Thunderbowl - Lesley Choyce [6]
“Man, you can’t solve anything with violence,” I said out of the blue. I sounded like a saint.
Richie looked at me like I had just spoken to him in Swahili. I picked up the amp and tried to ignore him.
Instead, Richie spun me around and planted a fist in my mouth. It was the first time in my life anyone had ever done that to me.
He knocked out my front tooth, the jerk. It flew to the back of my mouth and down my throat. I choked on it for a second, then swallowed it. All the while I was falling backward into the bumper of the van. But it was like slow motion.
At first there was this satisfied look on Richie’s face. Then he seemed kind of worried. Not scared, just worried. He inched away backward as I closed my eyes and tasted the sweet sticky flavor of my own blood.
Al drove me to the hospital because I was covered in blood. The hospital called my parents. My mom and dad arrived and found me minus a front tooth. I told them I had tripped over an extension cord. I am pretty clumsy.
My mother was so upset she could hardly speak. But Dad tore into me on the way home.
“What are you doing with your life?” he asked.
“I had an accident,” I answered.
“Yeah, but Jeremy, something is happening to you. I don’t like it. You’ve got to settle down. Look at your face. You’re a mess.”
“I’m okay,” I said.
“Jeremy, it’s not just this. I ran into Mr. Langford, your English teacher, and he told me you are on a downhill slide at school. You can’t throw your life away. School is too important. And now… now this!”
“Give me a break, Dad!” I said. I really didn’t need the hassles.
Somehow it seemed more important than ever that I stay with it. I couldn’t let Richie think that he was going to get his way. Besides, I was hooked on the music.
“No,” I said. “I’m not quitting.”
Chapter Six
Eventually the tooth came out of me the only way it could. Just like the doctor said it would.
My dad sent me to his buddy, Dr. Hol-gate, who fitted me with a fake tooth that I could pop in and out. When I showed it to Suzanne, she said, “That’s really cute. I like it.”
Thunderbowl was working on some new tunes. We were really pushing ourselves. The music had taken over and I loved every minute of it. I was becoming a better guitar-ist from all the practice and performance. And I kept pushing my limits, trying new things.
But I kept falling asleep in school.
“Try some of these pills,” Drek said, pouring some out of a little box into my hand one night.
“No way. I’m not into uppers,” I told him.
“Shoot. You buy this stuff over the counter. Not drugs. Just caffeine. Like in coffee.”
I hated coffee. But I tried the stuff Drek gave me. It worked for a while, but it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t find time for fifty pages of reading in Modern World Problems. I had lost my grip on every important verb in the French language. My average in math was a lowly fifty-five, and I just couldn’t seem to find the time to get at Langford’s term paper, “Alternatives to War.”
I didn’t fit in at school and I sure didn’t fit in at the club. All I really wanted out of life was music and sleep.
Then one day I was sleeping my way through Langford’s class. The bell rang and I didn’t wake up. Everyone left but me. Langford tapped me on the shoulder.
“Truth time, Jeremy,” he said.
I woke up from a dream where I was running away from something. There was a long empty hallway. I don’t know what was after me. I was in a daze. I pulled my fake tooth out of my mouth and looked at it. I couldn’t remember where it came from.
“Just mellow out for a minute,” Langford said.
I yawned. “If I was any more mellow, I’d be dead.”
Langford looked unhappy. “Jeremy, what happened to you? It’s like someone scooped out your brain and threw it in a ditch. You fall asleep in class. Your grades are in the sewer.”
“Mr. Langford, I should tell you, I’m thinking of quitting school.” This had been building for a while. It had to be school or music. Not both.
“Why?” he asked.
“You wouldn’t understand,” I said.
“Try me. I’m all ears.