Zebra’s Best Friends

A Story by Willys Watson

Friendships, family, love, the furure

We all grew up in the same neighborhood and soon because best friends. And we all ended up giving each other nicknames. Besides me being called Zebra, they were Monkey, Bird and Giraffe. Giraffe was called that because he was taller than most kids. Although his real name is Greg few people, except at school, called him that. Bird was called that because she had a lot of restless energy and, except at school or while doing homework, she would go from one topic to another, often with us, And then, often suddenly, she found something else to do. Although her real name is Brenda, few of us called her that. Monkey, who’s real name is Mike, was called that because he liked to show off to get attention, even as early as four years old and, within a few years, he seemed to be a natural comic who made up his own jokes, even the corny or silly ones. And he shared his jokes with fellow classmates. And sometimes, by impulse, he would tell one during class. And though sometimes his teacher would laugh, all of his teachers him he shouldn’t interrupt the lessons being taught and learned. And, of course, he was the only one of us who was sent to the Principle’s Office.

Although my nickname growing up was Zebra, my real name is Zack. The nickname was given me because, when still younger because, of all the Animals I saw on Television or in toy stores, I loved watching Zebras and had a large collection of figurines on my bedroom book shelf. And this story is based on my memories through high school.

As to Monkey seeming to be a natural comic, Giraffe loved to draw anything in black and white, from stripes to circles or white and black and he started drawing cartoons. His problem was the lettering inside the balloon dialogues. But, with practice, he did impose. As to Bird, she told us she wanted to play music, either on a Gutire or Piano. Although we all wished her well, and though I didn’t explain it well to her right then, instinctively I knew she had to focus on the required discipline to do so. As to me, I never really though about having natural talents.

During the Summer School break, we all seemed to take turns visiting each other’s house, and Friday evenings, unless one of us was on vacation with our parents, the person we visited got to choose which films were watched. Monkey always wanted to watch animated movies. Although there were not many films in the category, Giraffe wanted to watch films about artists and are. Bird liked to watch any films where Birds were a part, if not a big part, of the story. As to myself, if I had the choice, I liked watching mystery films with cases that needed to be solved through research. And there were a few detective shows on TV, but I liked the movies better.

During the rest of the week it really didn’t make much difference what we did. Sometimes we went to the Public Library (we all loved to read books), sometimes to the nearby City Park and sometimes spent time on the swings and slides, or we would skateboard or simply walk around the neighborhood.

At our age, growing always seemed to offer new adventure each day. The one adventure we all shared, including Bird’s Parents and Monkey’s Parents, was when all eight of us used the extended July 4th, weekend, to visit the ancient Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico. This was possible because we used two cars. And a lot of photographs were taken, and copies made to share with four families.

And, while thinking back to those fond memories, even at ten years old, I always assumed our longtime friends would never change, nor would our basic lives and personalities. And thinking back to when I was ten, and being honest about it, I was still too trusting and naive to believe otherwise. And the working chemistry of our long time friendship really didn’t change until we all had lunch together in the school cafeteria during the middle of our senior year when, Greg, our Giraffe friend, told us he though he was in love with a girl named Alice was in same the art class he was taking. The rest of us had been out with dates, of course, but the word love was never used when we talked about our dates. Although Greg assured us it would never effect our long time friendship, we knew a lot of that depended on how accepting Alice was of us being a big part of his life for so many years.

Twelve years later, while sitting on the back porch with my wife Carol, also a Teacher like I am, as we watched our six year old daughter Carla playing in back yard with kids from the neighborhood, I thought about my long time best friends while growing up. Greg and Alice are still together and they work for the same ad agency doing most of the illustrations and, during their spare time, they draw comic strips they post on-line. And we’ve become close to them and their family as they have done with our’s. Mike is still is in our lives, still always visits us and Greg and Alice, and when he’s not on tour as a comic, he always stays in our spare bedroom when not on tour.

Although I didn’t expect it to happen, it was Brenda who stopped staying in contact with us. Her excuse, at the time, was she was granted a scholarship to attend the state University in New Mexico to get her degree in Natural Science, and her parents moved our there to live near her. She did stay in contact for awhile. Sometimes by phone, sometimes on-line And we told her about what was happening in our lives. And what she offered us was really hints, without details, about what was going on in her life. But by the end of her second year she stopped making any effort to stay in contact. Why she didn’t do this we’ll likely never know.