i saw myself the other day. i was young, maybe 13 years old. i was rifling through shirts at the st. vincent de paul's in carnation. ben fells was with me and he saw it first. it was brown like wet cedar bark with bold white stitching and square buttons to match. the lapels were so wide they would have made john travolta jealous. it was the most beautiful shirt we had ever seen. we both wanted it instantly and we argued over ownership all the way up to the register. after what must have seemed like an eternity of pubescent quarreling at the front counter of that thrift shop in a small town, the clerk threw the shirt at us and told us to "just take the damn thing." so we did. we decided to split custody, i would get it one week and him the next, and that's the way it went for years all throughout high school until i went to college. it happened to be my week with the shirt, which turned into a decade and i never saw ben again.
last night i was at a bar having a goodbye drink with my old and dear friend josh hall before i move away. we were discussing the past and all the great times we've shared. i imagine i wont be seeing him for quite some time as i am moving to a country separated from home by the largest ocean on the planet. in the middle of a tale of youthful pranks josh looked at my shirt and asked me if it was my custody week. 14 years after that fateful day in carnation the shirt finally fits.
