KEN AND ACOULA

It’s funny what made the biggest impressions in my young life. He was my clay teacher. Went every week to these clay lessons. This may seem insignificant to some, but I’ll always remember him and his wife. He had long dark brown hair and sat in a wheelchair. He'd been in a motorcycle accident. A hippy all the way. Ken. That’s his name. Stamped with tattoos head to toe, and earrings too. He also had a wife. She had long blonde, stringy hair that made me think of spaghetti. Ken and Acoula.
I suppose we all thought they were a bit odd. He always bragged about his car held together with duck tape. He claimed all the girls would wave as he passed.
He said they had a pond in the middle of their kitchen. He said it with such confidence. That really impressed me. I was nine. It was strange but cool. Clay class became more than just molding clay. It was a time to wonder and imagine in the world of Ken and Acoula. Ken and Acoula taught me that being a little “strange” is ok sometimes.
Today I am 20 years old. I still think about Ken and Acoula. Even now I imagine Ken and Acoula swimming in their kitchen pond. Maybe even with fish. I wonder how they are today. I wonder how Ken’s duct taped car is faring. I remember to stay a few inches out of the stifling boxes in which life sedates unimaginative minds.