the original

[ljgeoff]

In the fall of 1989, I was 28 yrs old, newly divorced with a two year old, living in a trailer park out in Sands and working at the Big Boy on the midnight shift, pouring bottomless cups of coffee to cab drivers, drunks and the lost. A kid showed up at my counter one night, sucking down coffee and smoking one cigarette after another, his head dropping lower and lower over his mug as the night wore on. At 5am, I filled up his cup and he startled awake. "What's the matter kid? Don't have anywhere to sleep?" He just looked up at me and blinked. "Well." I set the coffee pot back on the burner and considered him. "I get off in an hour. If yas wanna, yas can sleep on my couch."

That was Keith. He was 17, and he lived with me for about a year and a half, helping take care of Jake while I worked.

Keith is married now with two kids. He works construction - roofs and siding and that kind of stuff. Our relationship is both complicated and simple. On Monday, he came by the shop, bitching about being short-handed and behind on a siding job. I poured him a cup of coffee and said, "I got a kid at home, 17, but big and strong. A good worker. You want him?"

He did, and Justin's been working with him all week. When I came home last night, dropping off bread and milk in the kitchen, Justin was there making toast. "Hey, Lis?"

"Hmm?"

"Keith and I have been talkin'. He's pretty cool." He turned to me and grinned. "We've got a lot in common. I told him that you call me one of the Lost Boys. Know what he said?" At the shake of my head, he slouched against the counter, and mimed sucking on a cigarette and flicking the butt away. "Shit, kid," he drawled in perfect imitation, "I'm the fucking original."

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's PERFECT. :-)

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

I don't talk much about Keith. Here's some more. (http://ljgeoff.livejournal.com/98591.html)

[clawfoot.livejournal.com]

Does that mean he's Peter Pan? :)

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Oh. Now I'm imagining a bar-brawling, pot-smoking, guttermouthed, Peter... Kinda cool, actually.

[firecat]

Big Boy...there aren't any of those around here. I kind of miss them.

[audreylucero.livejournal.com]

*lol*

Okay, now that I've stopped my 'omigod that's freaking awesome' laughing, I have to say...well damn. That's just awesome. Nothing more insightful than that. I just love the way you can so beautifully frame and convey memories. I think it's some of your best and most interesting writing. Do you do articles?

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Nope, never done an article. Might be fun, with the right topic. My little old lady has been bugging me about writing "real" literature, too. I have thought that it might be fun to write up the stuff that goes on around me ala Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City. And I've been thinking that, once I graduate, I'll just have the one job and not so many kids, and then I might get more serious with the writing.

Of course, Mike says that I'll never have just one kid in residence. And being Mike, he's probably right.