We were asked to re-write our in class assignment from last week. What follows is the first shot at fleshing out a few paragraphs. If your interested, take a few minutes to reaquaint yourself with final exercise in this post: http://jeffgregg.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/first-day-let-the-fiction-commence/ . Tomorrow I turn in the following.
Dustin Awls
The first time Dustin Awls heard Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies he was down in Jonny Stacks folk’s basement on a warmth waning, September day. It was 1980, John Bonham just died, and Dustin was 14 years old. The Hamms could not slake his thirst for the heavy metal and acid rock he heard blasting from Dusters, GTOs, and Camaros mingling at the direction of their masters in the beach parking lot. Maybe Alice could.
The Philmore turntable was perched on the corner of the wet-bar threatening to tumble stylus over platter into a pile of dead Hamm’s soldiers. The tune crackled like the crumpling sheet metal of a car wreck through speakers that have been abused by two much older brothers and a couple of hippy parents. Dustin sat in an overstuffed chair that would have shown a cat-claw rended teacup rose pattern framed against a butter cream colored backdrop if it had not been disguised by an avocado green, crushed velour chair cover. Cooper and Donovan sang in duet through the song as Dustin crack the top off another brew sired in the land of sky blue waters.
Jonny, known better to the boys in the neighborhood as Bird Dog sat flipping through his older brother’s album collection. The collection was incredible—Sabbath, Hendrix, The Who, Joplin, Bread, Canned Heat, Zeppelin. The dust jackets were art. Art that mattered to groups wanting to appeal to the grimy teenagers in a decade most known for, much to Dustin’s chagrin or anyone else with a clue, disco.
Jonny stopped flipping and stared. Enamored. Patti Smith stared back at him from the cover of Horses with a smoky, androgynous gaze that asked him to come hither for a roll or a stomp.
“Hey, Jonny, quit staring at that skank. What else does your brother have in his room?” Dustin scolded and tempted
“Ummm, I don’t know. Well, I do. But he has beat me down before. Um forget it, I don’t know”, Jonny said looking for an extra push to get his courage up.
“He’s not here, man. Come on let’s check it out,” Dustin coaxed with just the whiskey Jonny needed to get his guts up.
“Alright, alright. He keeps a locked wooden box under his bed.”
Jonny would not see October.
Great info, Very helpful….