(W4) Simon Part Two

The dorm had an common pool table; I use to beckon to the call of the battered felt, anytime I needed to get out of my room. Through my frequent visits to the table, I made friends with another pool player, named Simon.

Simon was an African American man in his early thirties. While he played pool he had a explicit vocabulary. When he sat to eat, he would stop and pray.

On day the pool table was calling me, I had a few days off and I wanted to relax. I walked to the other side of the building and knocked on the door.

'Oh hey, Nick. What's up.'
'Not much, I was wondering if you wanted to go play pool.'
'Um, I do but I can't. You wanna come in.'
'Sure.'
'Yeah, I have to get ready to go, I am driving home for the day.'
'Sounds like fun, when are you getting back?'
'Tomorrow, do you have any plans?'
'No, I was going to play pool with you and then maybe get some food.'
'You wanna come?'

After a few minutes of thinking it out I decided that I could go.

It was a forty minute drive. As we got close to the house he said, 'Don't bring up that I smoke, they think I quit. And I only have one now and then. I never even buy a full pack.'
'What if they bring it up?'
'They shouldn't, just don't bring it up.'
'Ok, got it.'

Mary and Denis were a white, couple in their fifties. They were kind and supportive; Mary was very motherly toward Simon. She asked him how his classes were going, asked him if he was seeing anyone, told him to not let the stress get to him. 'The last thing you need is to start smoking again.'

There two little black dogs came down and I took time to pet them. later in the day, as we were watching the DaVinci Code, I saw one of the dogs walk into the couch. When I asked about it, they said that the dog was blind. The next time the dog came over to me I saw it, the dogs eye lids were sewn shut. The dog was no different from it's sibling, it just walked into things every now and then.

After Mary and Denis had go to bed, Simon asked me what I thought of them. After I said I thought they were very nice. After discussing for a bit he said with a solemn tone 'You know people ask me if Mary and I are involved.' I had not really even thought much of how he came to be in this house. I knew that he had traveled from another state and lived here. I saw this family like any other, in some places they where a stronger family.

In the morning we went up stairs to the kitchen, the oddest part about the upstairs kitchen was that there was a downstairs kitchen. The upstairs kitchen was Denis' Kitchen, it was were breakfast was made. We sat at the table, held hands and prayed for the meal.

After breakfast Simon showed me the shack that he had built on the top of the mountain we were on. It was framed in various types of wood, the floor wisted as the wind passed through it. The door was tided shut on either side with a piece of rope. The walls were different pieces of metal, plastic or the occasional ply board.

The view was hillsides with trees and places where the granite cut the surface. It would be a great place to just sit and listen to the wind rush by. I now knew way Simon spoke of home the way that he did and I was glad to have been invited to it.

-NK