My first memory of Mike Defraides was actually when I was about 7 years old. Defraides life the next block over - which when you're 7 is like 100 miles away. So he wasn't a kid that I knew a lot about. My best friend at the time was a kid who was like a year older than me (or was it two?) who's name was ANDREW. Andrew was kind of a bully though: he'd pick on me and push me around, but he was the best/only friend I had, and I just adored him. Anyway... my first memory of Defraides is when him and Andrew got into a scrap, and Defraides ended up KICKING Andrew's ass!! He had him on his back and he was on top of him... exactly what Andrew often did to me. This is really ironic because later on, I would kind of pick on and push Defraides around!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway... I don't remember exactly how I began hanging around Defraides. Perhaps it was because we were in the same fifth grade class together. Defraides was friends with Tim (who I was also best friends with), but we were never the "3 musketeers": I would split my time between Tim and Mike.
Mike's father was a very kind man, but also very big and seemed to have a short temper. He would take Mike and I out and drop us off at the movies, and afterwards we would eat at the "Red Barn". Mike and I were also "secret smoking buddies". Mike's father smoked ALPINE brand cigarettes. I would spend the night over at the Defraides home and was always very fond of mike. We did have our problems, though...
One time, Mike and I got into a big fight after school. Everyone was there, it was a huge crowd of kids. There were two hits: I moved in first and hit Mike right in the face. I remember he kind of shook his head from side to side like he was in shock, then he kind of jumped up on me and started "knocking" on my forehead. That was it, the fight was over, and I didn't see Mike for like a week. I was hearing stories from other kids that Mike's "nose was all pushed in". I was VERY happy to hear that. But the truth is that if physical damage is a yardstick then mike was the clear winner: my head was all black and blue and swollen.
There was another time when Tim and Mike skipped school. I noticed they both weren't there, and as I sat in class, I could hear firecrackers off in the distance. I KNEW they had broken into my house and stole my firecrackers. When I found out about this, I was PISSED. I waited for Defraides on monday morning: he had to walk past my house to get to school. I was waiting on my porch punching my fist into my hand and Mike put his hands up and said "wait, wait!! I'm sorry about the firecrackers, but I've got something BETTER..." - He had these little caps which weren't but it was a good excuse to just "let it go" since I really didn't want to be mad at him. So we took these caps to class, and he sets one off in class!!! Mrs. Gregory says "MICHAEL, WHAT WAS THAT?" and he replies sheepishly "A snapper..." then he quickly adds "REGGIE HAS THEM TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!". I could not BELIEVE this..
Mike was always trying to get me to go places far away. Like he'd come over with $10 and offer to treat me to lunch at "Dimitri's", a restaurant that was a HELLA walking distance. I was always to chicken to go very far from my house at all: kidnappers.. that was my big fear. You'll see mike bleed into the space of the other stories to come, probably..
One day during the summer, I realized that Defraides hadn't been by in WEEKS!!!!!! I hadn't noticed since Tim and I were really hanging out a lot. So one day, there he is, riding by my house and his hair is all shaved off. My guess is that his dad layed down the law and he was ashamed to be seen, but in any case when I asked him what was up, he replied "I have confessed all my sins to father John, and have gotten right with the lord", etc.... So I ask him where he's going, and he replies "Farmer Jacks" which was like a mile away and he says "get your bike and come with me", and I said "No Mike that's too far, and he replies: "You either come with me right now, or this will be the end of our friendship". I didn't, and it was... we never spoke or saw each other after that.
EPILOGUE: Years later, when I was in high school, I had a dream. I was walking by my old house, and standing in my backyard was Mike Defraides. He was speaking into some recording device or walkie talkie or something and he said "The Skeleton is in the bag..". So, I tracked down Mike's number and called him. We talked and talked and talked and apparantly, Mike had gotten into drugs. He told me he had been taking mescaline, that he had a girlfriend who was a million heiress who wanted to buy him a car, etc.. a couple of the stories were outlandish and questionable, such as the time him and his friends got stuck in an elevator for hours at the mall, and for compensation they closed the mall early and let the kids have a "shopping spree".. hmmm. One sad piece of news he told me about was that his father had passed away of an anyerism. He also mentioned that him and his mother were very, very close, always playing board games, etc. "You name it, we've played it!". I didn't talk to mike ever again after that, though I'd like to. I kept in touch with Tim as well after I moved out of the neighborhood (which was in 1977). In the 80's, Tim told me that Mike was very popular with the girls (when we're waiting to go into the school, here's Defraides, and here's 100 girls around him... he would say.
In 1992, I visited Michigan and I went back to the old neighborhood and looked at the old house, talked to the old neighbors... I also went the next street over and knocked on Mike's door. The neighbors came out and asked what I wanted. I said I was looking for Mike. They replied that he had moved away after Mrs. Defraides died. Very sad. I still think about Mike, I have tried to find him.. his name might actually be Defraties... THE END. Or is it..?
