My Kind of Town
Eulogy for Mickey
>> Portlock
He lay in the street, in front of the faded gray sedan he'd scammed from an old man in Kaneohe, dead at age 34 of a heart attack caused largely by all of the crystal meth in his blood.Dearly departed doesn't ring right. Not for Mickey. Truth be told, the world is better off without him. He contributed nothing to society, unless you count unhappiness and suffering as contributions. Worse, he was a parasite who considered his base salary what he got from welfare and food stamps. Money from burglary, theft and dealing drugs was a bonus. But sometimes crime was just for kicks, like dessert.
That's why he'd been tailing Lily Ah Sun for two days, why he broke into her house and was waiting to jump her. There was no profit motive. It was just kicks. And then the Filipina maid and the guy with a Glock 9mm came along and ruined everything. If he had to do it over again, Mickey would have taken up Nanakuli Teddy's offer to steal doors from under-construction homes in a new subdivision. He could have made good money.
But the thing was, say what you want about him, Mickey turned out exactly the way his parents raised him. The first time he ever saw a book or a crayon was when the social worker forced them to register him for kindergarten at Waikiki Elementary -- a year late. Strict as the teachers were, they were still the nicest people he had ever met. But the lessons that left a lasting impression happened every day when he went home and watched his parents drinking, taking drugs, swearing at each other, sometimes hitting each other.
They also swore at him and hit him. He was told he was stupid and to blame for his parents' problems, including the general lack of food, although they traded food stamps for ciggarettes, beer, cocaine and qualudes. He heard "I hate you" every night the way some kids hear "I love you." He knew how to express anger and hatred well enough.
And now he lies dead and all alone. No one will claim his body, no one will miss him. Sucking from society right to the end, the cost of cremation will be paid by taxpayers.
So there's no need to mourn Mickey's passing. None at all. It was his life that should be mourned -- his and too many others like it in Hawaii today.
Did he deserve to die? Absolutely.
Did he deserve to be born into such a life? Nobody does.
But he was. Past tense, all of it now for Mickey.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com