We eat the donuts at the bar and talk. Perry may well talk. He looks like a lawyer in court. Until, in the middle of a sentence of fifteen minutes, suddenly silent and the man behind the counter asks: Are you day and night?
Yes, the man says.
Seven days a week?
Yeah.
Three hundred sixty-five days a year?
Yes.
Why are there locks on the door?
We turn around and look at all. What a brilliant question! I start laughing so hard that I spit out my donut. The regenboogsprinkels fly like confetti out of my mouth. I think this is the funniest, smartest remark ever. In any case, the funniest, smartest remark ever made these Winchell's. Even the guy behind the counter gives a smile: Son, this is a smart remark.
Oh, that's life, says Perry. Loaded with Winchell's locks and other inexplicable things.
You're right.
I always thought I was the only one who saw things. But this guy does not just things, but says that. When my mother comes to fetch me and Tami, I regret that I say goodbye to my new friend Perry. Even his polo shirt, I think now less disgusting.
I ask my father if I may sleep at home in Perry.
Damn no, he says.
He knows Perry's family did not agree. And he trusts no one he does not know. My father distrusts everyone, especially the parents of our friends. I do not bother to ask why this is so, because not wasting my energy. I just question whether Perry wants to come with me one night stay.
Perry was incredibly polite to my parents. He's kind to my brother and sisters, especially against Tami, though she kindly rejected. I ask if he just wants to see the house. Sure, he says, and so I let him see the room I share with Philly. He laughs at the white line in the middle. I show him the tennis court behind the house. He fights against the dragon for a while. I tell him how much I hated the dragon, I thought it was a living, breathing monster. He looks sympathetically. He has seen enough horror movies to know that monsters of all shapes and sizes.
Perry also because of horror films, I have developed a surprise for him. I have a copy of
The Exorcist
scored. Now I saw how scared he was with
Visiting Hours
I can not wait to see how he responds to a real horror classic. Once everyone is asleep, we put the film on. Every time Linda Blair's head turns, I get a mild heart attack, but Perry never once deterred. He trembles like a leaf in
Visiting Hours,
but
The Exorcist
let it cool? I do not understand.
Afterwards we sit chatting and drinking.
