Its funny how music can affect a person. Today I was on my way back to the office, listening to the new Alice in Chains cd. The song Black Gives Way to Blue came on. Great song I've heard it at least a dozen times since buying the cd. For some reason it got me thinking about my best friend when I was a teenager.
With the exception of his family members and a few close friends I don't think anyone else really remembers him. Tony Owens died a short while after I graduated high school.
When I was around thirteen, I met Tony. He's was a different kind of kid than the most of the jerks I went to school with. He was over at my neighbors house playing basketball in the back yard with a few kids around the neighborhood. He was a pretty easy going laid back kind of kid. Though when you put a basketball in his had, he'd school you. We hit it off, and became good friends quickly.
That summer we played basketball and video games every chance we got. When we wasn't doing that, we were off somewhere with our girlfriends. I remember every morning, he'd be sitting on my front porch, waiting for me to wake up so we could play ball at the park. If my girlfriend and I wasn't doing anything we'd run up to up to the park. We we're usually the first ones there and always the last to leave. It was nothing for us to spend 19 hours on the courts playing anyone that would show up. He's was a great ball player too. Me, I was mediocre at best at the time but I admired him. Nothing seemed to bother him. He's was a great guy on and off the court. He challenged me to be the best I could be on and off the court and I have never forgotten that.
As we got older, we never stopped playing. We were inseparable and after a long night of playing ball or video games, we talked. We listened to each other about what was bothering us or what we wanted to do with our future.
Day in and day out tony was over at my house waiting for me to get home from school, or work ready to play basketball. By the time I was 15, I got good because of him. He taught me and trained me how to move with the ball, fake out the opponent, and take the strong arm for the layup. My sister at the time had a crush on him though she refused to admit it at the time. Like me he made an everlasting impression on her. It was no bed of roses in our house either growing up and they talked to each other about their problems. It was a great thing for my sister to vent to him because he was such a good listener.
Tony had it rough at home sometimes. A couple times one of his brothers would beat the snot out of him. My dad came into my room a few times to tell me tony was sitting on our front porch. I'm not sure if my dad ever really liked him so it was kind of his signal to have me send Tony home. Which I never did, I would just sit out there and listen to him. His bloody nose or bruised what ever. It drove me nuts that I could never invite him into the house. Even though he had some rough times growing up. One night I was over at his house, one of his brothers had a fit over a power adapter we was using on his Nintendo. His brother took it away, and smacked Tony on the top of his head with it. Put a knot on Tony's head the size of a golf ball.His brother was much older and bigger than him and in the military. If I wasn't so intimidated by him due to my young of age, I would have kicked his ass right then and there. Regardless, Tony would always seem to regain his composure and took it in stride. I looked up to him for that.
Soon after my 16th birthday I started noticing a change in Tony. We played basketball less and less. I would wake up and expect to see tony out side my house with his Jordan basketball ready to play. Only there was no Tony. It seemed more and more like Tony just wanted to sleep. I started skipping school in order to hang out with him. It worried me that what I found was a tired Tony. He would sleep throughout the night, through the morning and through the afternoon. It wasn't like him. I would press him to try to find out what was wrong and he'd just tell me he was tired.
Around the time I turned 18, Tony ended up moving in with a mutual friend and baller of ours. Jeff talked his dad into letting him move in and instantly took to Tony as if he was his son. Of course Tony by that time was like a brother to Jeff as well. Jeff's dad had a fatherly love for Tony, and did anything he could to help him out. By this time Tony and I had drifted apart. Though I still cared a great deal about him. My schedule just couldn't mesh. He was working evenings at Papa Johns, I was off spending time with my girlfriend or other guys that were interested in partying as much as I did.
After I graduated I moved away. I was pursuing my dream of being a comic book artist. We ended up losing touch. One day I was in town cruising the square in my new car, I ran into Tony. He hopped in the car with me and Tony seemed his old self. He was happy, and joking in that dry wit of his. He could sometimes be morbidly humorous and when he told me he had cancer, I genuinely thought he was joking. I didn't take it seriously. I didn't know anyone my age with cancer and it always seemed like it was something older people got. He told me he was drawing, his favorite was spiderman. He told me I was his inspiration to pick up a pencil and draw. We talked again for hours that night. Just sitting in my car in the Coonies parking lot, watching other kids cruise around.
For me that was the last time I ever got to talk to him. It angers and saddens me sometimes that I didn't take him seriously when I thought he was joking. I never had a picture of him. I wish I could have spent more time with him and said goodbye.
Regardless, to those that knew him, those friends with whom he touched with his smile and take on life. I believe he lives on through us in some way. We will never forget you, I will always remember you.
- Draok out
