|
A Meeting with a Remarkable Friend
Artie Traum and I grew up on the same street in the Bronx. His
dad was our dentist, and his brother, Happy, was my guitar teacher.
I was at their house once a week for lessons, and at Dr. Traum’s
regularly for cleanings, so I know what I’m talking about when I say
this: Artie Traum is an alien.
Not the
12-people-sailing-a-refrigerator-across-the-Dry-Tortugas-kind of
alien, but the intergalactic kind. When we were kids the obviousness
of this escaped me, but back then we didn’t understand intergalactic
aliens as well as we do now.
Seasons Greetings
The first thing I noticed about Judy Henske was her eyes. They were
blue, windows-to-the-soul eyes that reminded me of pictures I’d seen
of my mother in her twenties. Judy’s gaze was seductive, but
playful. She had short hair and bangs, and wore a purple jumper over
a white button-down blouse — an outfit that, in combination with
her expression, gave her the look of a truant from a Catholic girls’
school. Or maybe Theda Bara. This was obviously going to be a
memorable encounter. |
 |
