BlueShift's appearance was always very consistent during that summer;
his choice of clothing---a button-down, short sleeve shirt, baggy
bell-bottoms, midnight blue socks, and shoes that were commonly
called (in those days and that vicinity) "disco."
On Saturday, July tenth he had helped me to escape my mundane name, and the
overwhelming shadow of self-righteously parental disdain and disapproval
by helping me to find a new sense of identity. That night, at the
drive-in theater, he slipped his shoes off and tossed them onto the rear
floorboard just after the cartoons began.
On Friday, July sixteenth, he slipped his shoes off just as we paid our
admission into the theater, before the cartoons began.
On Saturday, July seventeenth, he slipped his shoes off as soon as we
had exited the township on our way to the drive-in theater.
On Friday, July twenty-third, he slipped his shoes off as soon as we exited the
dead end street (and our families' residences) on our way to the drive in theater.
On Saturday, July twenty-fourth, he had slipped his shoes off before he left
his house, carrying them down the gentle incline to my parents' driveway.
All prudish inhibitions and intrusive societal expectations had, by that
evening, withered away. His midnight blue socks did not display evidence of
any grass-stain or sidewalk grime. Their fragrance and flavor, and
softness and warmth, remained exactly as on all the evenings before.
That autumn afternoon, in seventh grade, Anthony had prepared me for this summer.
BlueShift, you bestowed upon me this pleasure---without ostentation or hesitation.
J-Called