Alisha, part One.

There was a time, before children and obligations and meetings and events, that Alisha and I had dreams of doing many great things.  Of being heroes and role models to some and villains and renegades to others because of our fame and success, our infamy and maybe disgrace.  It didn't matter which side of someone's rules we ended up on, just as long as we ended up there together.  Often we would sit and talk about the plans for the future, and how we would always be humble with our success, or obnoxious; whichever served us better.  I sometimes wonder if that was just an "out" and we were just too scared to admit that it scared us.  We thought we were great at many things when in reality we were just like everyone else. Fair to average at most everything, we continued to try except entertaining each other by telling stories.   Alisha could almost instantly write an exciting and memorable story about anything.  And often she did. She had a notebook, she used to keep the stories in some order that only she knew.

I never believed that my stories were ever as good as hers.  I still believe she listened and pretended they were because of the friend she was to me.  She was always my best friend, my protector, my accomplice, my confidant and the only person who truly terrified me. The perfect one for me.  We met like most do, by chance.  A few minutes change in either of our that schedules that day and we might have never run into each other, literally.

The first thing she ever said to me was a derogatory remark, concerning my lineage and my inability to see in front of my face.  This remark brought laughs and snickers from the others who had witnessed our collision.  One person, in particular, Kevin Dramon, tried to join her in the verbal lashing she was handing out.  Then just as suddenly she turned on him and reminded him she had already split his lip once a year ago and would be happy to do it again.  He just walked away, calling her crazy.  She was crazy,  a lunatic and breathtaking and amazingly she became my everything.  My life, my desire, my disease, my torment, and my muse.

Glen Crace
Cincinnati, OH. 2019