Page 24 - Contrast1988Spring

pleased him and despite my repulsion and em~arrassmetttl~

made me feel good that I was at least civil to him. My It d

jock buddies started asking me about him. This embarrasse

me but I didn't have the heart or nerve to tell Mel to stop

coming. I told my pals that he was just some guy from my
church and that he was "okay." .k

He must have spent a mint on film. I shuddered to thin
what he did with the negatives. I had these visions of me
blown up life size, plastered on his bedroom and. bathroo~

walls, a sort of pre-pubescent posterboy inciting him to G~'t
only knows what sort of self-erotic frenzy. It ~as all a, '~I
unnerving and creepy in my young skittish mind. I st~e
feared that he would corner me some day. I felt safe at .t

games because of the flock of protective suburban bid~~esi
But church became for me a nervous two-hour-a-week he .
was always wary, always mapping out the safest route fr0I!f
point A to B. Always I traveled in a pack of fellow brats, or;
alon~, . took the route most traveled. It wa~ life on. tie
preCIpIce, the pedaphillic, camera-wielding giant posSlb Y
around the next corner, with lusty intentions. My mom knew
of my apprehensions, but said I shouldn't worry, that Mel was
"cured." I wasn't convinced.

One Sunday he had a goofy smile on his face and was
guffawing in conspiratorial bursts. He beckoned me and m~
big brother and a friend into a room. Out of a sack he dumpe
the pieces of a small jigsaw puzzle and asked us, between

deep giggles and snickers, to help him put it together. WI~
began to smile as a naked woman appeared. We got a srna I
chuck~e and hUrrIedly left thinking Mel wierder than. ever.
guess It was some sort of attempt at youthful comradene.

For my birthday and Christmas Mel usually handed me a

O~dslew of photos and said Happy Christmas or Birthday.

year he gave me something a bit more elaborate. He ha
mounted two color photos on a varnished piece of wood. On
the back he scrawled "Happy Christmas to my friend Tom.

Fondly, Mel." The pics were of the Battleship Something-or;
other, wh,ch he had recently visited. He had put a hook in thd
wood and said "Look, it's suitable for hanging." I thanke

hhoimmeanadndpoleltiteitlycolalsekcet dduqsut.estions about the battleship, took it

20

Contrast Spring 1988