#47, Noah S.

Noah was a lot older than us in high school. Like twenty years older. Always in grubby jeans and a bomber jacket, with bad teeth and hair in a ponytail. He was cool, and casual, but also quite mischievous- one morning after my mom had left for work and all of us kids were off at school, my best friend and i made our way back to my house, where we met up with Noah, who brought 40s of Olde English (classy, right? Believe me when i say that we were not discerning, yet). We drank them right there, in the living room, until one of us (probably me) dropped theirs on the floor, where it landed straight up, leading to a momentary sigh of surprised relief. Anyone who has ever dropped a carbonated drink knows what happened next. All of the agitation that had occurred inside the bottle caused the beer to come spewing out in great freshets onto the rug. I freaked out and ran for some towels; Noah just laughed and laughed. Later, on the back porch, he told me that he would never quit smoking cigarettes, because his mother had taught him "never to be a quitter". I thought he was so clever! A few years later, when we had all cleaned up somewhat, i heard he'd had a baby. It was born with jaundice, the first time i had ever heard of that particular yellowing affliction. Hope things are alright, Noah.