Johd and Jend were cousins in my class. Separately, they were pretty decent people, but when they were together, they had a tendency to inflict cruel mental torture on me, and sometimes, it turned physical.
I had known Johd since the fifth grade when I had transferred over to Central. Over the years, he slowly became more of a bully. I don't know how this happened, but he lived with his grandparents. His grandfather was a police officer and his grandmother worked for the DMV.
I know that Johd was very poor. After junior year, he was among those of us who went to Boys State. This took place at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. They had an amazing athletic facility. However, they told us we couldn't go inside if the bottoms of our tennis shoes were black because of the risk of permanently marking the floor. Johd was the only person there with black bottom tennis shoes that were made from recycled tires. He was not happy.
You may recall that I had a crush on a girl named Tez when I was in the sixth grade. You may also recall that in a retaliation, I referred to her and her best friend as "Queers." Jend happened to be that best friend. I had known her since the sixth grade.
They were both in band and the Drama club. Johd had taken part in the production of "Arsenic and Old Lace," in which he played "Teddy." Jend got involved in the Drama club later in the year, when we did the children's theatre production of "The House at Pooh Corner." Jend played Tigger and Johd played Eeyore. I was not cast in that show, but Rod (from the posts last week) wasn't cast, either.
Once in ninth grade, Johd tackled me and yelled at me because I nominated him for treasurer of our homeroom. I didn't realize that was an insult. However, looking back, I think he thought I had nominated him because I was gay for him. That doesn't justify it because I wasn't gay at all. I just thought I was doing something nice by showing him that I trusted him with money.
Once, Jend had these little pins with feathers that functioned as darts. She just started throwing them at me one by one, just for the heck of it. I got really frustrated and bent them all out of shape. I really wanted to throw them back at her, but I knew that would just get me beaten up by Johd.
During our senior year, she got a brand new pick up. I was carrying around my portable stereo and placed it on the hood of her car. She SCREAMED at me and accused me of messing up the paint job. Yes, there was a black mark on the hood where I had placed the stereo, but I was able to get it off with my finger and saliva. I wondered what the big deal was. I've gotten a new car, and while I wouldn't have liked it if someone scuffed it up a little bit, I certainly wouldn't have reacted that way. If I had been someone else, she probably wouldn't have done that.
I only ever saw Johd once after high school. In 1984, I was working on replacing the shingles of a roof with my father. I guess he lived next door. He saw me and kind of shyly waved. I waved back. I never saw Jend, but I know that at one point, she had gotten married to her high school sweetheart a few years after graduating, and it ended pretty badly. (Strangely enough, Johd had dated that guy's sister during high school.) From what I can tell on-line, she married someone else and became an emergency preparedness manager in Texas.
I guess the main problem with Johd and Jend is that, under normal circumstances, they would have been my real friends as we had Music and Drama in common. I guess my possible Asperger's probably caused me to rub some people the wrong way, to the point that they just could not tolerate me being in their lives, even just to be in the same room.
But I guess it doesn't matter who I was friends with as I have almost no desire to be in connection with anyone was in high school with me, with just a few exceptions.
No comments:
Post a Comment