My Friend, Tony

Tony lives in a tree top, surrounded by old movie posters. They are tacked to the leaves with vinyl adhesive. They shine like Pyrite.

From up there it's hard to tell he's so short. 5'2 but square and sturdy. It always looks like he's about to spring up and take your nose between his forefinger and middle finger. Of course he would never do that – Tony's a nice guy.

Tony's the perfect wash-up. He transitioned from bit actor to experimental film maker to video clerk to my new best friend. In other words, from glitter to stone to corner to turquoise.

We are sitting in his living room, getting high: he on the weed, me on the sauce. He's mostly quiet and I fill the gaping silences with chatter. The room becomes me as I talk about me. Sometimes he talks about himself, but the room is still me, my conversation 10 minutes ago.

“I'm going to fuck you,” he says, clear blue eyes eyes lowered. “You don't think so. I know it. That's what the other girls said; but you will.”

Tony and I walk, while I talk. The street becomes me as the familiars give me their regards.

“I fucked that guy.” I say.

“Who?” Tony asks, eyes lowered again.

“The valet guy. The Afghani guy, I fucked him. It was just a one-time thing. I used to bike by all of the time and he would chat with me. I knew from the first few meetings or so that we were going to fuck. He kept asking me to come over and one day I said yes. On the car ride over he told me about his two kids.”

“You're so fucking dirty,” he says. Eyes as low as ever.

We walk and I talk and we laugh. I like that he thinks he's going to fuck me. It makes me feel sexy even though I know I won't do it. He's short and a stoner and 46 – all of the things that don't get my socks around my ankles, if you know what I mean.

“You know, all of this talk... about this shit. Fucking that guy. The fetish, the BDS stuff. It just turns me on more. The more you talk about it, the more turned on I get.”

Tony blinks a lot. He blinks hard, and lets blue crystals flash for seconds at a time.

In a parallel universe, I might fuck Tony. I might have fucked him in this universe, but now I can't. Now that he put a bounty on my cunt.

                                                                                  * * *

We are swinging from the tree tops but really we are both sinking into the couch. The Twilight Zone plays in the background while he talks about his bout with cancer and I talk about the STDs I've had and dodged. I eat his crackers, while he hits his pipe every 20 minutes or so – as if I'm the stoned one. He lowers his eyes at me – as if I'm the only freak in the room.   

This is not about kink. This is about hillbillies.

The San Fernando Hillbillies live a rollicking life, full of things. The perimeter of the 'billy plot in the heart of North hollywood is littered with derelict cabinet drawers, arthritic bicycles, chicken feathers, unidentified feathers, and children. The corn grows high in the summer, providing sanctuary for the resident Polish chicken and fluffed-up pussy cat. The corn grows high when the days linger long.

When we moved to North Hollywood, the hillbillies had already been subsisting in their little corner of the frying pan. The hillbillies were here before us, just like cockroaches predated Homosapiens. And gawd-- who knows quite how long they've been beening. They certainly know how to live: their kin, kind, and kinder mull around their dusty backyard, smiling, kicking-back, and hacking up wooden furniture into kindling.

On the curb, just beyond the grip of their trolling weeds' grasp, is a trailer, perennially parked. That's where the outlaws (outdoor in-laws) live. Usually the door to the RV is open, connecting the threshold to the greater hillbilly haven. I can't see past the doorway though, it is always consumed by a midday shadow. Sometimes new relatives will show up and expand the hillbilly's modest municipality-- I can tell because of the consistent facial features and sweat stains on their shirts.

When I moved here, and the hillbillies were still a veritable novelty, I remember thinking, "Wow, a movie about displaced hillbillies in LA would be genius." 10 minutes later, my head was lolling in shame; the Beverly Hills Hillbillies theme song wafted tauntingly between my cochlea.

My mom often comments on the Noho Hillbillies: she is envious. "They really live the good life..."

And it's true, their house is much bigger than ours. Their faces are weathered but contented. My mom is unrelenting in her praise.

"But really, they really do live good."

"Look how much fun they're having. Really."

"Have you ever heard of a Polish chicken??"

My mom wants to sit on a dusty lawn chair, day in and day out, as the children grow wild like weeds and the main event of the day is taking a dip in your above-ground deluxe kiddie pool. My mom dreams of the day when she too can snooze in the sun, playing refractor to the sunlight and pillow to the gaggle of cats. We drive by the Hillbilly fiefdom together in our beaten down Toyota, and our eyes remain fixed on the tall grass even when we have driven far away.