Exit Carmen

When we were boys, we were obsessed with Carmen Sandiego. She was this girl in town who was always on the go. We never knew where she went.

"Where are you going, Carmen Sandiego, where have you been?" we'd say. I thought she was real sexy, old Carmen. Carmen was eighteen, and she knew it. Boy, she was the whole package. I mean it. We were all in love with her. Even though we were like kid brothers to her, we all thought we had a real shot. I don't care what anyone tells you.

Anyway, Carmen already had a fella, Ben. Ben worked on the cars down at the garage. You couldn’t be too sore with Ben. He was real decent to us, old Ben. Ben would talk to you like you weren’t just some crummy kid, and even let the whole lot of us sit on the cars while he worked and shoot the bull. Yeah, Ben was alright.

One summer, Carmen was gone for weeks. “Where are you going, Carmen Sandiego, where have you been?” We found out later Carmen had been arrested.

Carmen stole Ben’s car and skipped town with some louse who sold reefer outside the prep school. They’d shot Ben, and hit the road. Carmen said it was an accident, which is just the kind of thing a person would say. They put her in jail anyway. I guess she never did get out of town, in the end.

We talked once about all going up to see old Carmen Sandiego, but we never did it. Anyway, there were other girls. But after that summer, we weren’t boys anymore.