There was a familiar buzz in the air. A buzz that was better than most high's Lenny had ever felt in his life. The feeling he'd been trying to chase at the end of each joint; at the lift of his head after a line... It was the sticky, warm feeling that kept him coming back to the stage and the crowds. On his darkest days, it used to be the only thing that kept him going.
"Now, the man you're all here for," the host of the evening was just cheesy enough. Upstairs at the Downstairs was big enough that they didn't really need someone to help the audience along, but this guy knew how to win over a late-night crowd. "Help me welcome to the stage, Lenny Bruce!"
Lenny finished off the drink that he had been milking away at all night, then made his way up onto the stage. The gathered crowd was large and looking at him with anticipation. He was still getting used to that part; the knowledge of enjoyment that coloured their faces. Even the officers awaiting his first vulgarity look as though they were already enjoying themselves. He recognized them and knew that they might just let him get a little farther than usual, if only to hear the punchline to the joke they interrupted last week.
"Now see here, you're all just a little too excited," Lenny gazed out over everyone. "I'm not saying you shouldn't be, because obviously I'm a very interesting man," people were laughing already, but he could pick out the people that just thought they should be laughing. "But if my wife hears about this, she's going to be wondering what I do up on this stage when she isn't watching."
The apartment was nearly quiet when he finally managed to step through the door. A little later than he wanted to get home, but the rain made it nearly impossible to get a cab home after his set downtown. In the past he would have just given up and walked, but he did not live close enough to any of the clubs for that to make sense anymore.
He stepped out of his shoes as quietly as possible but found that it was pointless as soon as he rounded the corner to see that the kitchen light was still on. Midge was sitting quickly at the table, flipping through a magazine, and picking away at leftovers and a glass of wine. She was wearing his favourite nightdress; it was a deep, powdery pink.
"You didn't have to wait up for me, honey." He leaned down to give her waiting lips a kiss, being careful of the curlers framing her face. Pulling back slightly, he smiled at her, then glanced towards the brisket she was eating. "You do have to share some of that though."
"Good gig?" She asked around a bite of food.
"Well, I didn't get arrested…"
Lenny didn't actually talk about his personal life on stage too often. He made vague references and compared goings-ons in the world to things that 'he' might have experienced. Unless something was already in the public eye, he did not normally wish to bring it into the world for people to critique. He was happy though, and there was a strangely unselfish part of him that wanted his audience to know that things could get better; they did for Lenny.
"So, I got remarried a few months ago," a few of the men in the audience made different variations of a groaning noise. "It isn't something I ever thought I would do again, but much like a murderer going in for another kill, I just had to give into the urge."
He knew he had them. Any person sitting out in the crowd of tables, chairs, and spilled drinks, had their attention rapt on the stage. He knew that the joke would play well with this group. There was a slightly higher class of people that came here, and they appreciated a different kind of joke to the ones he played at places with worse lighting.
"Both of us came into the marriage with kids of our own. She had a little boy and a girl, and I had a daughter that was the only good thing I've actually created in the past decade," he walked across the small stage for a few steps, then stopped to look out at a different group of drunkards. "I've been told that I didn't have that much to do with the production, but I wouldn't be a man if I didn't take the credit, right?" The women in the audience laughed, the men decidedly did not.
Lenny never thought he would get to have this experience. It was never in the cards for him before.
The idea that he would someday be having a picnic in Central Park with his family was a far-flung dream, a fantasy. But here he was on a sunny autumn day, probably the last halfway warm day of the year… sitting on a picnic blanket with grape jam smeared on one of his knees.
And his two daughters giggling endlessly.
They had been so excited to see the ducks that they ignored all else in the world. Midge was laying back with a smile on her face, eating the last bit of her own sandwich and Ethan was trying fruitlessly to get his kite up into the windless sky.
"Don't say anything," Midge said without even looking in Lenny's direction. "He'll be tired when he gets home, that's enough for me. Besides," she sat up slightly and looked towards Ethan's continued efforts. "He seems to be having a good time."
A few minutes later, Kitty and Esther both toddled over and flopped over on the blanket. They'd been chasing ducks for the better part of an hour and had evidently decided that their efforts were just as fruitless as their brother's were. Esther's head nestled into Lenny's shoulder, while Kitty's hand wrapped as much as it could around Midge's arm.
Later that night, Midge was rubbing some lotion across her arms while Lenny flipped back and forth through her notebook. 'Fuck, she's funny', he thought to himself as he put little blue stars next to his favourite jokes and observations. He had just been reading over an antidote about a dinner she went to with some of her old B. Altman friends when Midge interrupted his reading:
"We should have another."
"If you knew my wife, you would know that she's a force to be reckoned with on even her worst day," there were a couple familiar faces standing over near the bar, so Lenny gave them a smile and a wink. "Actually, on her worst day she's probably even scarier. But that's part of what attracted me to her anyway. Like a month to the flame I radiated around that woman if only because I wanted to know how she did it. How she kept beating this broken-down system we call life."
He could feel it the moment she walked in the room. Midge was with Noah and Astrid, waiting for him to finish his set so they could all have a late dinner, almost early breakfast. With the new baby Noah was itching to get out of the house for the night, and Astrid was always happy to come along for what she was sure was going to be an adventure.
A few people seemed to notice her, and he could not help but be proud. Despite everything, the fact that there were people whispering about her excitedly set his heart a little bit on fire. They were not planning on coming out with their relationship at least until the new year, which was still a couple months away, but her appearance and recognition might just blow that plan.
"When we moved into our new apartment, on the Upper West Side at her request," he rolled his eyes with minimal effort. He really did not mind living in a nicer neighbourhood. He also didn't mind knowing that he would be getting to come home to a family at the end of a hard day or night. "I didn't realise my new in-laws would be coming along for the journey. Now, I like these people though. Her father and myself actually get along really well, and if I were an older man, I might have tried to lure her mother away instead."
Abe had been click-clacking away at a typewriter for weeks now. There were balls of crumpled up papers at his feet and pen marks from correcting mistakes on his hands. Zelda was always trailing behind him to pick up the papers and clean bruise coloured smudges off surfaces. It was frankly a little terrifying.
"Do you think this is a good line?" He asked this out loud, and most times never got an answer, but one day, when their wives and children were away, Lenny asked:
"What's the line?"
Abe tried to hide just how shocked he was when he got a reply to his question. He had spent ages already expecting no answer, and perhaps not actually wanting one. Lenny had heard the question before. As a comic, you hear different variations on it a lot. His father-in-law seemed passionate about the writing he was doing though, not like the amateur comedians that just wanted to ask so that they could brag about Lenny Bruce thinking they were funny.
"The political and societal issues put in place and perpetrated by the last regime-"
"Regime is a harsh word." Lenny interrupted.
"It is meant to be harsh."
Lenny nodded his head, then stood up from the armchair he had been inhabiting for most of the afternoon. "Then continue. I'll grab us some drinks."
"This may be the first gig I've gotten all the way through in a long time," Lenny turned slightly towards the police officers in the back and looked at them. The words were true, but they rang true enough to his audience. He usually tried not to bullshit them too much but telling them that he had been cooped up at home and enjoying time with his family didn't really fit the full image. "Thank you, boys! You must be fans of my wife too!"
The officers gave a little wave of appreciation, then turned to head out the door. Lenny briefly considered saying something that would make them turn around but decided that Midge was looking far too good to jeopardize missing out on their night without the kids.
"And with that, I bid you all a fond farewell. Some of you may have noticed a very handsome man waiting for me in the audience," he winked down at Noah, who blushed furiously and tried to hide his face. "Catch me for my second appearance on the Steve Allen show in a couple weeks! I'm Lenny Bruce, goodnight."