Sidekick
It was hot like black vinyl in August. Hank passed me a pear from the ice-chest and opened himself a beer. We’d been at the creek all day, mostly because we had nothing better to do.
“It’s like this–” Hank said. He always said that. ‘It’s like this,’ he would say–or: ‘here’s how it is,’ like he was some sort of authority on something.
“It’s like this,” he said. “Kids like that are destined to do good. Jennifer whats-her-name–that Asian girl.”
“Nguyen.” The pear was cold. I bit into it. It was sweet and soft, like a ripe persimmon.
“Yeah. Jennifer Nguyen. Class president–never missed a day of school in twelve years. Her destiny is all sewn up.” He took a big drink and dug his feet into the sand. “She’ll go to college, marry the right guy, spawn some sort of freakish super-kids–that kind of shit.”
A car sped by, heading north. The echo under the bridge sounded like a banshee playing a bass drum. I had a hangover.
“Five years from now, she’ll be ordering marble counter-tops for her kitchen and taking scuba lessons. We won’t be doing shit.”
“You never know.”
“It’s like this,” Hank said. “We’re never going to be astronauts. It’s just beyond the fucking realm of possibilities for us.”
“I don’t want to be an astronaut.” I said, though I admit I’d never considered being that far away from home.
“Don’t sidestep the issue. It doesn’t matter what you want–you’ll never be a goddamn astronaut.” He repeated this, but slowly–like how he talks to his grandma. “You will never be an astronaut, Paul.”
I didn’t want to respond. I took another bite of the pear and wiped some sand off my knee.
“You know what I mean.” he said. “Right?” He stood up and kicked at the sand, stretched his arms behind his back. “I’m just saying that some people have it easy.”
I pulled my baseball cap down and laid down. It’s hard to swallow when you’re on your back–but by all counts, it was a damn fine pear.
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Colter Cruthirds lives with his family in South Mississippi. He teaches English at the University by day, and manages the UPS station by night. His work has appeared in Product Magazine, Dew on the Kudzu, The Cathead Biscuit Review, and others.
