June 23, 2006
August 31, 1996
I've kept a journal since fourth grade. I started off with one of those locked ones, and I would write about my cabbage patch kids. I would measure them to see if they grew. Sadly, they never did. I have a whole box somewhere in my mom's basement with my journals. I wish I could find it. For some reason, I have one of my old journals here with me. It's from my senior year of high school through most of my first semester of college. I was reading it last night and came across this great story.
First a little background. My two brothers and I had driven to Montana for Labor Day weekend to visit our grandparents. My parents were flying in the next day, but for the first night, it was just us. That meant awkward conversation with grandparents we rarely saw. Unless, of course, we weren't hanging out at the house. So we left. We hung out at Subway instead.
Here's the story, transcribed faithfully from my journal.
Last night we went to Subway to eat dinner. There was this boy there. He came in, climbed over the counter, got a mint, and offered it to Matt. Then he wandered over and got a newspaper and told us about how two kids fell asleep in a boat. He asked the girl how much a cookie was. When she said 40 cents, he said, "not bad." Then Matt started up a conversation with him. I don't remember exactly what about. We sat down and he leaned over the half wall that divided us. He told Matt he lived behind in the hotel. He told us about how his cat had kittens and he didn't know but then he did because she had a big belly and he named them all fluffball because they were so fluffy. Then he said his parents got him a tiger. He was scared at first, but then it came up and licked his hand. Then he asked if any of us had a gun. We said no, and I asked him if he did. He said yes, a big one. Then I asked if he went hunting. Yes, and he shot a deer and it had a huge hole in it. One time he shot a cow. Matt asked if the farmer were mad and he said yes and he came after him with a gun so he turned around and shot the farmer. Then he showed us his knife and said he had it because there was a child molester somewhere raping children so he had to protect himself. Then he said he was meeting his girlfriend there any minute (it was around 10:00 and he was 9 years old). He met her and then they hung around a lot together and so he asked her if she wanted to be his girlfriend and she said yes. They like to go fishing. He asked Matt if he had a girlfriend, and he said "yes, Kimber." Then he asked if I were her, and he said no this is my sister Katie and my brother Michael. Matt asked if he went to Mulldown Elementary School. He said yes. "Do you know Mrs. Olsen." The boy said that was his teacher. Matt sent her a message. Then we got up to go. He asked Matt if the chocolate milk was any good. Matt said yes and then he pointed out what he should have gotten. He asked the girl the price. She said 50 cents, and he said, "not bad." As we left, we asked his name. It was AJ. He had dishwater hair and brown eyes.
Posted by kea at June 23, 2006 09:41 AM