فصل 37

May 2, 1992

Dear friend,

A few days ago, I went to see Bob to buy more pot. I should probably say that I keep forgetting Bob doesn’t go to school with us. Probably because he watches more television than anyone I know, and he’s great with trivia. You should see him talk about Mary Tyler Moore. It’s kind of spooky.

Bob has this very specific way of living. He says he takes a shower every other day. He weighs his “stash” daily. He says when you’re smoking a cigarette with someone, and you have a lighter, you should light their cigarette first. But if you have matches, you should light your cigarette first, so you breathe in the “harmful sulfur” instead of them. He says it’s the polite thing to do. He also says that it’s bad luck to have “three on a match.” He heard that from his uncle who fought in Vietnam. Something about how three cigarettes was enough time for the enemy to know where you are.

Bob says that when you’re alone, and you light a cigarette, and the cigarette is only halfway lit that means someone is thinking about you. He also says that when you find a penny, it’s only “lucky” if it’s heads-up. He says the best thing to do is find a lucky penny when you’re with someone and give the other person the good luck. He believes in karma. He also loves to play cards.

Bob goes part-time to the local community college. He wants to be a chef. He is an only child, and his parents are never home. He says it used to bother him a lot when he was younger, but not so much anymore.

The thing about Bob is that when you first meet him, he’s really interesting because he knows about cigarette rules and pennies and Mary Tyler Moore. But after you’ve known him for a while, he starts to repeat these things. In the last few weeks, he hasn’t said anything that I haven’t heard from him before. That’s what made it such a shock when he told me what happened.

Basically, Brad’s father caught Brad and Patrick together.

I guess that Brad’s father didn’t know about his son because when he caught them, Brad’s father started beating Brad. Not a slap kind of beating. A belt kind. A real kind. Patrick told Sam who told Bob that he had never seen anything like it. I guess it was that bad. He wanted to say “Stop” and “You’re killing him.” He even wanted to hold Brad’s father down. But he just froze. And Brad kept yelling, “Get out!” to Patrick. And finally, Patrick just did.

That was last week. And Brad still hasn’t come to school. Everyone thinks he might have been sent to a military school or something. Nobody knows for sure about anything. Patrick tried calling once, but when Brad’s father answered, he just hung up.

Bob said Patrick was “in bad shape.” I can’t tell you how sad I felt when he told me that because I wanted to call Patrick and be his friend and help him. But I didn’t know if I should call him because of what he had said about waiting until things got clear. The thing was I couldn’t think about anything else.

So, on Friday, I went to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I waited until the movie had already started before I went into the theater. I didn’t want to ruin the show for everybody. I just wanted to see Patrick play Frank ’n Furter just like he always does because I knew that if I saw that, I knew he would be okay. Just like my sister getting mad at me for smoking cigarettes.

I sat in the back row and looked on the stage. It was still a couple of scenes before Frank ’n Furter enters. That’s when I saw Sam playing Janet. And I missed her so much. And I was so sorry about how I messed everything up. Especially when I saw Mary Elizabeth playing Magenta. It was all very hard to watch. But then Patrick finally came on as Frank ’n Furter, and he was great. He was actually better than ever in a lot of ways. It was just so nice to see all my friends. I left before the movie was over.

I drove home listening to some of the songs we listened to those times when we were infinite. And I pretended they were in the car with me. I even talked out loud. I told Patrick how I thought he was great. I asked Sam about Craig. I told Mary Elizabeth that I was sorry and how much I really loved the e. e. cummings book and wanted to ask her questions about it. But then I stopped because it started to make me too sad. I also thought that if anybody saw me talking out loud when I was alone in the car, their looks might convince me that the something that’s wrong with me might be even worse than I thought.

When I got home, my sister was watching a movie with her new boyfriend. There isn’t much to say other than his name is Erik, and he has short hair and is a junior. Erik had rented the movie. After I shook hands with him, I asked them about the movie because I didn’t recognize it except for an actor who used to be on a TV show, and I couldn’t remember his name.

My sister said, “It’s stupid. You wouldn’t like it.”

I said, “What’s it about?”

She said, “Come on, Charlie. It’s almost over.”

I said, “Would it be okay if I watched the end?”

She said, “You can watch it when we’re done.”

I said, “Well, how about I watch the end with you, and then I can rewind it and watch up to the point I started watching with you?”

That’s when she paused the movie.

“Can’t you take a hint?”

“I suppose not.”

“We want to be alone, Charlie.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

To tell you the truth, I knew she wanted to be alone with Erik, but I really wanted to have some company. I knew it wasn’t fair, though, to ruin her time just because I miss everybody, so I just said good night and left.

I went up to my room and started reading the new book Bill gave me. It’s called The Stranger. Bill said that it’s “very easy to read, but very hard to ‘read well.’” I have no idea what he means, but I like the book so far.

Love always, Charlie