Daniel (originally posted 12/01/18)

Oh, Daniel.

 Daniel was THE archetypal best friend and partner in crime, the one who comes to mind most when thoughts drift back to the old days of innocence. Daniel was a lot more than another neighborhood kid. He and I shared a pretty special bond for a long time, founded upon many common interests, deep, meaningful conversations, and the intention to continue our friendship well beyond our childhood years and into adulthood. Of course, sometimes these plans don’t pan out. But regardless of where we both are today, there is absolutely no questioning the good times we had and the memories forged as we spent our preteen years in the neighborhood.

 I actually first met Daniel while we were both attending the same grade school. I attended the same grade school for 10 years between 1986 and 1996, but Daniel attended for only one year. That’s because he had just moved to Chicago from Georgia, and after his one year at the school, his parents home-schooled him. But in that short window, I saw him in passing (he was a grade below me) and as fate would have it, we informally met in the parking lot one cold winter day, as we began breaking up chunks of ice formed in potholes and kicking them back and forth to each other. We may not have talked to each other. But I saw a country kid living in the big city, who didn’t really have any friends to speak of, and who seemed like a kindred spirit.

 It turns out his family had actually moved to a house the next block over (on Carmen). Seeing each other in the neighborhood for the first time reminded ourselves of the recent-past ice kicking episode, so we built our friendship on that and went from there. I learned that Daniel and his family (dad Jerry, mom Jeanette, older sister Brandy, and little sister Jennifer) were in Chicago because his dad was an evangelist. He was based in some really rough parts of the city, including Cabrini-Green and the Robert Taylor Homes, but rented in Jefferson Park. Following the one year of attending the same grade school as me, each sibling was home-schooled for the duration of their stay in Chicago, which was a few years. The family was very devoutly Pentecostal Christian and it reflected in every aspect of their lives, particularly with the parents and older sibling Brandy. Daniel and Jennifer too identified as being strongly tied to Pentecostal beliefs, but their status as youngsters prevented them, in part, from abstaining from some secular aspects of life.

 Daniel and I spent most of the early 90s together as friends, while Jennifer befriended my sister Cheryl (they too were only a year apart). When my parents separated for the final time in 1993, Daniel was there to inadvertently distract me and provide an outlet for the frustration I was experiencing.

 When I began hanging out with Daniel, I learned that he had some really cool pets in his room. He had a diadem rat snake (then known as the Egyptian rat snake), a gerbil, an emperor scorpion, and a ten-gallon aquarium with a lone piranha. His room was papered in cutouts from old National Geographic magazines – photos of king cobras, Komodo dragons, and other beasts of lore. He was always fidgety with knives and his bed posts and window sills were scarred from repeated throws and jabs.

 One major difference between us was that I was typically reserved, and he was, well, not. Daniel was a sweet kid, but his hyperactivity was a bit much at times and often got him in trouble with his parents. I could tell that many of the things he was able to get away with, such as shooting BB guns and throwing knives in his bedroom, were partially as a result of his parent’s exhaustion and indifference; that, and the fact that they were from rural Georgia and some of these things just were part of accepted everyday life. 

 Looking back, I tend to believe that Daniel was always a bit ostentatious around other kids. He’d brag about his physical abilities, about being the faster runner or most skilled shot or that he once drove a car at age 9 (albeit down a country road). I know that a big part of his persona was an ongoing internal struggle between impressing his very conservative parents and being seduced by things he was raised to avoid, like dressing unconventionally. Despite his shortcomings, we always got along well. Really, who am I to judge? I was never without my faults, either.

 Daniel was also a funny kid. Hilarious, in fact. One of the few guys I’ve known (and there have only been a few) who was able to consistently make me laugh until my sides hurt. He was really good with redneck expressions and his over-the-top impersonation of Patrick Ewing. He was fascinated by nature and animals, and was a skilled artist and inventor of interesting gadgets. He was a stubborn, gracious kid who I was lucky to have spent a lot of time with. 

 There are so many stories to tell. I’m hoping that as I recall some of them, more will reveal themselves for the first time in a while.