have a job and you're on welfare, like I told you, you aint gonna amount to nothin.
And so it goes in the down and dirty psychic world.
He had an appointment with one of the shrinks at Queen’s Welfare Office in the afternoon.
Henry up and running, good and wasted— off to the welfare office.
At Queen’s Welfare by 2 AM, breezing through security, directed to a large gray room that housed the offices of the shrinks, who were, to borrow a line from Hunter S. Thompson—feared and loathed, because they could commit you to Riker’s Isle or even worse, revoke your crazy-pay.
Anyway, the welfare office was busy and Henry waited 3 hours, bored out his cord until his name was called, he was told to go to office 7.
He is met by an older guy smoking a pipe of all fucking things. The guy introduces himself saying,
hello Henry I’m Doctor Pickle, what can I do for you today?
Henry laughing says,
how about electroshock?
The shrink, Pickle says to him,
Henry, please sit down we need to go over a few things,
Just a few questions and then you can go, let us start with,
do you feel excited about life?
Henry says,
Pickle it’s funny you asked, well you know I have my ups and downs, and last night I had a dream that I was talking to my father who I haven’t seen in 33 years,
Doctor Pickle’s bushy eyebrows slant upward, his face is animated, he looks excited like he has found a 100 Dollar bill on the floor, saying,
Oh, very good Henry I think we have hit pay-dirt, go on,
Henry says,
Well Pickle, my father Benny says to me,
Henry, you're a drunk and you're on dope, you're a nothin, a loser.
Henry goes on to explain to Pickle,
I felt like shit when I woke up and needed a few drinks to straighten up some.
Pickle abruptly interrupts Henry saying,
you know you aren't supposed to be using and that you should be going to AA Meetings, Henry says,
oh, I meant buttermilk Doc, Pickle then says,
Henry, you're experiencing father-hunger, you have ambivalent feelings towards your father because he deserted you, let's wrap it up for today.
Henry agrees, thinking on the way out,
I will never see Benny again, he could be dead for all I know? I’m not setting the world on fire, but I am having a ball, Benny can shove it.
It was a minor catharsis of sorts for Henry.
He would make an appointment to see Dr. Hiccup next month instead of Dr. Pickle, he felt that Pickle was anal and a dick who pried too much. Henry preferred Hiccup’s line of questioning— the did you move your bowels today and can you get a hard-on stuff.
Henry leaves Queen’s Welfare Office at 630 PM, direly needing a drink.
He walks and walks, going over the psychic happenings of the day, ending up on the Lower East Side in Chinatown. He stumbles in a bar by accident, tripping over a rough spot in the pavement. It is a dive called Mr. Fongs, with no signs outside. He can smell egg rolls frying as he walks in, its dive and he loves it. He sits at the bar and orders a double Jack and soda and some egg rolls.
After a few drinks, the outlaw poet David Lerner sits down next to him. Henry knew of him and liked his work which was contrary to everything literary. An example would be this bit from his poem Mein Kampf which speaks to his disdain for the poet Gary Snyder and the organic seed-eating sect of the Beats.
I’d rather be Richard Speck
than Gary Snyder
I’d rather ride a rocketship to hell
than a Volvo to Bolinas
Henry thought Gary’s Snyder’s whole earth purism was bogus as well. He nervously looks at David Lerner, the literary outlaw, thinking the pirate was going to bite his head off and says,
I’m Henry Lucowski, I'm a underground writer on crazy-pay and I would rather take a speed-ball and ride a suicide rocket into the dark side of the moon than drive a Volvo to Bolinas.
Lerner looks over at Henry and sizes him up, with a sinister look, then he says,
why I’ll drink to that Lucowski,
They both laugh and David Lerner buys Henry a drink. They go on to talk about all the bullshit in the world—about the affected and sanctimonious nature of hip and other literati.
In what seemed like a short time David Lerner says to Henry,
Lucowski, I’m flying home to San Francisco tomorrow, keep it raw baby!
Henry wondering if his work was affected?