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Mullen DriveSep 28 '03 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line The Bottom Line remembers age 13 like it was yesterday.
Every afternoon, when school got out, Loon would stand at the base of the light pole on the corner of Mullen Drive. I say every afternoon, but for all any of us knew back then, he could have been standing there all day. Loon didn't go to Mullen Senior P.S. with the rest of us. My mom says he goes to a special school downtown, because he has "special needs". Grim says it's because he's a "retard". I asked Grim once what it meant to be a "retard". Grim said, "I don't know, Kid, my ma calls my pa that all the time, and he ain't near as bad as Loon." Grim always calls me Kid, even though I was born exactly four days before him. Sometimes I wonder if he even knows my real name. He must, ‘cause he hears my mom yelling for me every evening as the sun goes down. People are always asking Grim how old he is, because of the fact that he calls me Kid, and because of the fact that he is the only one of our group who shaves. Grim has had little scraps of brown hair growing above his lips for as long as I can remember, and I've known Grim all my life. "You know, Kid," Grim says to me one day, "I hear that where Loon goes to school, they got a whole gang of retards. They all act just like Loon. You know how he's always licking the back of his hand, for no other reason than he thinks it's tasty to lick the back of his hand? Well, down at his school they got a whole bunch of retards, who do a lot crazier things than licking the backs of their hands!" "Like what?" I asked. "Well, Kid," Grim said, "My brother has this friend, Pigeon, who goes to a school downtown, too. Only he's no retard. He goes down there cause he's extra smart, and they got a bunch of extra smart teachers to teach them kids better than the clowns we got at Mullen. Anyway, Pigeon has to ride the bus, and they pass by Loon's school on the way. One rainy day, he swears he sees a bunch of them retards dunking their heads in the mud puddles out front of the school! A bunch of the special teachers are running around trying to get the retards to stop, but they're too stupid to listen!" Grim doubles over in laughter. I picture the retards dunking their heads in the mud, but for some reason I don't think it's as funny as he does. * * * Whenever we pass Loon on our way home, standing under the light pole, Rudy always yells out, "Hey Loony-Loony, whatcha Doony-Doing?" And Loon always replies, "Hi Rudy. I'm trying to ride the shadow away." Rudy always gets a kick out of that. He tumbles over onto the grass in front of Mr. Meany's and laughs. We all know that it's not a real laugh, cause we've heard Rudy laugh thousands of other times -- especially at his own jokes -- and this laugh is much louder. I think he just wants Loon to see from the other side of the street. Except I don't think Loon knows Rudy's laughing at him, cause he always joins in. Loon likes to have fun on Mullen Drive. "He's laughing at you, now," Grim says to Rudy when Loon starts laughing. And then to me: "Right, Kid?" I give Grim a half-smile, and then kick a pebble that is sitting next to the curb, so I don't have to look at Rudy. My mom doesn't like Rudy. When I ask her why, she says it's because he's brutish. I asked Grim once what brutish means, and he said, "C'mon, Kid, that's Caesar's friend." He starts to laugh, but I didn't get the joke then. When I look back at Grim now, I see that he was a lot smarter than I thought at the time. * * * One day, I saw Loon standing in his driveway, heaving a basketball at his garage door, like I've seen him do so many times before. The door was battered and bruised by dents, and the booming sound of ball hitting garage could be heard all the way down Mullen Drive. "Hey, Loon!" I yelled out. "You gonna wake the kids sleeping in China!" I could only see him from the back as I yelled. When I came face to face with him, I noticed that he'd been crying. But not the crying that I've seen my baby brother do. Loon's face was as purple as a beet. His eyes were scrunched up tight in their sockets. His mouth quivered and shook, occasionally opening just enough so his lips could form a a saliva bubble, which immediately popped and dripped down his chin. His nose was smeared with snot, and his cheeks were soaked with tears. "Why-y-y… you-ou guys d-d-d-don't like me, huh, Kid?" blubbered Loon. No one but Grim had ever called me Kid. "We like you plenty, Loon," I lied. "No y-y-you don't, K-k-kid," said Loon. "Y-y-ou's are al-w-w-ways laughing… at m-m-me for riding the… sh-sh-shadows." He let out a wet sniffle, and then rubbed his nose on his sleeve. "No, Loon, that's just Rudy that laughs. The rest of us don't like when he does that." "Wh-wh-wh… wh-why does R-r-rudy laugh at the sh-sh-shadows?" "I don't know, Loon, I guess he just doesn't understand." "Y-y'know, Kid, how the shadow f-f-from the light-p-p-pole slowly stretches d-d-down Mullen Dr-drive?" said Loon, fighting back the tears. I sure did. In the afternoon, as the sun sets at the west end of the street, the shadow from the light pole would slowly slide down the road, until it disappeared just over the Petty's driveway. "One d-d-day I hope that the sh-sh-shadow will t-t-take me with it, to the end of M-m-mullen Drive, cause I don't l-l-like it here, K-k-kid." Loon stopped crying, quite suddenly. A tear still hung from his cheek, but his eyes became clear and focused. The basketball dropped from his hands, and bounced down the driveway onto Mullen Drive, where a car swerved wildly to keep from hitting it. Loon slowly walked up to the porch, and into his house. I went to gather the ball from the road, and tossed it on Loon's front lawn for him. It was the least I could do. Then I heard my ma calling me, and ran all the way home. * * * Every afternoon when school got out, Loon still stood at the base of the light pole, on the corner of Mullen Drive. I shouldn't say every afternoon, because now I knew that he had been standing there all day.  |
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