The Kings Of Cool

34

It’s funny Chon doesn’t talk much, because he loves words and word origins.

He even knows the etymology of the word “etymology.”

(Google it.)

But O gets that you protect what you love and hold it close. Defending his reticence one day, Chon posited a question to them “Words,” he said, “are:

(a) A means of communication

(b) A means of mis communication

(c) Tools

(d) Weapons

(e) All of the above.”

Ben answered (a), O answered (d)

(she is her mother’s daughter),

Chon answered

(f) It doesn’t matter.

Because there are things he will not talk about. Things he has seen, things he has done in IraqandAfghanistan. Things you don’t burden other people with, memories that you try to prevent from overwhelming your brain and your nervous system, but that you can still feel on your skin. Movies that your mind privately screens on the inside of your eyelids.

These are things that you do not put into words.

They are ineffable.

Therefore, to fill the sad silence — underscored by O’s chant of I hate this trip I hate this trip I hate this trip — on the ride to John Wayne-Orange County Airport (you cannot make this shit up) Chon goes neo-Spiro Agnew on the subject of neo-hippies.