The End of the Innocence

July 1977. It has turned really sunny and warm outside. That means its time again for me to be playing outdoors with the kids on the block. “Go out and see what Ricky and John are doing,” my mother advises me. “You spend too much time inside reading. It’s not healthy.” I go down the street to the overgrown bushes of Lexington School for the Deaf, where I know I’ll find Ricky and John. That’s where they always are, doing what they always do: smoking pot out of a huge purple bong. The bong is so big that I can barely see the top of John’s head. He is already high from smoking so much, and is feeling in a more affable mood than usual. “What da fuck do you want, Mike?” he growls. “Don’t think you’re getting any of my shit, cause there’s barely enough for Ricky and me.” He knows that I don’t smoke, but he just wants to make sure I know how unwelcome a turd like me is in his world. He sucks up as much of the smoke from the bong as he can, then passes it to Ricky, who greedily takes his turn. Within a half hour they are so stoned that they barely even know I am there.

I walk back to the house, pick up my well-worn copy of The Lord of the Rings and continue reading from where I had left off.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” my mother says when she sees me on the couch with my book. “Everyone is outside having a good time, and here you are as always reading some idiotic book. Why can’t you be like all the other kids on the block?”