But I got in trouble, especially because I took karate at the YMCA, and karate was supposed to be for self-defense.
Then Simone broke my heart. She left me for Rio Gereaux, a gymnast. It was fourth grade, but it was still a big deal. I mean, when are things supposed to start mattering? Now, and now, and now.
Before we hit Loma Verde, we passed Unity church. It was where my mom took me when I was little. She was Jewish, but she went to church because she liked the minister, a smiley guy named Stan.
One time at Sunday school I won a Bible in a raffle. It had all of Jesuss words written in red. Fish, and loaves, and the first will be last, and thy neighbor, and Caesar, and an eye for a tooth, and he killed the fig tree because it wouldnt give him fruit.
We shot BBs at the Unity church. The BBs made little popping sounds when they went through the church windows. Seeing those little vein-filled bites used to scare me when I was younger. They made me think of anonymous bad people with destructive things in their hands. Faceless and swirling. Now we were the bad people.
We stopped by 7-Eleven and bought some Hostess apple pies. They came in a bright green rectangular wrapper. I paid for Ronnys. He got cherry flavor and it came in a red wrapper.
Two cops came in as we were walking out. A skinny, young white cop and a fatter, older black cop. They were talking about something. We were twelve years old and it was two a.m. Ronny and Saul had the slingshots in the backs of their pants, under their shirts. The cops didnt even look at us as we passed.
After we walked out, I looked back. Inside, the cops were buying coffee and laughing. I could see the steam rising from the cups on the counter before they put the lids on.
We walked back to Sauls eating our pies. They were crescent shaped and glazed. We took big bites and they were very sweet, and we all wanted some milk but we didnt have any.
A week later the four of us went out with the slingshots during the day. We went to Greer Park, near the 101 freeway. Across the freeway was East Palo Alto.
There were tons of birds in Greer, but we had to be discreet because there were adults with children around.
We traded off with the slingshots, and shot metal pellets and rocks at the birds in the trees. We were bad shots; we hit nothing.
One bird flew away, and Ronny tried to shoot it as it flew. He aimed too low, and the pellet went across the street, into the window of a ground-floor apartment. We ran.
We looked back and a black man was running after us. He was lithe, and serious, and fast. There was no way to get away so we stopped when he was close.
We told him we were just trying to hit birds.
The man didnt look so mad then.
Oh, he said. Okay. I just have a baby in the house, and it usually sits in its cradle right under that window you shot. She wasnt there, but, you know, I just cant have broken glass fall on her.
We told him that we understood.
Then he let us go.
When we were almost back at Sauls house, we saw a dove
sitting in a tree. While he was still walking, Saul shot a pellet at it and hit it. It fell like a heavy glove, and hit the cement with a dull sound. We walked over. Its round, black eye was open and looking up at the sky. The pellet was in the back of its head and there was a little blood in its smooth feathers.
At the end of the year, we all went to Amis bar mitzvah. We werent all friends anymore, but we were still nice to one another. At the party I arm wrestled Ronny again, and I could still beat him.
In eighth grade I went to a new school. Jordan Middle School reopened because there were so many kids in Palo Alto. More kids than in the old generation.
Jordans old mascot was a dolphin, but we voted and changed the mascot to a jaguar. A dolphin was stupid because there was no ocean around.
But there were no jaguars or jungles around either.
But one time there was a mountain lion that wandered through Palo Alto. It had come down from the hills above Stanford. Eventually it climbed a tree above Juana Briones Elementary School. They shot it so that it wouldnt eat the kids.
Ronny and Saul stayed at J.L.S. and Ami had different friends, so I made new friends at Jordan. My new friends were Ed and Ivan. Neither of them was handsome.
After school, the three of us would go to Eds and sit in his room and listen to Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion and The Best of Bob Dylan, and The Best of Jimi Hendrix, and The Best of the Doors . Eds house was near the school, and we would go there and make Campbells soup on the stove, and I would put in lots of extra spices like oregano. Ed said that I put in too many, but I liked all the spices.
Sometimes we would smoke tobacco out of the meerschaum pipe Eds dad gave him. Sometimes we would take his dads liquor from the cabinet. When we took some, wed put water back in the bottles so his dad wouldnt know.
We were also friends with Dan and Jerry, but they were jocks and were different. They were more popular with the girls, but sometimes they spent time with us, especially when we were drinking.