The Man From the Child

I'm four or five years older than Saj, and I remember when he was a toddler comparing our hands. His big finger was the size of my pinkie finger. Saj was small when we were growing up, and really quiet. He was the youngest kid in the old neighborhood so he must have just been observing and learning it all. He shot up when he was in high school (which I don't really remember, because I had left for college by then), but remained slender until he started working out and beefed up - I don't even know when that happened.



No and Paulo were talking about Saj this evening with me. Paulo and No, and Dre and KT, have spent a lot more time around Saj as an adult than I have, and everything they were saying about him sounded so unfamiliar to me. Even though it's been years now, I find I still have this strong image of Saj as small and quiet, though he is neither now, so it's kind of a trick in my mind to think of him as an adult. I kept thinking, "this doesn't sound like the Saj I know," just as I thought during the conversation we had when we were in Mexico.


When I think about talking to Saj, I don't even know where to begin. Just as I am unfamiliar with him as an adult, he's probably unfamiliar with me as an adult also.