Lucky Finger

28^th March 2012

Dear Cassi,

A point I should tell you about my childhood friend Potato was that he had an obsession with his middle finger. He was a man, or rather boy, who reveled in the base nature of things. When we were in grade school he would flip off cars that passed the school yard.

       

When one finger was no longer enough he would use both hand in the double salute. This gave him satisfaction for a week or two then he turned to pointing is back end at cars and holding his hand in front of his rump to emphasize his gestures.

       

He once or twice or three or five times broke or otherwise injured that finger. Potato was always a fellow who got himself bloodied. He would joke about that finger being storage for the drugs he would do and every time he flip someone off he would get a high.

       

Then in the range of dumb things he did was bring a cooking knife to school one day and walk around with it for no good reason. I recall now he had taken it out and was screwing around with it and talking to a female peer.

       

She tripped out and told a teacher and his knife was taken away. He took another to school with him the next day only this time he kept it in his bag. He just loved to break the rules. Never having a good reason he made a lot of trouble for himself and his own.

Move with purpose, little sister

Richard Leland Neal