The Street Savage

Anonymous 1

Anonymous person, tell me about betrayal.Betrayal? Gosh…I guess you really don’t know about it until you experience it.

What happens when you experience it? Hold on.

What are you doing? Just having lunch.

I just had lunch. Yeah? Whadju have?

I had a bean and cheese burrito. I like that, I like it with carnitas.

I just like them plain. But anyway, tell me about betrayal. What do you wanna know about it?

Have you ever been betrayed? Yeah.

By who? I’d imagine so, it comes in degrees. My worst betrayal is nothing like someone who like sells out to the Russians or something.

Yeah, that’s pretty bad. [speaking metaphorically] There are degrees of betrayal, but you’re probably living in Alaska and it’s like, you come down here and you’re like ‘Oh my god! It’s so hot!’ Would you say that’s a betrayal?

Well, no. I’m saying that’s just a metaphor. Ya know, there’s like that degree of betrayal, ya know. Like this weather is a hot degree of betrayal for an Alaskan. So when an Alaskan, that is to say someone who hasn’t experienced that bad of a degree of betrayal…It’s really hot right now to you as an Alaskan. So Mr. Alaskan, tell me about your hot weather (i.e. your betrayal)? Uh…um…I guess the singer in my band joined another band without telling me. And I found out about it after the fact, because I walked by our practice space and he was practicing with another band. I felt pretty betrayed. But that band sucks, so it wasn’t that bad.

Well, that’s just good riddance to bad company! But he’s still my friend and he’s still in my band.

Well, bands aren’t necessarily like relationships, it’s not like you’re gonna get some disease from playing with his skanky ass. Yeah, you never know though. Our band is pretty tight knit. Where do you think I got this thing on my lip from?

Oh I see, and you got it from him? I don’t know, a gentleman never kisses and tells.

Anonymous 2

Can I interview you? About what?

Betrayal. Betrayal?

Betrayal. How long will it take?

Ah… aiee… about fiii… no two minutes, five minutes at the most. Let’s do it!

Alright, now tell me about betrayal, what does betrayal mean to you? Have you ever been betrayed? Ah…not recently.

Have you ever? Ah…probably if I could think of one. I’m sure someone has betrayed me.

What did they do? I don’t know if I could think of something.

Did someone eat something out of your refrigerator and without asking? [shakes head no]

Did someone kill your mother without asking? That would be betrayal, wouldn’t it? It would.

You wouldn’t like that would you? No.

Because you love your mother. Do you love your mother? Yeah.

Has your mother ever betrayed you? No.

Has your mother ever eaten anything out of your refrigerator without asking? Nah, I eat stuff out of my mom’s refrigerator when my mom’s away.

She doesn’t mind that…she likes it because she likes to feed you…that’s not betrayal, that’s nurturing, isn’t it? Sure.

So we’re talking about a completely different thing aren’t we? Tell me about nurturing then. About nurturing.

Yeah. Ah…I don’t know, there’s different forms of nurturing I guess, the kind you get from your friends, or you know…other kinds…

Anonymous 3

Tell me about betrayal. When someone deceives you and you think…usually I think of betrayal as like a good friend.

Has a good friend deceived you? Yeah.

What did they do? Usually it’s a lie of some sort, or when you think they’re on your side…on an issue.

And they’re a Decepticon! Yeah! Mmm-hmm.

And then they change into a jet plane. Something like that I guess…yeah, the Transformers.

But then, they weren’t really a robot in the first place…They were a natural person.

And then they turned into a robot, or a car of some sort. It’s definitely a deception. ‘Cause I didn’t know they could turn into a car. Or maybe it’s like their own secret maybe they didn’t really betray me. Unless I ask them.

But you didn’t ask so that isn’t a betrayal. To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they’re really self-conscious about it. To us they consider it a talent, to them it’s an affliction, you know? ‘Cause people are weird that way.Yeah.

So I hope you weren’t mean to your friend who turned into a robot. Well, maybe if he turned into a car and ran me over.

That’s betrayal! I wouldn’t like that, no!

Did that happen to you? No!

Then why did you bring it up? No, I didn’t. You brought it up! You are the one who mentioned Decepticons!

No, wait you mentioned deception. I mentioned Decepticons. I’m getting confused… I guess I’ve felt more lied to by people than betrayed.

Who was lying to you? Like friends, like when you’re younger or like now. I can’t think of a time when I was betrayed, I don’t think there has been. It happens to everyone, I think everyone has experienced a form of betrayal.

Has anyone ever told you a tall tale and you were really na’ve and believed them? Well…like the whole like…yeah…that’s happened.

Like what? I don’t even know…I’m bad at interviews, I don’t know.

OH! You and your self-esteem! My friend Kevin told me that if we dug far enough under his deck we would find these naked women that he supposedly would hang out with sometimes. And you believed him? But you could be totally telling me this story and I could totally believe you!

No, this is true. This is a true story?

This is a true story! And I dug and dug and there were no naked women, I was about 7 years old…Is there a reason he did that? Did he want you to dig a big hole? Like the whole like, Tom Sawyer painting the fence red?

Not really, I think his motive was to see if I would do it. I wouldn’t think of that as being betrayal, it would have to be if someone really hurts you.

I was really hurt! I was so disappointed. Are you still friends with Kevin?

Kevin moved back to Pennsylvania where he was from.