Privilege

They called themselves Three Musketeers. They acted more like the Three Stooges, but it was all good. Mario Torino, David Williams, and Mikey Mathas, usually the neighborhood trio, so if you saw one, you always asked about the other two. Bolivian immigrant, Black American, and Greek immigrant, best friends, good boys all three. The minor trouble they ever got into was 10 year-old dumb, typical mid-'60's style, the last great L.A. generation- that's another story, another day. One summer vacation morning, a Musketeer had a few bucks, so as was the pact, all three headed to the nearby family grocery. Mario and David always chuckled about how they were followed around by the eyeball owners. Mikey noticed he wasn't followed so much, but he didn't have the word for it then, just understood it, thought it mean, unfair. As the trio neared the door, Mikey suddenly got a half-mad, half-crazy impulse. Too late not to pull it off, it just felt too right. As his two buds circled around the store, looking for something to buy, Mikey hung around closer to the entrance. Then he shouted "Hey! Check me out!" Mikey saw a rack of Kool-Aid powder packets, snatched a few, waving them in the air. The roving Korean owner looked over, eyes big, then Mikey just ran back out the door, the other two Musketeers following right behind. The three kept running, all the way down to Centinela Park, rolling out of breath like laughing logs on the grassy hillside. The Musketeers couldn't visit that place for awhile. But, it was all good.