Away from Home

Steve's sister had gotten pregnant by the guitar player she was dating, but she didn't want to keep the baby. I wasn't privy to everything, but she and the guitar player got married and she went on the road with him for awhile. When she came back, she wasn't pregnant any more. Wayne and I were at Steve's house one night watching a movie with him and his sister. We were all piled onto her bed lying around, smoking cigarettes, talking. Wayne was next to Steve's sister under the covers, and they were close. Everyone watched the movie, but something was going on. Wayne was seventeen now and Steve's sister was twenty-one, but Steve didn't say anything. I hadn't been around very much, and I was uncomfortable and confused. She wasn't a pretty girl, but she was skinny with shocking bleached hair and a new red Mustang. The movie went on. Nobody said anything. I guessed whatever they were doing was already reified.

Her husband showed up from a road trip one day. He was a greaser with long hair, about thirty years old. He wore a black leather jacket and looked worn. He slept a lot when he was in town. Then he went to Biloxi to play some hotel lounge with his band, and he never came back.

Nights with other people were not at all like nights alone. There was this, and there was that, and the two never mixed. I was learning to live like that, home and away from home. It would stay with me.