Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2002-12-23 12:27 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2002-12-23 12:27 pm
Death
After school let out for vacation from 6th grade, I got a phone call from a girl I barely even knew. She told me that Kermit's best friend had been killed in a car wreck. Everyone was shocked. He'd been such a nice guy... A little after, I had a dream. Kermit's best friend was in it. He appeared in one of the library shelves at school, smiled and waved at me, in perfect health, very happy... and then faded out. I never dreamed of him again. They held a memorial service for him, at the school, and dedicated a picnic area to his memory, and planted a tree.
The school's got two dedicated areas, now.
Once upon a time, when my parents were running the water line to the house, they hired one of our neighbors who had construction equipment and a lively little business in using it, to dig the trench. (He did help with the installation of stuff, but that was later). I must have been just out of the second grade by then, as Narcissa was a kindergartener. Or perhaps it was just out of third grade. But, at any rate, the guy's son came along with him on a few trips, and played with us girls. His dad set the limit on how many dirt piles behind the machine we had to be, and since the kid was comfortable around machinery, he and I and Narcissa played on the dirt piles together. He and I played house: I was the mommy, he was the daddy, and Narcissa had to be the baby. We sort of shut her out, even though he was closer to her age than to mine.
It was the sort of kid-connection that you don't really think much about in the years after, just that you played together once, and it was fun.
Around the time when Narcissa was in 6th grade, I heard that one of George-the-creep's little brothers and one of his friends had been in a hunting accident, and the friend had been killed. The boy who was killed had been the kid who I'd played with on the piles of dirt when his dad and my dad had been working together to make water come down from the well at the top of the hill by the garden and into the house.
There's a soccer field at school now, and it's dedicated to the memory of that boy.
There's a certain celebrity associated with death. You want to say, "I knew him." But you didn't, really. You dated his best friend. You played with him once when you were both too little to be picky about friends. And now you know you never will know him, not really.
The school's got two dedicated areas, now.
Once upon a time, when my parents were running the water line to the house, they hired one of our neighbors who had construction equipment and a lively little business in using it, to dig the trench. (He did help with the installation of stuff, but that was later). I must have been just out of the second grade by then, as Narcissa was a kindergartener. Or perhaps it was just out of third grade. But, at any rate, the guy's son came along with him on a few trips, and played with us girls. His dad set the limit on how many dirt piles behind the machine we had to be, and since the kid was comfortable around machinery, he and I and Narcissa played on the dirt piles together. He and I played house: I was the mommy, he was the daddy, and Narcissa had to be the baby. We sort of shut her out, even though he was closer to her age than to mine.
It was the sort of kid-connection that you don't really think much about in the years after, just that you played together once, and it was fun.
Around the time when Narcissa was in 6th grade, I heard that one of George-the-creep's little brothers and one of his friends had been in a hunting accident, and the friend had been killed. The boy who was killed had been the kid who I'd played with on the piles of dirt when his dad and my dad had been working together to make water come down from the well at the top of the hill by the garden and into the house.
There's a soccer field at school now, and it's dedicated to the memory of that boy.
There's a certain celebrity associated with death. You want to say, "I knew him." But you didn't, really. You dated his best friend. You played with him once when you were both too little to be picky about friends. And now you know you never will know him, not really.
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