....I ran into a guy with a bum arm who asked me if I'd help him do
small engine repair, making up for the shot gun blast that removed a
chunk of bone that connected his elbow and shoulder. What a shit-hole of
a beyond dilapidated trailer, where he lived with a wife and two kids
next door to his own moms immaculate home. The place stank like urine
and would be condemned if anyone ever set foot in there from the health
department. His wife was decent looking and made it obvious that she was
desperate to be rescued. I was trying to get home to Grand Rapids. She
had a friend who was visiting from Flint that would offer me a ride, at
least that far. She was an enormous woman, a single mother without an
income other than state assistance......
I would soon learn that her
friends had sent her away for a few days in order for them to pool
together to delouse her house. My benefactor was shocked and overwhelmed
with joy when she realized what they had done for her. Now all they had
to do was sterilize her and her vehicle. We made a trip to Bay City,
where I planned on dropping myself off with my relatives but we ended up
going to pick up her room-mate and her own daughter whom was about 13.
We made the decision to go back to Flint to go on a fishing trip as a
group. This is when I learned that the daughter was crushing on me, as
she came out of the house in high heels, giddy with the euphoria of
flowing hormones and drunk on my pheromones. She tripped and fell in her
unfamiliar cloak of womanhood. It was at this point when I put it all
together. As I think back on her tripping over her borrowed heels, I
still feel embarrassed for her and wonder where she is in life today. I
can only hope she has found good things and someone to properly care and
share with her. I don't think we caught any fish that evening but we
had a few bites and just enjoyed the moments- people being together and
thankful to have survived the day and all it's agonizing demands. My
fright between the girl trying to gain my affections, and the mother
hoping I'd stay has left little more than a blur from the time I left
Gladwin, Michigan until the time I had her drop me back off there. It was my
escape attempt- "There's people there I can work for," I think I told
her. My sorrow for their circumstances and for the realities of many
like them in the world made me wish I could be in everyone's life in
need but the only way I can have a hope to do that is maybe in music- a
song they can all share, an uplifting message, my bottled-up love for
the worlds heartbroken to use to quench a thirst for an unavoidable
human need.