Houston, Texas, a long time ago….
“New beginnings are scary at first.”, Slim tells me as we sip coffee on the patio. I had just settled into my first apartment by myself in Montrose.
Suddenly, “Ahhhh! I cut myself because I was angry at him!” the 17 year-old girl next door bursts out of her apartment. She yelps as she drops her large blood-stained kitchen knife.
“Honey, why you crying?” Slim asks.
“It hurts!”
“Of course it’s going to hurt, it’s a knife that’s what they do when you use them on yourself. “ Slim has me spitting out my coffee.
I excuse myself, head to my apartment and grab a random shirt from the door. I wrap the shirt around her arm.
“You know what you did is stupid.” Slim continues to hit the hapless girl with savage one-liner after one-liner.
“Yeah, you’re right Slim, new beginnings are scary at first.
The ambulance arrives Slim and I finish our coffee. That’s when I knew I was home.
I think of Slim’s words as I hug her wife Alex as I head out of Texas to California…