STEP BY STEP WITH A HINT OF FEAR

   My parent's marriage didn't survive the move to Florida. Every other weekend I would visit my dad’s apartment, and his girlfriend’s three kids would also visit her, so their small place would go from two people to six overnight. It was not comfortable, the personalities were strong, and the conflict was ever-present. The mom was a real boozer and pulled my dad in that direction, so they were pretty checked out. We were left to their own devices in suburban Orlando where there was not much to do, and the girlfriend’s kids hated my dad and therefore wanted nothing to do with me. The boy, Rodney, skated like me, so we could semi-tolerate each other. It was confusing to be in a situation where my dad had high expectations from me, like doing my homework on the weekends, but these other kids had no expectations from their drunk mom and could run wild. I didn’t like the chaos, but tried to roll with it for purposes of self-preservation. They thought I was a nerd and I thought they were idiots and we were both right.

   Rodney blew my mind by playing a Schoolly D tape right in the living room where everyone could hear it, and my dad blew my mind by liking it. These were the kind of lyrics that could get you suspended from school, or get me grounded by my mom at home, but suddenly it was party time and there were no rules.  I didn’t get it.  

   Across the street they were building more apartments and the next day we went and skated over there. It was a weekend and the workers were gone, but it was hard to skate because there was construction debris everywhere and we kept wiping out on chunks of broken concrete. The buildings were semi-finished and had no doors and Rodney went in one when I wasn’t looking. He emerged on an upper balcony with a fluorescent tube and threw it down to the parking lot where I was standing and it exploded next to me. I was pissed, and looked up to see him cackling like a maniac. I rushed into the building to chase him. When I caught him I didn’t know what to do, so I unscrewed a regular lightbulb from a fixture and threw it at his feet. Neither of us knew lightbulbs could explode like this and we went nuts. We each pulled a fluorescent tube and sword-fought with them like light-sabers. I crashed one right against Rodney’s back and he laughed.  Rodney found a whole full pack of fluorescent bulbs and threw it off the balcony, which was anticlimactic because it was muffled in a cardboard box. That was a natural end to the mayhem and we started to leave. Just then we heard police sirens, looked at each other, and took off in different directions.  

   I was immediately thinking I needed an alibi, so I ran back to the apartment and jumped in the shower. As I was about to get out and towel off, there was a loud knock at the door and I heard the police scanner. I heard my dad answer the door and get questioned by the cop, tell him we had been home all day, and the cop questioned him further because someone said they saw a kid run into the apartment. He said “I think he’s in the shower, I can get him if you want” and the police left. My skin was totally pruned from staying in the shower much longer than normal.