Walk Away I

Looking out my frost covered window, I realized what I had to do. It has been years since I thought of the path that took me to this old run down house. I’ve had all most people ever want in life and made a choice to let it all go. Why? How did I find myself here? I think I know where, or rather who this story begins with. This is more than my own story, it is also Ben’s. (Wherever he is now.) Our paths were one many years ago at the beginning of our senior year in High School.  By the end of that year, Ben took another from mine path to who knows where. Later, I tried to follow his and found my own.

During those years, I thought I knew Ben, but that was the old Ben.  The Ben before he almost lost his life was like any other High School Senior. People would say he had it all; his own car, money to burn and of course, the prettiest girl in the whole damn school Tiffany Norris. I knew better, after all, I was his best friend. Something was missing in Ben’s life. I guess that can be said about almost any teenager, they don’t know what life is all about yet. Ben found out much earlier than most people. He faced death and discovered life as he never knew it before. His coaches, his parents and his teachers all‹ thought his new shitty attitude was a result of feeling sorry for himself after his brush with death. They were wrong. It took me over a decade to discover the reason he changed, but at least I did.

We all have a selective memory. Ask yourself to remember a typical fall‹[1]‹night of your senior year in high school. No, not a part or one particular thing,  but a whole night. Difficult? Now prom night or your first real date, those are easy to remember. I remember those things. They are sideshows for me now, not the highlights of my last year. The night Ben left my house in a driving thunderstorm was an entire night I can never forget. After that, all the other things are irrelevant That night started the same as many Fridays before. Ben and I as usual, conned my older brother into buying us a few cases of beer for the weekend. Nothing like a little hell raising to get the weekend off on the right foot. After successfully obtaining some beer it was time to get our girlfriends, Tiffany and Charlotte. Ben drove that night. We picked up Tiffany first and then went to get Charlotte, my girlfriend. On the way to her house, Ben was flying through down town and we were all laughing and drinking beer. He came screeching around a turn and almost killed Mr. Shoe. An old homeless white haired black man who did odd jobs for people, Mr. Shoe had been around as long as anyone could recollect. (Even the old people.

”Get out of the road, you stupid old fuck!”, roared Ben while Tiffany and I laughed like hell!

Startled, the old man looked at us as we zoomed out of sight and then returned to his business as nothing had happened. I guess it took more than a car full of young fools to get his attention.

“That old man is so gross, ya think he ever bathes?” Tiffany asked half serious and half joking. She caught a buzz real easy.

"Shit no!”, I said.

“Why the hell would he ever bathe?”          

“To impress all of those nasty ass hookers, Jimmy!”, Ben chipped in.

"Ya know, they oughtta do somethin ‘bout all of those smelly fuckin vagrants that hang out down town. It ruins it for everybody!”­, I mouthed off‹[1]‹in total disgust.

We picked up Charlotte, a tall attractive red head. One day she would be my wife... But that’s later. In our town, Friday night was predictable, dinner at “The Curb” followed by a movie at “Lucky’s” ­ drive-in. At “The Curb” they brought out the food and drinks and put it on a tray fastened to your car door. It was great! We had to hide the beer, there was no way to know when the police would roll through. In a town this small, rousing kids was a favorite past time of theirs. People would start to raise hell about the kids taking over everything and they would come looking for anybody under fifty to give a hard time. This was before they were afraid of “police brutality” accusations. We had to deal with them carefully. No back talk. Where the hell did they expect us to go? Some things never change. The drive-in was the main event. A great concept, the drive-in movie, a little entertainment and a little romance! Unfortunately, we never got much of the second. And on this night, the weather did not help our cause at all. The thunderheads started to roll in early.

“Well shit, this will be a real short evening.”, I thought to myself.

We got the top up just in time! The black sky opened up with a fury like I’ve never seen from that day to this. After the hail, the rain was fucking horizontal! Unlike most summer storms, this one did not roll through in ten minutes or so.  Fifteen minutes, twenty minutes; it kept on and on. We decided to call it an evening. When you are eighteen, it seems like life will go on forever. This night we all had second thoughts about that notion. We saw several bad looking wrecks, The cops had their hands full. Charlotte lived the closest to the drive-in, so we dropped her off first. Like most girls, she pleaded with us to be careful, and made me promise to call her when I got home. I kissed her good night and told her I would. Ben went through a similar scene with Tiffany when we dropped her off.

“I sure hope I get a kiss good night!” I had to give Ben a little shit just to lighten up the mood. The storm hadn't lightened up at all.

“This is crazy man! You ever seen rain like this before?”, asked Ben trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"Hell no... Lets get our asses home!" 

Part II Soon.