A Ride With Friends
By Miguel Taylor
Cover Art By Drexsonal James
Edited By Martha Simmons
Thanks to God by whom all things are possible
To all the special women in my life.
Who helped raise and mold me.
I love you all.
And Captain Collard Greens
We love and miss you
I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of Troy Todd Paul.
He was one of the inspirations for me finishing this project. He was actually supposed to design the cover for it. I gave him a rough copy of the book so he could get his ideas together. One thing could be said about Troy it's that he was honest. He read the draft I sent him and we talked about it a few days later. Troy said “It was really good. I didn't think that I would like it but it was a really good story.”
That gave me the motivation and encouragement to press ahead and finish my first book. Troy for that I will be forever grateful.
Rest In Peace my friend.
A Ride With Friends
The four of us were like the Three Musketeers. I know what you're saying to yourself, but there were four of you. Yes, there were three musketeers, but everyone forgets about D'Artagnan, either that or they are thinking of the candy bar. It was always just the four of us; we thought it always would be. But like the seasons, things change. We grow up or apart or in our case, we simply fell apart for a time. Not that we wanted to. Does anybody? Things happen or people happen or in my case, I was just the jerk who turned against his friends. Sometimes people are too stupid or too stubborn to let sleeping dogs lie. That was my problem. But before we get into the argument that almost tore the four of us apart, let me start at the beginning of what was almost the end of me.
We grew up in a nice size town. It wasn't a sprawling metropolis, but it was big enough for the surrounding counties to think it was a treat to come there. We were right on the water. Not like the beach or anything. We were right on the river that wound through the east side of our town. It used to be the state capital, but lost the title because it would be too accessible for enemies to attack by water.
Our town mascot is the bear, as evidenced by the bear statues posted all over town. A few years ago they even had artists create custom Bear Towne Bears. They have a doctor bear at one of the doctors offices, a dentist bear, and my favorite, the taxi bear outside of the liquor store downtown, the Don't Drink and Drive Bear. I like the ones out on the bypass too or coming off the bridge that have Christmas hats on them for the holidays.
And of course we have a lot of colonial style homes and buildings downtown. Every time my uncle tells people he is from New Bern, they want to talk about Tryon Palace. He gets angry and tells them he doesn't give a rat's ass about Tryon Palace. You could say he's kind of a cranky guy. But all in all, we have a great town for raising a family or for retirement. It's very slow paced and relaxing. The kind of place where you know your neighbors. The sort of town you are dying to get out of, but miss like crazy when you are away.
I remember like it was yesterday. Funny how memories you forgot you had come flooding back to you at a certain point in your life. Seems some major event makes you remember. The things that you thought were so insignificant mean so much when you get older. Not that I’m that much older, but soon you will know what I mean. Like I said, I remember it like it was yesterday: kindergarten. The school where we met was Trent Park, a little brick building, but it seemed so big to us when we were small. That first day in Mrs. White’s class we were all there, Charlie, Colin, Scott, and me, Mike. We instantly gravitated toward each other, mostly because none of the other kids would play with us. I don't know what it was. It's like we had radioactive warning signs on us. I don't know if it was Colin's constantly runny nose, or the fact that Charlie's freckles gave off the appearance of a wild animal. It also could have also been the extremely ugly sweater my mom forced me to wear that day. I think Scott may have just felt bad for the three of us. For whatever reason we were avoided like the plague.
We went to recess in a death trap of a playground with half tires sticking out of the ground. I mean, whose idea was it to have vertical tires for kids to run across anyway? And the giant tire we used to play inside? I can't tell you how many kids fell asleep in that thing. The trash cans were always fun. Full of the smell of ice cream and the swarms of yellow jackets chasing any hapless kid who got close enough to throw trash away.
We went outside at the same time as the third graders, so of course they tried to bully us smaller kids The first week of school they cornered the four of us near the big tire on the playground. One kid named Bobby Benjiman got right in Charlie’s face. He started making fun of Charlie's freckles and glasses. Then he pushed Charlie and tried to snatch what was left of a melting ice cream bar from Charlie's hands. I didn't like this at all. My mom had always told me to look out for my friends. So I did. I punched Bobby Benjamin right in the nose. He ran away with watery eyes, too embarrassed to tell a teacher what had happened. Thank goodness. When Charlie told people about it, I was like some knight who rode in on a horse to save the villagers from a dragon. The reward for my noble deed was Charlie bringing me a Twinkie everyday for the rest of the school year. Colin and Scott were just thankful that it sent the other bullies packing as well. That brought the four of us together. Some say it was just coincidence that we found each other that day. Not me, I know now it was fate. It was always fate. In the end God had a way of putting things right even after I messed up our friendship so bad that I thought the three of them would never talk to me again.
Even in our early elementary days, Scott was a mischievous child. He liked to confuse the teachers, especially if we had a sub. Seeing as how he and Colin had the same first name. When they would call the role he would say here twice, and tell them that his name was Colin too. And when asked which Colin he was? If he was Colin Allen or Colin Green? With a smile on his face he would say “Yes.”
He became known as the bad Colin and by default Colin was always considered the good Colin. But by the first grade he started to go by his middle name. At least that made it less confusing to me and Charlie as well.
My friends provided the best times of my young life. We were always doing something fun together, especially before we realized Charlie was a girl. I mean we always knew she was a girl, but she always was, and always will be one of us. No matter what we were into she was right there with us. On our many adventures hunting turtles in the various ditches around our neighborhood, or the dirt rock wars we had at the “Big Hill” behind the Parkway Restaurant, Charlie was there.
Charlie moved to a different neighborhood when we were in fifth grade, but she was still within walking distance. Especially if we took Scott's secret shortcut behind the hospital. Taking that “shortcut” gave us our first brush with the law. I guess those no trespassing signs are there for a reason. They took our names and addresses, and of course I took a cue from Scott and gave them a fake name and address. It felt kind of exciting to lie even if it was just to a security guard.
It seemed the only place Charlie couldn't go, and she was glad not to, was the basement at Colin's church for our Cub Scout meetings. Centenary is in downtown New Bern. That church was big and creepy in the day time, and at night on the inside was even worse. Especially the basement. Colin's dad was our scout master. We each had to take turns putting the chairs up after the meeting. I always dreaded my turn because normally you did it alone. But because of Scott and Colin I never had to. That was another thing I loved about my friends. They never made me feel alone. If I ever felt alone while we were friends it was usually my own doing.
Charlie did get to come to our meetings
a few times on special occasions. Charlie and her family came for our spaghetti fundraiser dinner, our Arrow of Light ceremony, and she got to come to our annual Pinewood Derby. I worked on my car for weeks shaping, carving, sanding, and painting it to look just like Hot Rod from The Transformers. Boy, that thing was sleek and fast. I tested it like a hundred times. I was sure I was going to win first place with that thing. The day of the big race came and I put my car up on the track. I let it go knowing it would fly like the wind. To my disappointment, it didn't even get out of the dip at the bottom. I was utterly devastated. It was the worst day ever of my ten year old life. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Mine being the kiss on the cheek from Charlie that made me feel better even though at the time I didn't know why. I also didn't know why her dad looked at me the way he did after that either.
Fifth grade had to be the best year of our academic study. How could it not be? A school full of fifth graders. Even though it made going to middle school that much scarier.
Middle school wasn't so bad once