Craig Finn - Fletcher's Lyrics

There weren't any curtains in the front room and I couldn't sleep once the sun showed up with it's heavy August heat so i sat up on the couch and surveyed the wreckage. Still wearing my wristband, which always makes it worse.

The bars had been whatever. We shouldn't have even bothered. But after we went back to Fletchers with the best part of a handle and a plan to lay out the remainder on the table, listen to some records and suck up whatever Saturday was left.

Then Fletcher got the text from this chick Steph he'd met last weekend. Said she was out with girlfriends and they had gone out dancing but now the clubs were closing. They were all dressed up. They didn't really want to go home quite yet.

So then there were the three of them drinking vodka in the kitchen. Tiny shiny dresses. Steph and two others. One of them was gorgeous but seemed a little stand off. So I chatted up the short one until she brought up her boyfriend.

A little later some kids we used to skate with came traipsing up the stairs with a case of Coors Banquet. Said they saw the lights on and thought that they should check in. They entered with their arms raised like victors. The whole thing had momentum.

I was standing on the staircase looking over the proceedings. Thinking that these dudes were mostly decent and I'd known them all forever and friends should stick together and I'm sick of all the sadness and I gotta stop thinking about Seattle. It's probably good enough right here.

But then back there in the morning with the bottles and the fruit flies and the ashtrays and the headache and the heavy sun and sticky floors, I wasn't really sure if I thought that it was good anymore. Found my shoes in the foyer in a jumble of sneakers and one silver high heel.

Steph came out of Fletcher's bedroom and went into the bathroom. She was trying to be quiet but I think I heard her vomit. She ran the water a long time and she came out chewing gum. Still in the same dress she'd worn out to the clubs.

Once I put my shoes on I went out to the sidewalk and squinted in the bright light. She came out and stood there on the front steps with the high heel in her purse. The sunlight made sparkles on her sequins. I wished I had my shades.

She cursed her friends that left her. Said she couldn't wait for Fletcher. She asked if I had cigs and I did. She spit her gum in the gutter. Leaned in as I lit it. At first she smelled like spearmint.
Then she smelled like smoke.

Seven am Sunday we walked down University towards Broadway. Stopped to get some coffee. She told me she's a hostess at a restaurant. And in spring she'd started at Aveda but she couldn't really deal so she just stopped showing up.

Now she's staying at her mother's in New Brighton. Trying to save some money. But her mother can't stay sober and she's sort of scared to leave her. Eventually she'd like to live somewhere just a little warmer but for now it's probably good enough right here.

On a bench along the river we watched a dragonfly and it's partner hover just above the water. She said she loves summer and she's sad it's almost over. She gets depressed around September. Reminds her of going back to school.

I told her how last year I'd gone out to Seattle for a wedding and my cousin took us sailing on Lake Union. And in the middle of the stillness I felt an urgency to live where nobody knows me. Where all my prior sins couldn't be held against me.

I keep thinking about just moving there and crashing with my cousin. Doing landscaping or something. But my cousin has two children and Seattle is expensive and funds have been elusive. It'll probably never happen and that's probably just as well.

Because I don't want to be some dude that makes a big deal out of moving then comes back a few months later a total goddamn failure. Like when Fletcher went to Denver. He had three kegs at his send off. Then he came back before Christmas and everyone was laughing.

They won't let him forget it and they wont let him outlive it. Behind his back they call him Rocky Mountain Fletcher. They'll destroy you just for trying something different. Now my voice was cracking. Pretty close to crying. She put her head against my shoulder.

Said the ones that we've known longest can pull us down the strongest. I put my arm around her and we sat and watched the water. Jealous of the movement of the current but maybe for a moment it was pretty good right here.