We’ll start this new tangent with a lyric…mainly because I don’t want to go back to the previous post and explain anything…so we’re off on a new subject.
Oh, I used to be confused
But now I just don’t know
Since you left I’ve been watching
Blue skies come and go
a-ha, The Blue Sky
One summer when I was a teen, I met Johnny P. at an Urban Spelunkers show. A little bit skate rat, a little bit poet, very much a bad boy that was loved by few and disliked by many. Smitten smitten smitten. He was living with Kevin, the local dead ringer for Judd Nelson; I don’t remember why exactly Johnny was holed up at Kevin’s house since it’s been around 20 years, but it would seem that Johnny had some kind of trouble at home. And we spent some time together, hung out on the long, leisurely teenage days, and then he was leaving, taking off for Atlanta.
I felt like my heart was being ripped in two at the news he was leaving. Who else was going to call me and speak to me in French? (no one has since Johnny)
He used to wear split rings, like keyrings, in the top eyelets of his Chucks (we all wore Chucks, we couldn’t afford Docs). On the porch at Kevin’s house the night before he was leaving town, Johnny gave me one of the rings from his Chucks. (It stayed in that shoe until I wore holes in my sneakers, years I wore it) I gave him my favorite hat, which was probably some Vision Streetwear something or other. He told me to go home and listen to The Blue Sky by a-ha. I told him to listen to A Night Like This by The Cure on the way to Atlanta.
As I walked down the steps at Kevin’s, I told myself I wouldn’t look back, I wouldn’t look back. But I did, and Johnny was still standing there, watching me go, and he said “bye” one more time and that’s when I had to speed it up, to run actually, to my friend’s waiting car so I wouldn’t burst into tears in front of him.
I never saw him again.
It goes dark, it goes darker still
Please stay
But I watch you like I’m made of stone
As you walk away
I’m coming to find you if it takes me all night
The Cure, A Night Like This