Giant Skyflower Band - Oh Mary Green [mp3]
Mrs. Nixon would mention all the time my resemblance to my father, remembering at moments unexpected specific details down to a hair, “You know Jason, you’re right ear repels from the base of your skull just like Kevin’s did! It’s incredible how genes and DNA work these days.” She had white strands of saran wrap rolled tightly dangling as a bowl would if to wear as a hat, always attired amicably and in power suits of assorted primary colors, her gaze gave the impression of always trying to focus her focal point just a pinch better, vision lettergo a few years back. Her unwillingness to adorn her eyes with spectacles speaks volumes of her attitude in front of a classroom. My father is twenty years older than me, and his father was taught too by Mrs. Nixon tellingly, a talented woman I suppose. Her understanding of modern pedagogy and current events lacked vigor and truth, but she made up for it with a yard stick yelling always from her right hand. Instructing the class to turn to page 23, she would wave the stick slightly too close oh no oh no oh no she’s gonna smack me square in the face and she would have too, eventually, had she not died later in the school year.
Stephen also had a father taught by Mrs. Nixon. He did not look like his father though, and she seemed to resent him for that. Stephen happened to be my nemesis, a friendly nemesis who I frequently interacted with, we’d talk about sports and spend time together throwing the football around, on the field at recess he was the best quarterback and I was the best receiver making us a natural couple, but no less we sensed in each of us an opposition, some significant affront to our existence seeded within our respective, contradictory personalities. One day, I acted on this feeling as Stephen walked the length of the row, he approached my desk and I stuck out my foot. Stephen crashed to the floor catching first his clavicle clanging against the corner of a desk and then the front of his forehead fell flat on the ground gushing slightly blood from a scratch and gash. A feeling of pride presumed to assist my reaction as Mrs. Nixon rushed to the aid of her fallen fellow. She surmised from the sumptuous attitude on my face that this rivalry was something beyond her control reaching right back to the days of Stephen’s father and my father Kevin. On the grounds of her preference for like-minded and similarly-faced father/son couplets, she summarily dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing with a wipe across his face, a band aid affixed, our allegiance came pledged to the irrationally intrepid. It should come as no surprise that later in the school year, shortly after Mrs. Nixon’s death, Stephen would transfer his stranglehold on my soul to the rival school in a town 30 minutes away.
Giant Skyflower Band, now known as The Art Museums, are a rhythm and blues band from somewhere out there. The featured song is from the album Blood of the Sunworm. Purchase the music at Amazon | Insound | eMusic.
