garcia's

garcia's was a faux mexican restuarant down at four corner's in San Ramon where all the construction workers in the area used to go after work on fridays to eat from the free mexican buffett and drink. the action would get very animated as the night progressed and the drinking could get serious. lots of shouting, loud voices, postering, an air of unrepressed aggression would prevade. these guys would all be in their construction clothes and dirty but i would have changed and worn something like black jeans, boots, silk shirt. one hot summer night, I think something always happens on that turn of a phrase, a hot summer night, i was drinking to much with the koan brothers, matty and luke. matty had a degree in english and always had a novel in his back pocket, was an old eagle scout and a pretty damn good carpenter, with a hump back from some childhood disease that had curved him over just enough to make him pissed off at the rest of the world. he was clearly the leader and elder of the two brothers, luke the younger we called him, a big rawboned guy with tattoes and a false tooth that he took out and laid on the table when he was talking. he had the habit of waving the tooth around when he got mad shifting it from hand to hand, he was a big blond good looking kid, and mean as his brother. you can't blame drinking on anyone's bad behavior, these guys were mean before they started, nastiness just boiling just beneath the surface, they didn't need a reason to be mad, anything would do. we used to call them the riverboat gamblers, they had an old long buick lowrider they'd drive up to the job site and then unload their tools from the cavernous trunk, once i looked in there when they were getting their gear and saw a shotgun under a tarp. luke was also the boyfriend of Dax's daughter, so that's how we all knew each other. this particular night we were well into six beers and some whiskey chasers, when matty said they were part indian, maybe as an excuse why they weren't holding their liquor well or just pure postering, and luke regaling us about him being some great hunter up in oregon i think or northern california and how he lay in a blind all day waiting for just one shot, " just one shot that's all i need," and then the conversation switched over to god and religion and ole luke asks me, "do you believe in god?" "Sure" i said. he leans over with an absolutely gleefull look in his eyes, and lays right into it, the floodgates open, evil pouring out all over the drinks and the stale chips and watery salsa, right at me, proclaiming , " there is no god,i don't" and showing me a knife in his boot, " i can do anything i want and party as hard as i want like there's no tommorrow," and then matty seconds that and they were clearly trying to mess with me, intimidate, scare me for no other reason than pure meaness. It was the bitch theory, through and through. luke maybe pissed off because i was his foreman and a better carpenter than he was , petty rivalry theory, and matty pissed off about his hump which really didn't look all that bad, more like he had rounded shoulders. we'd all had to much to drink by then and mistakenly i went out in the parking lot with them. Matty asked me if i want to wrestle and said he'd been a high school wrestling champ, threatening me, maybe i'd back off and evil would win out tonite, but i said sure and took off my silk shirt and we went at it right there in the lot and after some fast action i got him upside down and pinned his head against the asphalt and he gave up. luke was snorting and spitting, couldn't wait to get at me, said he was a champion football player, and to avenge his brothers honor, how about getting down in a three point stance and going at it, a last man standing type deal and i said sure. I got down in my stance and i could see he was going to try run right threw me, and then i saw the knife sticking out of his boot, so when matty yelled "Go", i side steeped and luke went head first into a car door and the hard collision didn't knock him out, he just laid there for awhile, and then they wanted to fight but i said "i'm leaving," and got in my truck to go and I saw lukes tooth on the asphalt laying there white under the street lights and said, " hey Luke, you lost your tooth'" and drove off. another pet theory of mine in those days was the desperadoes who've lost faith in humanity, in life, seek out those who haven't and try to screw with them, to make themselves feel better, twisted I know, but I've seen it so many times out there. jgk