Mason O’Reeses
8/3/23
They had joked on Shrewsbury Street that Mason O’Reeses was “Mr. Jitters” for he got nervous around the girls. Years later, away from the namers, he was walking on his own path and finding his own watering holes, more fragrant. He didn’t like how people were bullies. He had dreams. They said that Main Street was full of negativity, but Mason didn’t think it possible that all the people were like that, and the people who said that were normally drunk where areas of Main Street had drugs that were illegal, not bars. So, one day, Mason followed God and went for a walk to and from the Dunkin’s on Main toward the bustling Downtown District. Downtown he lived in a fourth floor apartment. He walked very slow. He took his time. He paid his respects and didn’t put foreign weight on others, for he knew that he suffered other peoples’ negativity, and he didn’t want to make anyone have to prove anything harsh, and he knew it wasn’t his neighborhood, but Mason noticed a cool barber shop, two tents where Spanish speakers give saint icons and coupons, dark-haired daughters playing on the sidewalk, and he saw a cookout, too.
Jolly people there making plates. The trees there seemed like foreign earth replenished. It was a beautiful walk replenished by there being no crowd. What’s more, he noticed there were cool businesses meaning to sprout from the cement. How were they to flourish unless ones like Mason disregarded prejudice and walked by the businesses that were looking to stay open. His friend Mohamet lived over there, too. On occasion, Mason noticed his dude T.T. Pelvis pushing weight in the community shopping cart with a white head wrap.
They were all trying to keep good weight on the Earth.
On his way home, he bought a package of Reese’s cups from the Shell.
Every Thursday, Mason bought an orange Reese’s package at the Shell and saved his orange wrappers to make a collage on a round canvas. Finally, he sold his artwork titled, “Reese’s Circle,” for 42 dollars to Bruja who was organizing an Art show some Sundays.
He used his money to buy new shoes from that one salon/clothing store on Main, and the shoes were dope shoes.
Mason went on private walks day after day, having earned a more flexible nickname on the roads, Mason O’Reeses, taking the bus to somewhere new, then walking home at sunset, being respectful and showing love and helping to encourage the young ones not to bully or be bullies, for the area’s attitude was on the rise, new skill sets evolved, Long Main Street was on the rise like the bustling Downtown District, and would you believe it, sometimes it just took brave people to believe in one another like Mason had been doing. He walked in the Spring, Fall, and Winter, a little in the Summer.