novembre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- and i hate everything about you, dah-da-da-dah-daaaah the paper was just delivered. every night before the sun rises, an old blue station wagon lurches around my parents' neighborhood, tossing papers out of its butt and onto driveways. we've never had a paper boy. why, then, are paper boys so stagnant a cliche? in movies, comics, television and even in video games? when i was twelve the mctshs moved into the house across the street. they were the only neighbors with kids. everybody else was retired. after visiting all the old people (by the time i was twelve i stopped regularly hanging out with the kr.s and the of.s and the ty.s, but i still felt obligated to say hi), i'd go over to the mctshs and disappear from wbr life for 6-8 solid hours. theirs was the inverse of my life: a big family with parents that didn't care. we'd play hide and go seek and m would routinely get stuck in the laundry chute, without punishment. mke had nintendo 2 and we'd take turns on drag racer and super mario and paper boy. i remember figuring out how to move the joystick so the electronic bicycle would float over fences and hedges. after a while i'd get bored with the game's premise; i'd turn the paper boy around and head him straight for an attacking pit bull or i'd aim his papers so they'd hit rooftops or windows, deliberately losing points. mke would get mad at me and kick me out of his room. then i had three other mctshs to choose from. mar was sixteen and carted all of us around in her new used honda with its surfboard stickers (purchased from quarter machines in grocery stores) on the back window. she'd blast ugly kid joe and skid row. we'd go to vict*ria plaza and hang out at s*v-on and mel would steal candy bars. she was so tiny, all bones and these two giant eyes, no one suspected her. she had severe ADHD and had to take downers every day otherwise she'd bounce off the walls screaming and hooting. when she wasn't on drugs she'd hop everywhere, her feet barely touching the ground for more than a few seconds at a time. we'd go swimming at the on* club and k always had blood on the crotch of her swimsuits. she would sit by the side of the pool and stare off into the distance while the rest of us splashed her. she lost her virginity to an eighth grader in the field at my middle school, even though she was already in high school. one day mke made a go-cart out of wood that we found behind their house and wheels mel probably stole from s*v-on. i only got to ride in it once. they moved to florida a year or two later. i heard that mar had two kids, and k three. k is probably twenty-four now. she still calls my parents' house every couple of months or so looking for me, even though it's been ten years. my mother refuses to tell her where i am. i'm pretty sure k is convinced that somehow i'm still twelve. 4:46 am - 12.30.2000 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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