CHAPTER 4: HEY! HO! LET’S GO!

The next few days after that meeting were really good. Sawyer and I saw each other around school. We made plans for Sawyer to come over on Friday after school. He still wanted to go through my dad’s old album collection.

Friday 4:00pm

Sawyer arrived at my house, wearing his backpack and carrying his portable record player.

He ran up the front steps and opened the front door to my house and walked right in! No knocking. No looking for a doorbell. Just walked right in like it was his own house. Thank God my mother wasn’t home. She would have freaked. But I eventually learned that this would be a habit that I would not be able to break. Man, this kid is goofy.

“Yo! Where you at?” He yelled

“Upstairs. First bedroom on the right.”

Sawyer ran up the stairs thumping his feet hard and shaking the entire house. How did a kid so small and skinny get to be so loud? He flung open my door with a flourish, again no knocking. 🙂 Walked right in.

“What’s up?” He stood just inside the doorway checking out my room. I doubt he saw anything special, Seahawks poster my mom bought to try to get me to get interested in the city, some skateboard stickers stuck on the wall, a few old cameras I collected, a bunch of comic books scattered around. He flopped himself right on the bed, making himself at home.

“Do you have Mr. Pfander for English? Is he making you write an essay on the subject “What is something you could change about yourself that would make a major difference in your life?” What the hell? Sawyer complained.

“Yeah, I have him. We got that same assignment. I have no idea what I’m going to write. I think I’m just going to write EVERYTHING on a piece of paper and hand that in.”

I friggin hate these “cough up a lung” essays we have to do about ourselves. As if I’m not self-conscious enough. Now I need to write it down for a complete stranger to read and probably read it out loud to another classroom of people I don’t know or trust yet.

“Yeah, he says it will be a good bonding exercise.” Sawyer sighed.

“Yeah, forced socialization and bonding. I just don’t get it.”

“Maybe we can work on them together. We can just make a bunch of stuff up for a few pages. Just to get through it.” Sawyer giggled

“Deal.”

We bumped fists and sealed the deal.

“Dude, where are those albums you talked about. I need to check them out.”

“Over here. But I don’t get it, you can get all of this stuff on Spotify. Why are you so into the albums?”

“Original vinyl baby! There’s nothing like it. Yeah you can hear the same songs on any phone. But anything digital just sounds shitty. Vinyl is where the true music lives.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

“Plus think of it this way. When you call up an album on your phone, what’s the first thing you do?”

“I don’t know. I put my earphones in”

“Right!” Sawyer exclaimed. Man, this kid was excitable. “That’s the problem right there. You plug in your earbuds, and you’re all by yourself. There’s no shared experience. Everybody’s listening to their own thing. But they’re all alone doing it. I go online and watch videos of these old bands playing clubs and everybody was in it together. Now everybody listens by themselves. You can have 15 people riding the light rail from Northgate all the way to the stadium. They could all be listening to the same thing. But they’re still doing it by themselves. They could all be enjoying it, but they’re still all alone. I don’t get that.”

I didn’t fully understand what Sawyer was telling me. But I did understand one thing. I got what he meant about plugging in and disconnecting from the world. I do that a lot. And quite frankly I like it. But it made me wonder, is that part of the reason I always feel lonely?

“Anyway, let’s check out those albums.”

I pulled the still dusty box out from a corner of my room and slid it to the side of the bed where Sawyer was sitting. He sat right up and dug right into the box like he was mining for treasure.

“The Pistols, a must have for any collection. The Clash. Sandinista! London Calling. Good choices. Holy Shit!”

He pulled up an album with a plain black sleeve.

“An original pressing of This is Radio Clash! Don’t let anything happen to this. This is a classic.” He continued to flip through the album sleeves.

“Stiff Little Fingers, Iggy Pop, The New York Dolls, The Cramps. ” Sawyer starred right at me.

“Your dad was hard core. And very cool.”

“Thanks. But I don’t remember him playing this stuff around the house. Or maybe I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Check this one out. This is called LONDON CALLING.”

Now I have to admit, I don’t listen to a lot of music. I’ll hear songs on recommended play lists that some online service recommends for me. But I can’t say I was a specific fan of anybody. But this music hit me differently. It sounded different. I really liked it. But I couldn’t tell, did I really like it? Or did I like it because it was a favorite of my dad’s? But what’s wrong with that?

“I like this.” I told Sawyer.

“Then you’re going to love SANDINISTA” he pointed at me. “We’ll hit that one up later.” He winked.

We sat there in silence for a minute, he sprawled on the bed making himself comfortable. No boundaries with this kid. Me crashing on a pile of pillows on the floor.

“London calling to the faraway towns…
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls” the record called.

“So, do you like Seattle?” Sawyer asked.

“It’s pretty cool. It’s a lot different than Rochester. But I like it. I just don’t know anybody yet. So, I need to grow into it.”

“I get it. Some weekend, we should explore around town. Look for fun places to hang out. And I don’t mean a lame mall or coffee shop. Someplace that plays music. What do your parents do? Did they get transferred here for work?”

“No. My mom’s a lawyer. My dad died. So, my mom wanted to move here for a change. I guess she wanted to do something and be somewhere different. Her brother lives here. But we’ve been here a few weeks, and she hasn’t seen him yet.”

“That’s weird.”

“What about your parents?” I asked.

“We own a funeral home.”

“Holy shit! Isn’t that creepy? So, you’ve seen a dead body?”

“Yeah. It’s no big deal. It doesn’t creep me out. I guess because I’ve been around it all my life. My parents took over the business from my grandparents. It’s just natural. I don’t mind the business. But my parents are always busy. Always working a viewing at night or a funeral on weekends. They get service calls in the middle of the night all the time. So, I’m usually on my own to get to school or get out and do something. ”

I could tell by the drop in Sawyer’s voice that he wasn’t happy with that situation. The room went quiet as we listened to the end of the album.

Eventually Sawyer perked up. “Dude, All of these skateboard stickers on your wall. Are you a good skater?” He popped off the bed and put on a new album, Goo Goo Muck, by The Cramps.

“I wouldn’t call myself good. I can get around town, maybe do a few tricks.”

“We should go! We can go all over town!”

“You skate? What kind of board do you have?”

“No. I don’t have my board here. You have an extra?”

“Sure! “

I grabbed my board and an old extra from under my bed. Sawyer pounced off the bed and bolted straight out the door.

“Let’s hit it” He cried as he bounded down the stairs.

I bounded down the stairs following him as fast as I could follow Sawyer. He was already standing in the middle of my street checking out the board. Good thing I live on a quiet street. I just know he ran out there without even checking for traffic.

“Where should be start?”

“Let’s start here. We can head down the hill and figure out where to go from there.”

“There’s only one problem.”

“Is your board messed up”

“No. I don’t know how to skate. What do I do?”

“Seriously?” I burst out laughing. “You don’t know how to skate? Then why did you ask to do this?”

“Because I always wanted to learn…..and nobody will ever show me.”

That really hit me. And I started to think to myself: “Does this kid have any friends?”

“Ok. We’ll figure it out. Let’s walk down the hill to the park. It’s level there. That’s the best place to start.”

We reached the park and found a good level spot. We started out on the grass. This is a good way for him to learn how to stand on the board without it rolling out from under him.

“Ok, I started. You’ve got a decent board. But we need to be careful, we don’t have helmets or pads. We’ll have to get you some.”

“Screw that.” Sawyer winked defiantly. I have to admit, I agreed. 🙂

“Let’s start with the basics, just stand on the board. Are you right-handed or left-handed? Stand with your dominant foot forward. Whatever makes you more comfortable. Make sure your weight is centered over the board.”

“Got it. Let’s go.” Sawyer was impatient.

“Hold on. Now when you want to turn, lean slightly in the direction you want to go. Slightly bend your knees and shift your weight.”

“Got it. Let’s go.” He picked up the board and ran to the parking lot where the concrete was level. You could tell Sawyer watched a lot of boarding videos. Instead of stopping, setting the board down, standing on the board and pushing off with one foot, like any sane beginner would do, he dropped the board to the cement and tried a rolling mount jumping right onto the moving board. AND HE DID IT!

He was rolling! That’s good. But he was picking up speed. Too much speed!

“How do I stop!” Sawyer yelled! He was heading down a small hill. He was picking up speed and had no idea how to get it under control. How do I get him to stop? He can’t foot brake, he doesn’t know how to power slide. He can’t T-stop.

“Carve!” I yelled! “Make big S turns! It will slow you down!”

Sawyer was able to make one good S turn. But it was too wide. We won’t have room to make another. He’s going to hit the curb.

Sawyer hit the curb and went flying off the board. Luckily he flew onto an open patch of grass. He hit the grass sideways and kept rolling like a body thrown form a car wreck until he came to a stop. I ran like hell to him. I sat down on the grass next to him.

When I reached Sawyer he was recovering from the daze he was knocked into. When he recognized me and realized what happened he started to burst into hysterical laughter.

“Can I try that again?” he laughed.

“No! I thought you cracked your head open! How was I going to explain that to your parents?” Sawyer started to sit up. “Stay down for a minute. Make sure your all right. Did you hit your head?”

“No I’m good. I really want to try it again.”

“Not today. Let’s just sit and rest for a minute.” I leaned back on my elbows. We both sat there watching the sun set over the Puget Sound.

“Dude, did you get your uniform for Scouts yet?”

“No”. I paused. “I’m not sure if I ‘m going back.”

“WTF!” Sawyer bolted siting up. “Why? You can’t quit after one meeting!”

“I shouldn’t but that last meeting was such a bad scene. I don’t know if I can handle Kyle Kelly and his mom bagging on us all the time. That’s not what I signed up for.”

“What did you sign up for?”

“It’s a messed up reason. I found this picture of my dad in an old photo album. It turns out he was and Eagle scout. I wanted to do the same thing. But even more so, in all of these pictures he was having so much fun. I was hoping this would be more like that. Having friends and having fun. But that troop isn’t that. “

“Listen to me. Kyle Kelly is an insecure little twerp. He’s so wound up because his parent s are so up his ass to be perfect. He doesn’t know what he’s doing half the time. He just puts on the big tough guy act to cover for the fact that he’s clueless. If you say scouting should be fun, then let’s make it like that. We don’t have to take that crap from anybody. If we want to have fun, then we’ll make it fun. Let’s shake things up a bit. We have nothing to lose.”

“They way my dad did it?”

“Better. Our way.” Sawyer got up and brushed the grass and dirt off his clothes. ” I need to head home. Thanks for the lesson, here’s your board”

“Hang onto it. Practice more… in a SAFE PLACE. Maybe like your backyard.”

“Deal. I’ll see you around.”

“Wait, you left your record player at my house.”

“Keep it” he winked. As long as you keep playing those records. He turned and started to walk across the park.

“Wait. You never told me; why did you join scouting?”

“Same reason you said. Have fun and make friends.” He started to walk home. After walking a few feet he stopped and turned. “Are you in? Our way?”

It didn’t take me long to think about an answer.
“Yeah” I nodded.

“Good. We’re going to have a good time.” Sawyer got the most mischievous look on his face, turned and started walking home.

I sat there in the park for a few more minutes. I wasn’t sure what I just got myself into. But the more I thought about it, the better I felt. I pulled out my phone and called up my Spotify account.

At home Sawyer played for me some of the Ramones. I called them up and started the first track. I put in my headphones and started walking home. Then I stopped, thought about what Sawyer said and pulled my earbuds out of my head. The music was broadcasting our of my phone. I turned it up as loud as I could and kept walking.