Shaking Hands with Young Me
Bensenville '94. Me at 17 under a tree in Bensenville, IL. I remember staring down an undeveloped access road that led to the tracks in one direction and in the other to the dingy apartment complex my mother, sister and I lived in, a place where gangsters, meth cooks, and one serial killer (I didn’t find out about him until after we moved, but we all smelled his handiwork) did dwell. Was it October? I want to say it was. Someone knows and in this case it’s John Bruni. He knows because he is half if not more of the reason that I was standing under that tree 29 years ago. I wrote it on his computer. It was a real piece of dogshit called “The Dark”. One positive about it— the tale contained an easy chair which would prove to become a legendary inside joke that has since taken form and made it into things that have seen print. The chair was immortalized; the story died on the launching pad. “Just the way she goes,” A great man would have said. I have to backtrack a bit. I think...