Something Special

Chapter 3

Alastor had stopped to dry off at a local diner where two of his oldest friends worked. Anthony or rather Angel Giannelli and Vagatha or rather Vaggie Ramirez, unlike Alastor and Charlotte they had not been born in Louisiana, Angel was originally from Boston and Vaggie was from El Salvador but unfortunately both had lousy fathers, so when their mothers wised up and left their men, they moved down here and took their children with them. They met because they all attended the same school and they were all misfits. A lot of the other children tended to bully them because they had a certain thing about them that was different.

For Alastor, he was "poor trash" and had a "mixed breed" mother. For Angel, he acted "queer" and was too "girly" to others. For Vaggie, she was an "illegal immigrant" which wasn't true and a "tramp" because she had developed more than most girls. And Charlotte or rather Charlie was "racist" and a "snob" because her father was rich and white.  Granted they weren't bullied by the same types of students. The rich and well off ones preyed on Alastor, the jocks targeted Angel, insecure girls went after Vaggie, and those who had issues tormented Charlie.

That's why they mostly played in the bayou, none of the other children and teenagers really went around there because they thought it was too dirty or alligator infested. Granted there was a lot of mud and alligators did live there but mud never bothered the four of them and alligators typically avoid any form of human interaction. Of course it helped that at age eight, Alastor already knew how to use a rifle and he carried it with him everywhere except on school property.

There was never a group of friends more loyal and true to each other then the four of them. When two bullies tore up and muddied a brand new suit for Alastor that his mother had saved up for, his friends put together all their allowances to buy him a new one. When the jocks jumped and cornered Angel on his way home from school, his friends chased them away by throwing rocks. When some mean girls broke into Vaggie's gym locker and tore up her clothes so she'd have to walk home naked, her friends each gave her something to cover herself with. Charlie gave Vaggie her jacket, Alastor gave her his shirt, and Angel gave her his pants while choosing to wear an old pair of shorts he fished out of the garbage. And when a couple of wanna-be gang students mugged Charlie after school and stole a charm bracelet her mother had given her, her friends hunted them down and scared the cowards into giving it back with a gardener snake they caught in the bayou.

During the Summer they were inseparable and were always finding new and fun activities to do. Angel taught them how to play baseball in just a dirt field, Vaggie would invite them over to celebrate Holy Week and build their own festival to celebrate other holidays from when she lived in El Salvador like the Palm Festival and the Balls of Fire Festival. Alastor would take them camping and teach them how to build fires, set hunting traps, and show them the perfect spot t watch the stars and the sunrise. Charlie would invite them to join her on trips to movies and to the theater. They always went swimming and fishing and canoeing, Charlie's father would sometimes take them out on the ferry and Alastor's mother would sneak them into the The Song of the Southlands, every chance she could. They attended Summer carnivals and set off fireworks every Fourth of July. Needless to say, Summer was their favorite time of the year.

But it was never the same after Charlie moved away. They all wrote to her but she never got their letters, Vaggie and Angel had both tried to visit but by the time they had enough to buy a plane ticket to New York, Charlie no longer wanted to have anything to do with. And obviously Alastor could never see her, though he didn't mind the risk, he knew ending up in jail would break his mother's heart and when she passed, he was married and had children. Still they never lost hope that one day they'd see her again, and today Alastor did see her but unfortunately, the reunion was far from pleasant.

"Wait a minute, you're saying she actually pretended not to know you?" Angel said, flabbergasted by Alastor's report.

"Not just me, she pretended not to know you or Vaggie."