My Mother Said Your Father Was Shot in the Balls

His words ricocheted across the playground blacktop with deafening clarity. My sixth grade best friend, Andy Stewart, was racing towards me yelling at the top of his lungs: “HEY, LANG… MY MOTHER SAID YOUR FATHER WAS SHOT IN THE BALLS!” He yelled again. “HEY, LANG! MY MOTHER SAID YOUR FATHER WAS SHOT IN THE BALLS!”

Then there was silence–the type of silence you remember when you awake in the middle of the night and you are waiting for the monsters to come out. Kids stopped playing, basketballs stopped bouncing…