My best friend from high school and I have these types of gossip sessions every so often, so when she called me the other day and said, "Guess what?", I thought, hey, maybe she found out that someone else just got engaged (since engagements are all the rage these days). As it turns out, the news was something quite different than your run-of-the-mill proposal:
My friend told me that she was reading the local paper and found an article about this guy who is the older brother of a girl who went to junior high with us (he was a year older and as we remember it, was pretty cute). No big deal, right? It's a local paper - it's not like they have so much news that they can't squeeze something in about someone you know...
Anyway, my friend tells me that he is now a Hell's Angel. Then she goes on to say that he's being charged for 31 counts of pretty serious bad behaviour - she didn't know the specifics, only that the major charge was for shooting a woman at Yorkdale Mall, resulting in permenant paralysis.
When I hear about these types of things, there is the initial shock and the sadness I suddenly feel for the innocent people affected. Then it's not such a big deal anymore because it's still pretty removed from my life. It's not like I knew the guy well, and it's not unimaginable that someone I knew in my past could end up being a criminal.
The only thing that's different about this story is that this guy's family lives two houses away from mine! His parents are still at that house - they just finished some major renovations and they still have a few old clunker boat cars, same as when we were kids. Not that I'm afraid (though I know my parents would be majorly disturbed if I told them about this), I just think about my own path in life and how lucky I've been. I never really even had a chance to stray, to fall into a destructive trap like the one he's in. I grew up in such close proximity to this guy, in seemingly similar surroundings, but obviously very different circumstances.
It feels so weird. I wonder what it's like in that house, I wonder how his family feels, how he feels - but what I really wonder about is what made him choose that dark road he's on right now.
posted by Sonia @ 7:41 p.m.
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