back back in the old neighbourhoodsidestepping its
old stories and avoiding its new teeth
he lived in it from nine to
twenty and twenty only because it took him
all that time to make enough money to leaveto blow town it wasnt easy
it
drove him nuts
leave town
escape
debatable
nuanced
it wasnt a bad neighbourhoodnothing
to bitch about growing up he just didnt
want to be theredidnt want to think hed have to live there everybody has a right to live where they
wanted
where that was for himself he
wasnt aware then
he intended to roam for a while roaming he figured hed find where that place wasmight
be
how would he know if he didnt go
Man, you have roots here; you’re
whole familys here. Don’t you see you’re knocking their home?
Knocking No If theyre living where they want to live thats
their choice Likewise Im welcome mine
he drew his breath through his
teeth Yah, well, I’m staying on because
my family’s here.
Thats on you But youre an idiotan idiot if you wanna be live elsewhere Its on
you
he headed up Crescent to
Greenwood away from the elementary school he went toaway from the junior high kittycorner to it
huh why he was on the southside of the street
rather than the north was beyond himmaybe he wasnt paying attention nah he
was there were some kids in a garage
playing Deep Purples Smoke on the Water doing
a bangup job thats what kept him south
they played in a new houseyet one
more of the newlyconstructed houses in the old neighbourhood it wasnt gentrification no this was and always had been was a nice
neighbourhood people kept up on their property maintained their houses it was the newcomers they had money or their families didthat was
nobodys business so they bought the lots not the
houses then they razed the old houses block after block lots bought houses razed
he stayed south to stick his head
in the garage and tell the kids who played that the house that stood next doorwest
of them a kid who lived there had a garage band and they also played a mean rendition
of Purples Smoke he
would have given someone elses left nut to hear the bands battle knit times into one
he had an affection for that band
couldnt remember its
name because its throbbing bass shrieking guitars drum
signature came up through the floorboards trembling the bedroom above them that bedroom belonged to one of the sister of
one of the band members stoned shed
climb on top of him spread her legs they
laughed raucously as the band did their bumpingrindinfuckin for them a song ended before the next began they swapped positions
the kids werent impressed So yeah, thanks, man.
No
you fucks Thank you he hadnt thought of her in a long time his cock stiffened
afterwards he crossed Crescent to
what had been a church parking lot when he was a boy it bordered his paper route territory
the parking lot had been razed
the church west of it across
Delphia had also been razed
Delphia was razed too
somebody with bags of loot had
bought themuprooted asphalt concretepulled down the cross and replanted the denuded
acres with natural Illinois prairie
and
fenced it in
furthur north
on the property they built their manse
it was quite a scandal
no matter how legitimate
turned out through shell companiesshell people
he bought out many of the homes to either side of Delphia razed them then threw
in a cul-de-sac for few remaining homes even furthur north towards Touhy that
he wasnt able to get his hands on de
facto private eminent domain transactions who knewhe didnt know that that existed evidently greased with enough money anything can exist lotsa luck with immortality muthafuckers
he climbed the fence no johnnycomelately was going to spoil his walk back through timehow he walked home as a kid from school
wandering thighhigh through
native grasses and wildflowers he came on a slender path
evidently he wasnt the only one
who defied fences
and
lo and behold a fellow trespasser walked towards him
he raised his hand hailing him Hello he called
Hello.
muthafuck
he recognised him he didnt remember his namenot that he would remember his he remembered his indelicate transgression he fucked his girlfriend upstairs at a party while he was downstairs
he heard they stayed in the neighbourhood got married
she was a sweet piece of ass he
remembered thats what she told him he was
a sweet piece of ass she fucked him blew his mind then he didnt think women thought in those
terms why didnt he because he was young and shallow she educated himgave him depthhelped shape his
substance when he left he didnt forget he
took that with him
he sowed those seeds a fuckin Johnny Appleseed
Havent seen you in years
You either. Heard you were gone
for good.
Good riddance.
that
irked himhe was sufferably irkable Yeah Otherwise you know you would have seen me around
he said something he didnt catch Let
sleeping dogs lie he cautioned himself they didnt break stridesidestepped
each other kept to their own paths
pedestrians are oddfellows
as he walked old memories oozed in
around his toes like warm mud as if he was barefoot they tickled him
0544, Friday,
18 1. 19
1241,
Monday, Martin Luther King, 21 1.
19
