When he moved away to California I was heartbroken. I remember we’d just spent a weekend hanging out at a local convention, sci-fi and fantasy, a real geek squad bash. I loved every minute of it. He bought me a really cute little dragon statue that I still have to this day…I still smile whenever I look at it. A week after the Con I called his house, his mother answered and informed me that he wasn’t there, to call back later. Of course I did call once more a few hours later, he was still gone. The next day I tried again, his parents hadn’t heard from him all night. I worried. A week passed, finally a phone call, he was in San Francisco, evidently he’d become tired of the doldrums of small town living and packed everything he owned into his crappy little red station wagon and set off down the road in the middle of the night.

            My life became routine again after he left. No more long visits, no more sitting with him in my room talking about nothing and giggling over the latest silliness. At least he called about once every two weeks or so, I always looked forward to that. Sometimes we’d talk on the phone for hours about his new life in ‘Frisco, about his crappy little apartment, his crappy little job, all of these things drawing me into deeper fascination with the world outside the glass bubble of my small town USA. It wasn’t until he gained a room mate that I was truly whisked away into a Wonderland concocted by a twisted mind, drawn into curiosity and depravity. It wasn’t until I heard that deep voice on the phone one day that I found myself plummeting down my own Rabbit Hole, not knowing where I’d turn up, not caring, and just wanting to hear more of those stories that voice had to tell.

Tony

            Thirty years old. He was thirty years old with a deep baritone that could vibrate your socks off. That sweet voice talked me to sleep at night for months. Weaving tales of travels that even my overactive imagination couldn’t fathom. Escape he promised me, escape from this small town USA, a life filled with travel, from Las Vegas to New York, from Miami to Houston. Places he’d been and promised to take me someday. After Jimmy had been in San Francisco for six months he moved into a little two bedroom apartment with Tony, evidently they’d met at some job Jimmy held and hit it off pretty well.