Saturday, July 25, 2009

RICHIE - CHAPTER FOURTEEN (Twitter Novel / Keitai Shosetsu)



the next day i start calling
everyone in my phone to see
whos around and who can
hang out

but nobody answers and idk

if theyre not off yet or busy
or whatever but after awhile

i go through my old stuff and

root out their like land lines
and call a few people that
way but

mostly i get their parents of

course cuz theyre the only
ones who still use land lines
basically

and the ones who answer are

pretty weird to me for the
most part which i can pretty
much understand

cuz probably the last they

heard of me was before i
went to fairview and the
whole gun thing but

i leave messages with them

for charlie and chris and dan
but i dont get anything back
and im starting

to get kind of bummed out

but i call gregs house and the
old answering machine picks
up and i try leaving this

really like fake-cheery

message and greg picks up
halfway through and im
super-psyched but his voice
is quiet

and weird like hes trying not

to be heard or something and
he just tells me to meet him
at the kwik fill later on which
is cool

so i go out and walk over and

hes hanging outside and its
awesome to see him and we
go in and buy red bulls

greg tries to buy smokes but

they card him which is
bizarre to me cuz im used to
fairview by now and like

drinking 40s and smoking

weed as if it wasnt anything
at all and greg asks me what
its like there and i tell him
that stuff

and he kind of cant believe

how awesome that sounds
and it makes me feel really
cool until

i think about what was all

going through my head the
other night about the lines
and the screens

but i dont tell greg any of that

stuff just how i broke into the
locked door with my id and
he thinks thats super-cool

and i feel pretty badass so i

tell him about richie and
stealing the truck which also
totally impresses him

but he thinks richie sounds

like a total dick which i guess
i can understand from the
way i described him

so i try to like explain why

hes cool to hang out with
sometimes but i dont think
greg totally buys it

and he talks a little about how

it seems like since i went to
fairview im actually getting
wasted a lot more and

doing like more illegal shit

rather than less but i say that
although it seems like that

the good part is that i totally

dont feel like bringing a gun
to school anymore and his
face gets weird

and we talk about that for a

little while and greg explains
that he didnt want his folks to
know we were

gonna hang out cuz they were

pretty freaked out by the gun
thing and a lot of the other
parents were too

especially after salinas and

stuff and thats probably why
the other guys werent calling
back or whatever

not cuz they didnt wanna

hang but cuz of their folks
and whatnot and im like i
guess i can understand

but its still me im still the

same dee dee and greg goes
-dee dee- all quizzical and i

forgot for a second but i

dont want to go into the

whole richie thing again so i
just go –forget it- and he
looks at me weird again

but drops it anyway and i just

ask him what hes been doing
and we start talking about
girls for awhile

and gregs dating this girl

nicole who i always thought
had great tits and hes like
yeah

but theyre actually kind of

floppy and almost too big and
i go totally serious -no such
thing- and he laughs

and it almost feels like before

for awhile and we keep
walking and he talks about
these world war 2 games

hes really into and anime and

shit and its okay but then i
notice where we are cuz
weve been walking

and i realize were at my old

school his school and i look
at it and greg kind of fades
out and i zone into this weird
thing

that i totally would never

think of normally but there
was this retarded girl there i
never knew her name

she was total special ed short

bus and the other guys used
to make fun of me cuz every
time shed see me in the
hallway

shed giggle and hide her face

and go –desmond- in this
weird high pitched retardy
voice and theyd all

imitate her and talk about

how she was my girlfriend
and id get super-pissed and
tell them all to fuck off

but i never did it like loud or

anything cuz she was just a
retard and i didnt want to
make her feel bad

you know i figured it was

hard enough to be retarded
and to have people making
fun of you all the time

and i realize as we walk by

the school that i was never
going back there

thered be no way theyd ever

let me go back there and i
would never see that retarded
girl again and i dont know
why

but it makes me like super-

sad to think of it and thats
just stupid shes just a retard
why would i care

but i do and it makes me

angry and sad at the same
time and i keep trying to
focus back on greg

and the shit that hes talking

about but i just cant get my
head around the fact

that some weird part of me

actually misses that retarded
girl and im angry and sad that
i dont know her name


7 comments:

Eman said...

Well now I remember 'his' name. This chapter was awesome as usual, maybe lock down did dee dee some good. I think its great, the age group you are targeting and its something that teens can relate to and big kids like myself can enjoy.

I am not Kek-w said...

What's great about this, J, is that it reads like stanzas from some Supra-Poem.

Paul said...

Brilliant. I love the way it's structured this chapter. It unrolls with no self-consciousness of structure but the thought moves with such precision. His isolation from the phonecalls, teenagers booby obsession, the retarded girl, the isolation. Beautifully done, the whole thing is like a performance on your part, a performance that only you could do, totally original, incredibly intelligent, perfectly phrased in character, stunning.

Mariana Soffer said...

You are a though guy, I did not knew that you are the kind of kid that fathers do not want their kids hanging arround with. Interesting.
Very nice story, It was as if I was living trough it.
Bye

Jason Gusmann said...

harmonie - it's gonna be hard to tell for awhile how much good lockdown does for dee dee. most likely in ways he won't be able to identify himself.

kek-w - i'm pleased you appreciate the form as much as the function.

paul - yr in my corner, i'm in yrs. count on it.

mariana - i wasn't really so much a kid that other kids' parents didn't want them hanging out with, but i was definitely more of an "eddie haskell" type: "hey, as soon as yr parents leave let's see what's in their liquor cabinet!"

Cocoyea said...

Excellent work Jason.

Jason Gusmann said...

thank you, milady