PompFiction

Roger’s perspective on the death of Johnny Jaybird, a good friend of the family.

Yeah, I remember the first time I even heard about the kid. Course, I knew about Johnny’s father, Johnny Jay Senior first. Senior was a well known kinda guy, y’know? Did a lot of stunt drivin’ for those movies on tv and stuff. Well my son come in one day, goin’ on about dis olda’ kid in school, that ratface Ronnie. Always used to pick on ‘im in middle school, cuz my boy ain’t that big an’ all. Well come high school, Leo starts talkin’ about dis Johnny fella, come and save him from Ronnie just before the rat hit the flusher. Heh. Leo was always gettin’ himself swirlied, the stupid little runt. Anyway, where was I? Yeah so he comes in talkin’ about this Junior level kid, Johnny, an’ how great he is. Yeh, I was kinda happy to see my kid finally makin’ friends and not enemies for once. He even spent time at Jay’s house an’ everything.
So I finally get to meet dis kid ova’ a crappy dinner, courtesy of yours truly mind you. Heh, I remember answerin’ the door and seein’ a couple of trees-for-legs. The kid was HUGE, I tells ya! Must’ve been like… ten feet all or somethin’, an boy that hair! HaHA! What a pomp, eh? Had hair that’d rival that Rumplestiltskin chick… or… what was it? Rapunzel? Whateva. So he comes in, real polite-like, callin’ me “sir” an’ all dis. Heh, even my employees don’t call me sir. I tell ya, took after his father, Johnny did, with the firm hand shake an’ the real nice smile. That kid woulda grown up to be somethin’ ya know? A real man, yeah. He didn’t come over too often, ratha’ my kid stayed out with him and the Jaybirds. Not that I was complainin’ or nothin’; it kept my boy outta da house. But every time he’d come back, usually really late, he’d have some new story to tell about Johnny; how they was in a fight or somethin, but Johnny broke it up, or Ronnie was pickin’ on some poor defenseless dog and Johnny talked him out of it, and then him and Leo would find the dog a nice home. Heh, the kinda greaser that you’d want to take home to mom, y’know? Yeah, I don’t blame him for Leo’s crush. He was a good lookin’ guy. Always made me jealous of his fatha’, wonderin’ why my kid couldn’t be half as good as he was. Yeah, could’ve really been somethin’ that Johnny.