War Debts

I could say a little about what I saw and heard Friday morning at the salon. D— said her son K— had dropped out of high school and finished his GED at the community college in order to be treated like an adult. It probably didn’t happen that way. Usually kids dropped out of high school because they couldn’t hack it. K— may even have been expelled for marijuana possession. I only remember that he had enemies while in junior high. He let his hair grow long and smoked cigarettes and had a low opinion of himself. His sister J— had a lover living with them in her parents’ house before she was legal. She got into body building big time. J—‘s boyfriend tried to join the military but couldn’t pass their little IQ test or fill out the paperwork. This was going on while I was in high school and college. J— worked for a long time at Rax on F— Boulevard. And poor K— died in a car crash in the summer of 1989, under very odd circumstances. He was being pursued by the police for some reason. He drove on a flat tire at top speed to resist arrest, finally slamming into the front of a Taco Bell, where his head hit the steering wheel, killing him instantly. D— related this information to my mother, and I was in the next room probably noodling on my bass guitar. I felt so awkward, because I had broken off friendship with K— in fourth grade. D— still used Mom as a confidante for many years after. I suppose I still feel guilty for breaking with K— when we were in grade school. Maybe that’s why I go visit D— at the salon; just paying my dues.

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