Anger is Fear, and Everyone Is Afraid

I used to ditch high school with my buddy Dan Pinal. We’d go to the “Three Big Hits!” theaters on Broadway downtown (the “Cameo” was one of them I recall) and hang out there all day until time to go home.

We weren’t the only ones. I remember one day we went to see…oh, maybe one of the minor Spaghetti Westerns, maybe starring Ed “Kookie” Byrnes from “77 Sunset Strip.” Anyway, the theaters stayed open 24 hours a day, so they were basically the cheapest motels in town. Homeless men snored in the seats. The floors were sticky with rancid butter, and the screens splotched with….well, I’m not sure I wanted to speculate on what organic material those splotches might have been.

Anyway, we talked softly during the movie, and more loudly between them. A row behind us there were three guys who were also ditching school. Two of them were clearly the followers, and one large guy the leader. He was the one telling the jokes, and stories, and the other two were ooh-ing and ahh-ing at his exploits and laughing at his jokes.

And his stories started irritating me. He was so brave and strong. “I ain’t scared of nothin’!” he announced. And his friends got all twitterpated.

Dan and I had started exchanging comments back and forth during the movie, so the ice had been broken. “You’re not scared of anything?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he assured me.

“Hmmm…what about rats?” I asked.