“Thank you. I’d like to say you’ve been a great audience. Thank you very much. Good night.” And with that, Maurice walked off the stage. It wasn’t that long ago when he was bussing tables in the restaurant across the street. Now, he’s made it. He had his Scotch rocks waiting for him. He decided to forgo the cigar and put it in his shirt pocket.

Over the sound system the DJ was playing ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ by Indeep.
Maurice chuckled and broke into a big grin while saying “crazy vato. Fuckin DJ.” The stage manager overheard and asked if Maurice wanted the music changed. “No, it’s fine. Me and the DJ go back. Way back. Back into time.” The stage manager nodded and started walking away.

‘Not a problem I can’t fix, ‘cause I can do it in the mix’ Maurice rapped as he shadowboxed with a scotch in one hand. He laughed. He started out in small dives and now he’s in larger dives. He text messaged the DJ. ‘What’s Up Kid? How’d I do?’ A few minutes later, the reply, ‘Yo man. You sucked.’

Maurice laughed. He was glad to have the DJ around. Helped keep him grounded.
He had a spell of drug abuse but it was under control, he maintained. He couldn’t be around coke, because he’d want some real bad.

A serious jones. Weed was ok. Booze, beer were cool too. The coke? Forget about it. The DJ used to hook him up on occasion. Now one of his duties was to keep it away. Maurice figured if they could get past the DJ, then it must be destiny. Coke rationalizations.

Coke rationalizations lead to coke talk eventually. Maurice could be fine, then something would trigger the jones and he had those digits programmed into his phone. Different code names in case the DJ got hold of the phone and started prying. Maurice couldn’t stand that but put up with it.

But there was no problem. Last night a DJ did save his life. Last night and many nights before. Grouchy but grateful. And Maurice was sure that there would be many other nights for the DJ to do his thing.

The DJ then played ‘Got to be Real’ by Cheryl Lynn. He was hitting all of Maurice’s sweet spots. He took a swig of Scotch and pulled the cigar from his shirt pocket and put it in his mouth. The ‘No Smoking’ sign was right in front of him so he didn’t light it up.

Maurice just bopped and sipped his Scotch. Got to be really real. He was feeling good. Top of his game, no matter what the DJ said. He was in the moment when everything revolved around him for just a short while. It doesn’t last long and a lot of people don’t even notice when it’s happening to them.

The phone in Maurice’s pocket vibrated. ‘Only foolin kid. Any requests?’ Maurice smiled. There were a few requests he had in mind. Some only recently stopped being illegal in certain states.