I Knew People

Of course, as the intro/bio states, I am a Seattle ex-expatriot. About the time this chronicle was originally conceived I was in the process of fleeing the Emerald City for the warmer and less-sociable streets of Las Vegas. Off to spend my 40 days in the desert, as a few months of bad luck in my bidding of contracts eventually pushed me back in the direction of here. I was only out of town from St Valentine's day through the 1st of April, couldn't have missed much right?

Good friends were of course sorely missed, minor acquaintances as well, plus about every other friendly SoB with whom I'd enjoyed a good drink or a good time. I had a somewhat sizable pile of little scraps of paper I'd left behind, each scrawled with one or more email addresses, phone numbers, friendster account names, etc. Some were simply ignored and eventually discarded, others capitalized and contacted. As is oft the way, a few simply failed to connect me with anyone I knew. One such was an email address with the name "Jeremy" scrawled above it.

I'd never actually known Jeremy's last name. We'd met at a party at his house that a mutual friend invited me to, and we were pretty decent pals. Ran into each other about once a month via assorted social gatherings and had a few good times. I knew he was a wine seller, and that he DJed occasionally. I'd heard him spin once or twice, he was pretty good, although I never remembered his stage name. He never replied to any email I'd sent to that address, but I didn't think much of it. We'd see each other sooner or later, we knew all the same freaks. Eris would handle the details.

11 months later and I hadn't given it any thought at all. Bored at the office hitting the random button on wikipedia waiting for the proverbial bell the whistle. I found myself at an article on King county, and of curiosity started clicking local links, Seattle over to city crime figures over to The Capital Hill Massacre.

Something of a curiosity, this Morbid event occurred just days after I left town. A bolt of psychological lightning I psychically dodged by mere circumstance. No mourning memories or sad epitaphs, now only a statistic in another city far far away. Seeing a list of the names of the victims on a friend's myspace page I was relieved none of the names were ones that I recognised. Of course, sometimes you never find out a friend's last name.

I've found Jeremy, turns out he isn't in Seattle anymore. He isn't anywhere material, really. There's just an entry in a list next to picture of him DJing. A list on wikipedia of the victims of the Cap Hill Massacre. His last name was Martin.

http://www.jeremymartin.org/wp/