Unlikely Friendships

When I was living in Melbourne city, I had 2 very close friends, who I not only told all my secrets to, but who were there for me in all kinds of situations, both the fun, and the not so fun.  These 2 people didn’t know much of each other, and yet they were both so important to me at the time, and taught me so much about different cultures and most importantly, about myself.

The first friend I will tell you about was Ali.  He was a taxi driver, and just so happened one evening to pick me up for work.  We got chatting, and over the 20 minute drive through peak hour traffic we laughed and talked amicably about life in general.  He passed no judgement on me that I was a stripper at a table top dancing club, and I appreciated him just the way he was.  He would have been around 40, I only 20, and he was a Turkish man who had moved over to Australia less than 10 years ago to escape an unfortunate life with his wife and 2 children.

After a week or so of Ali picking me up in the taxi, we agreed that he would ALWAYS come, at the same time each day, each week, until my job at Santa Fe Gold finished.  After a few weeks of dropping me off, and picking me up after my shift (I would call him on his mobile to come and get me), we would often go to a bar and play pool until dawn.  We did this alot, and soon enough I was taken to a Turkish coffee bar where we sat amongst cigar smoke and strange men and drank the strongest coffee I have ever had.  We also played cards, drank beer together and talked and talked.

There were never any sexual feelings between us.  I did not find him attractive at all, and he never showed any interest in me either.  I think he was very happily married, and regardless of my age, and what I looked like, he was not interested in anything more than a platonic friendship.  This was refreshing, considering everyone in my life at this point appeared to either want to have sex with me, take advantage of me, or just plain use me.  Ali and I never saw each other outside of these hours.  We spent afternoons before my shift together, and early mornings together, but our lives never intervened outside those hours.  We were friends throughout my entire time at the club, and unfortunately, after I was sacked, I never heard from him again.

My other very close friend at the time was a biker by the name of Dagwood.  Dagwood was in his mid 40s, and the traditional biker dude.  Big beer gut belly, weathered skin and Ned Kelly style beard, he looked as if he had walked straight out of a “Born to be Wild” film clip.  We actually met at Silas and Jasmin’s club, and got on famously.  He had a wicked sense of humour, and I would laugh until I cried, often to the point of running to the toilet, or having to use my asthma inhaler.  He was a funny man.  He was also quite a powerful person.  I know that he was involved with the mafia, and was also quite ‘up there’ in the motorcycle gang he was involved with.  When I asked him what he did for a living, he would always be vague, saying ‘this and that’, and I was often intrigued, and would lay awake in bed at night thinking about it.  Was he a drug dealer?  A hit man?  A drug trafficker?  Did he beat people up?  I know he had alot of connections, as when I thought my phone was tapped at one point, he quite easily and quickly found out what the go was.

Our time together varied.  We saw each other several times a week, and our activities were as different as night and day.  Often we went to pubs and had a meal and I drank until I couldn’t stand up.  He never drank alcohol Dagwood.  Said it didn’t like the way it made him feel.  This was fine by me, as I always got a ride home on the lounge chair like apparatus on the back of his massive Harley Davidson motorcycle.  With my headphones on, we would talk as we rode around the city like royalty.  We also went to many motorbike shows, fairs, discos and events.  We attended rock concerts together and comedy clubs.  I felt safe when I was with Dagwood.  I knew that no-one would ever hurt me when he was with me.  He was like a father figure to me.  The father whom I had never had. I found out sometime after I left Melbourne, that he had a raging crush on me, but knew that it would never happen between us.  Luckily for me, but I guess not so lucky for him, he never had the guts to reveal his true feelings.  It was best that way, as all I every felt for him was a mother daughter type love.

Some months into our friendship, I had an obsessed ‘fan’ from work begin to stalk me.  I was absolutely terrified.  This is when Dagwood really came through for me.  I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t intervened.