1959 > STAND BY ME.

─ PROLOGUE ( 1985. )

1985.
Castle Rock, Oregon.

BONITA WAS in the kitchen, making breakfast for her 3 children, who were currently asleep. The sounds of eggs and bacon were loudly sizzling and the smell filled the kitchen.

It was 7 the morning, and the kids won't wake up until 7:30. Bonita was cheerful that her 3 kids are finally going to junior high for the first week of school, which was the old middle school where she attended for 3 years and graduated in, Castle Rock Middle School.

By hearing those words, memories from her childhood suddenly came to her mind. Making sure to make it home on time to watch the I Love Lucy reruns, listening and dancing to Little Richard with her mother whenever he comes on the radio, and mostly just writing poems and reading magazines.

But the bad thing about her memories was the discrimination that she and her family faced once they moved up to Castle Rock from Atlanta, Georgia in the early summer of 1959. She was lucky for moving up to the north during a time period when the obstacles of being a black person in the south went from bad to worse.

No neighbor ever wanted to talk to Bonita, her mother and her little sister, Mickey, who was only 2 at the time. So, Bonita was quite a waif in the small town, but it wasn't that bad as it was in the south.

At the first few months of living in castle rock was a struggle. High paying jobs won't accept their mother because of the color of her skin, but small jobs, such as a convenience store, accepted her. She only received $1 a hour, and she only had to work for 6 hours.

Bonita wanted to help out her mother, but her mother refused.

Those were the bad memories from her childhood, but every time she thinks of the good ones, she never forgets to put a small smile in her face.

The good ones featured 4 boys, who were Bonita's age in 1959, which was 12. They never minded her skin color, they just viewed her as another human being who believe that she should be treated with respect, and they did.

Her mother never knew about her hanging out with the boys until Bonita started attending Castle Rock Middle School, where the boys also attended with Bonita for the next 3 years.

2 of the boys fell out of the gang, who was Vern and Teddy, thus remained Bonita and the other 2, who were Gordie Lachance and Chris Chambers.

Bonita was one of the only 7 black kids that attended the junior high school, and most kids, even teachers, discriminated them. Bonita was suspended numerous times for some things she wasn't even engulfed in, which made her fall behind in her grades once the end of 6th grade came and 7th grade was on the ascension.

Kids at school also stopped talking to Chris and Gordie, because they were friends with a black person, and that person was Bonita.

But Chris and Gordie didn't even care; all they knew that they were acting like complete assholes because someone has a different skin color than them.

Putting the school times aside, the greatest memory that Bonita ever remembered was the adventure with the 4 boys that she participated in for 2 days, and it was the best time of her life.

She refers to the gang that always bothered them, and how differently they treated her when she was with the boys. And that different treatment wasn't pretty at all. The gang was called The Cobras.