BLACK NORTH FACEFU FIETRICHET
By Mark Gonzales
Warning: Parental advisory suggested.
M
elo sat on the curb in front of his girl-
friend Scarlet's house watching her
kid brother ride his skateboard. Tat
clack tat clack.
"Dammit!" screamed Laurant. That was
Scarlet's kid brother's name. After a few more
tries, Laurant sat down beside Melo. "I got to get
it to come around quicker," Laurant said to Melo.
"I wanna catch it with both feet and then bring it
down hard with force to show I have it wired."
Melo couldn't believe how serious Laurant
was. And especially after Laurant asked Melo if
he could watch and tell him how close his feet
were from the board. "OK," Melo said. "I'll
watch and let you know." Tat boom smash.
Laurant had a smile on his face. He knew he did
tright that time.
it
"You see that?" Laurant looked over to Melo
sitting on the curb.
Melo was smiling slightly. "Yeah, it
looked good."
Laurant tried it again but did not pull it. "Fuck!"
Melo smiled and then told Laurant not to get so
excited. "Stay calm and you'll pull it." Laurant
went for another try but only now Melo wasn't
watching Laurant. He was looking towards the
entrance of their house waiting to see when
Scarlet would be out.
Bang! Laurant landed it and screamed out,
"D'you see that one?"
Melo looked out into the street where Laurant
was and said, "No."
"Golly gee," Laurant said. "I landed a perfect
one." Melo apologized for not watching. Laurant
said, "You don't gotta say sorry. I just wanted you
to see me make it clean."
"Hey!" came a loud holler. Melo and Laurant
both looked towards the front of the house.
Scarlet was standing there at the door. "I'm gonna
dry my hair, Melo, then I'll be ready to go."
Melo screamed, "OK." Just so you know,
Scarlet's hair was up in a towel and she was wear-
ing a bathrobe. She looked like a mother even
though she was only seventeen and had just got-
ten a brand new car for her birthday. It was obvi-
ous she was in a big hurry to grow up. Laurant
kicked his board over to Melo to have a try. "I
can't skate for shit," Melo said.
"Come on," Laurant said. "Let's see you bust
something." Melo took off his North Face puffy
and got on the board and tic-tacked around acting
silly a few times, hitting the position of being
tubed. Laurant giggled with his mouth shut and
the air came out his nose. Laurant really had no
idea that the roots of what he was doing came
from surfing but it didn't really matter much. Not
too much these days does. When Melo kicked
Laurant his board back, Laurant jumped on it and
popped a high switch nollie, go figure, and landed
perfect. Not out of any maliciousness but just
from natural instinct.
Laurant said in a cocky voice, "You'll need a lot
of hours on a board before you can even attempt
something like that."
The truth was, Melo could give a flying truck.
"I suppose I would need hours of practice,
wouldn't I?"
"Yeah," Laurant said.
Laurant's cockiness pissed Melo off. "Let me
see that damn skateboard." Laurant handed it
over. Melo tic-tacked around and figured he'd
pull some 360's. Melo used to be able to do
about four, but when he tried he fell back and
scraped his elbow. Melo jumped up quick. "Fuck
that. I'm not gonna jack my LA Kings jersey for
nothing." Laurant laughed at the way Melo was
able to curse as if it were nothing at all. Laurant
knew if his mother or father heard him curse like
that his board would be locked up in the trunk of
their car so fast it would make him wish he had-
n't cursed. Laurant was young and intelligent; he
knew that the reason his sister Scarlet liked Melo
was because he was the furthest thing from what
their parents would approve of. Scarlet finally
came out of the house. Laurant watched from a
distance with his board in his hand as his sister
and Melo greeted one another.
"Girl, you're looking proper with your hair
primped and your lashes dyed." Scarlet smiled.
She was up to date on today's fashion. Melo tried
to hang on
on Scarlet but she pushed him off as the
two headed for her car. "Can I drive?" Melo asked.
"No," Scarlet answered. Once the two were in
the car, Scarlet's voice rose instantly. "You must
be a certified moron."
"What did I do?" Melo asked.
"Don't ever ask to drive the car when Laurant's
around. He'll tell I my parents and if they know I
let you drive my car they'll take it away instantly."
Melo knew he fucked up. "I'm sorry."
Scarlet said, "Don't worry about it," as she
reversed out of the driveway. "Just wave bye to
him and act as if nothing's wrong." Melo did as
he was told. The two were driving through the
upper middle class neighborhood with no set
place to go.
"Did you have morning sickness again?" Melo
asked Scarlet.
"Fuck!" Scarlet screamed while beeping on her
horn. "Step on it, you old hag." She didn't answer.
Melo asked again. "Yes yes yes!" Scarlet
screamed. "I still feel nauseous and I have to pee
every five seconds."
Melo was quiet for a few seconds and then
asked, "Do you think we should try and see if we
I can get that homeless lady to buy us another
pregnancy test again?"
"Yeah," Scarlet said loud. "My parents are
friends with everybody around here. If they
see me buy a pregnancy test they'll tell my
mom and dad."
Melo's eyes rolled along the sides of the road.
Suddenly he had an idea. "I know."
"What? What?" Scarlet said.
"We could go to the drugstore and pick up a
pregnancy test and we'll ask them if it works the
same on cats. Then that way they won't know it's
for you."
Scarlet looked over at Melo and couldn't possi-
bly imagine having a child with him. Scarlet got
on the freeway and headed for La Jolla. She fig-
ured if she went over there and stopped at a Rite
Aid or Costco and had Melo get the test probably
no one that knew her mom and dad would be able
to recognize her or Melo. So after a short drive on
the freeway, the two were parked outside a drug-
store and trying to decide which would go in and
buy the pregnancy test. Melo toughened up and
said, "Fuck, I'm down. I'll go and get it."
"OK. You got money?"
Melo opened the door to the car and got out
while answering. "Yeah, I got mad loot, woman."
Scarlet smiled a little but also wished that he
could be serious about something. Scarlet sat
there wondering what she was gonna do if the
next test said yes, 50% chance you are pregnant.
Would she tell her parents or would she run away,
have the kid, put it up for adoption, come back
and pretend nothing happened? Or have an abor-
tion at the family abortion clinic? So many y differ-
ent thoughts raced through Scarlet's head as she
waited for Melo to return. A silver BMW 740i
parked one spot away from where she was. That
was the exact kind of car that Scarlet's father
drove. Luckily a motorcycle was blocking the
view. It couldn't possibly be her dad. That's what
Scarlet was thinking, but of course when the fel-
low behind the wheel got up and out of that 740i,
she realized it was. God, no, Scarlet was thinking
to herself. She hid her face but squeezed a
glimpse and noticed Melo exiting as her father
was entering. From where she was, she saw them
say hello to one another and then she couldn't
believe it when Melo pointed over to where she
was. Her face was red. From far off, Scarlet's.
father waved to his daughter and then continued
into the drugstore. Oh my God. Scarlet was breath-
less as Melo approached her car.
"What did he say? Does he know?"
"Know what?" Melo asked.
"Well, did you get the pregnancy test?" Scarlet
asked, completely scared out of her wits.
"Yeah, I got it," Melo said. "Here." Melo handed
Scarlet a small bottle of Evian because she don't
drink soda. It rots her teeth.
Scarlet took the water and was like, "Well, well."
Melo looked over smoothly. "I slipped the
sweet puppy into the inside pocket of my North
Face puffy."
Scarlet got steamed and started the car. "You
idiot." She pulled out of there while screaming.
"Why'd you steal it? They got cameras in there
and my folks are gonna know for sure." The two
drove along arguing.
"They won't know," Melo said.
"How can you be sure?" Scarlet asked.
"Cause," Melo said. "I asked to use the rest-
room and then took the pregnancy test from the
stockroom. I might be stupid," Melo said, "But I
ain't no dummy."
Scarlet smiled and believed that what he did was
OK. I mean of course she knew it was not OK to
steal. She just thought that maybe he would not
get caught. "Can we go to your house to use the
pregnancy test?" Scarlet was asking Melo. There
was quietness.
"Ah," Melo was thinking it over. "Ah, I don't
know. All the cleaning people are probably
there," Melo said.
"Cleaning people?" Scarlet asked.
"Yeah," Melo said. "They're dusting, mop-
ping, rearranging." Melo said, "No, it's impos-
sible to go to my house for sure, 'cause my
sick Aunt Beatrice is there as well and she's a
regular snoop in the traditional sense. She
likes to get herself into everybody's business
but her own."
"Really?" Scarlet said in disbelief.
"Yeah," Melo answered back. "My mom
thinks there's nothing wrong with her; she just
I wanted a reason to be over at our house so
she could poke her nose into her younger
brother's business."
Scarlet was good at talking. I mean carrying
on conversations and driving at the same time.
"Do you believe her?" Scarlet asked Melo.
"What do you mean? Do I believe she's nosy
or that she's not really sick?"
"Either," Scarlet said.
"I believe both. My dad's whole family always
wants to know what's going on with him. He's
the baby. They care about him."
For a short second Scarlet completely for-
got about maybe being pregnant. Shit, she
thought to herself. Why is it women that have to
have the kids? Why can't men be the ones that
have to get pregnant?
"Fuck, Scarlet!" Melo screamed. "Watch
out!" The wheels skidded. Damn good thing
she was driving a hell of an up-to-date car,
because she came inches away from level-
ing two senior citizens.
"God," Scarlet said aloud after the close call.
"I got to find out whether or not I'm pregnant."
"OK," Melo said. He pointed to a Taco Bell.
"Pull in there and we can both squeeze into
the restroom in the back."
"Are you crazy?" Scarlet's face let Melo
know that she thought he was. "I'm not taking
a pregnancy test in the bathroom of a Taco
Bell, OK?"
Melo said, "Sorry. Look, there's Denny's."
After thirty minutes of hesitation, Scarlet was
inside the girl's restroom with the pregnancy
tester while Melo was ordering himself a
French dip sandwich with fries and onion rings
and a large Coke no ice. First the food came,
and then Scarlet shortly after.
"Well," Melo said. "What'd it say?"
Scarlet was quiet. Melo finished chewing,
swallowed, and was quiet and ready to hear it.
"It says I'm pregnant."
"No way," Melo said. "Does it?"
"Yeah," Scarlet said. "And I don't know what
I'm gonna do."
Melo's face went flush. Shit, he thought to
himself. "Maybe the test I snagged was faulty
and it was just about to be sent back along
with the others.".
"No," Scarlet shook her head. A real
doubtful look was upon her face. "I know
I'm pregnant, Melo. I can feel it in my
tummy every morning when I wake up."
Melo smiled. He couldn't help it. It
was instinct.
"Don't look like that. I'm too young to be
a mom. I ain't having your kid." Melo
looked sad. "Oh no, no." Scarlet
reached over to hold his hand
and comfort him. "I'm too
young to be pregnant."
Melo didn't say. Then
you shouldn't have
crawled into the sack, but
he was
was thinking that.
"I'll probably find some-
place to perform a miscar-
riage," Scarlet said.
"Miscarriage?" Melo said. "You
mean an abortion."
"No," Scarlet said. "That sounds too negative
to me. I got a friend that knows of these herbs
and things and it forces a very safe doctor-pres-
ent miscarriage."
Melo looked at his food and couldn't eat shit.
Their was silence for a short while, then
Scarlet said, "The clinic's in Tijuana but all the
doctors are American, and it's safe."
Melo signaled for the bill. Some place in his
mind he felt like if he paid his bill and got up
out of there, things would be different but
eventually they left Denny's and were back in
the car. Things weren't different. Melo and
Scarlet were arguing. Finally Scarlet said loud,
"Look. I hardly know you, Melo. Why would I
want to have a baby with you?"
Melo looked down at himself and felt sorry
and ashamed. He understood what Scarlet was
getting at. The car pulled into the driveway not
too fast, not too slow. Perfect enough so it
seemed as though nothing was going on.
Laurant was still in front of the house, kicking
his board around Scarlet said, "I'm gonna go
inside for a while. You go and skate with
Laurant and don't say nothing stupid."
Melo got out of the car and wished he
had used protection when he shacked up
with Scarlet.
"Hey Melo," Laurant screamed as he
skated over towards him. "You wanna try
my board again?"
With an uneasy feeling in his gut, Melo said,
"Yeah, I'll try it again." He took off his North
Face puffy. When Laurant handed the board to
Melo, he could tell something was up just by
the way Melo was acting.
"What's the matter?" Laurant asked.
"Nothing." Melo said. "Hey, Laurant?"
"Yeah?"
"Are your parents understanding kind
of parents?"
"No," Laurant answered.
Von UTE BRISSEL
Die umstrittene Abtreibunspille RU 486 ñ jetzt meldet
sich die katholische Kirche mit m%ochtigem Wort!
Joachim Kardinal Meisner der Erzbischof von K^In,
geiflelt in %ouflerstscharfer Form Bundeskanzler
Gerhard Schr der der diese Abreibungspille ñ nach
ihrer Zulassung ñ in hatte (Bild berichtete).
Meisner zu BILD: NEs stellt einen einmaligen und skan-
dal sen Vorgang dar, dafl der Regierungschef eines
Landes durch seine persˆnliche Inervention die
Einf,hrung eines Mittels zur rechtswidrigen T^tung
ungeborener Kinder ermˆglicht.ì Der schwere Streit um
Grundwerte, Gewissen und die Selbstbestimmung der
Frauen, Seite 2.
Two Paths in the Landscape
Claude Lorrain: The Drawings of a Master Painter
By Souren Melikian
International Herald Tribune (Paris Edition:
Saturday/Sunday, December 19-20, 1998, p. 9)
Within a year, the artist sketched a quasi-abstract
study in light and shadow. Looking from the dark-
ness of a grove at the opening between clumps of
trees, he conveyed in pen and brown ink the blind-
ing effect of white sunlight that hits a walker com-
ing out of the protective shade of a forest.