Flag Pole Rag

By Casey Brockelman

PAGE 1

Panel 1:

A third grade school class picture. There are twenty kids posing with various facial expressions. The clothing and hairstyles are from the late 70’s. In the back row are the tall kids. There are seven kids in the back row. In the center is Huw. He is about six inches taller than the rest of the kids, and weighs 200 pounds. He is mulatto and has a big afro that is uneven. He’s a big boy. At the end of the row stands me. I’m tall, and stocky. (Picture available upon request)

Cap1(by Huw in the picture): My friend, Huw (pronounced Hugh) and I met in the third grade. He already weighed 200 pounds by then, and was one of three black kids in school, so no one talked to him much.

Cap2 (by me in the picture): I was the kid who ate paste, so no one talked to me. So Huw and I became buddies.

Panel 2

Huw and I walking from school together with some books in our arms.

Cap: We lived pretty close together, so after school we always went off and caused some kind of trouble somewhere.

Panel 3

Huw and I are sitting together in the empty bleachers of the football stadium. It’s a small stadium. We are leaning back and staring at the sky.

Cap: The College was a few blocks away from our neighborhood, so we would go to the football stadium and sit on the bleachers and try to figure out life.

Panel 4

Huw is pointing to a flagpole on the football field. It is about twenty feet behind one of the goal posts. The pole is probably 200 feet high, and is quite a bit wider at the base. There is no flag on it.

Cap: One day, the topic changed from philosophy to science.

Huw: I wonder if you could run a person up that flagpole?

PAGE 2

Panel 1

Closer examination of the flagpole. Maybe from the top of it looking down. Huw and I are approaching it looking up at the top of it.

Cap: I’m sure the conversation took longer, but I don’t think I could even begin to be able to retrace how the conversation got to the flag pole. It was the highest flagpole in town.

Panel 2

Huw is backed up to the back of the pole. I am threading the rope of the flagpole through his belt loops.

Cap: After some investigation of the apparatus, we figured that we could thread the rope through the back four belt loops of our pants, and then hook the dog leash clip back onto the rope.

Panel 3

I am grabbing the rope with both hands getting ready to pull it down. Huw stands ready, watching,

Cap: Huw wanted to go first.

Same POV as last panel, only I am pulling the rope down. Huw is about two feet higher.

Cap: I was probably 150 pounds by then, and a pretty strong kid.

Panel 4

Same POV as last panel. I am pulling the rope again, and Huw’s feet are probably four feet in the air.

Cap: It was just a matter of going a little at a time

Panel 5

Same POV as last panel, but Huw is high enough up that he is off panel. I am straining to pull the rope harder.

Cap: IT probably took a few minutes, but I got him a good ten feet up before all hell broke loose.

PAGE 3

Panel 1

Looking at Huw’s belt loops. One has broken, and another is breaking from the strain of the rope.

Cap: Actually is was his belt loops that broke loose.

Huw: Oh shit.

Panel 2

Huw is starting to fall forward as his pants are ripping off of his body. The flag pole holding on to one belt loop.

Cap: All but one belt loop. The other one was stronger than the waistband of the pants apparently.

Panel 3

Huw is falling forward, and his pants are ripping off. He has a look of terror on his face. The pants are traveling upward quickly, as I am pulling the rope with all of my weight.

Panel 4

Huw is falling forward and downward. I’m a few feet below him looking up in fear.

Panel 5

The rope is pulling me up a bit as Huw is falling head first toward me.

Panel 6

Huw’s forehead is slamming into my left temple, my right temple is slamming into the flagpole.

SFX: Ka-Donk!

PAGE 4

Panel 1

I am falling backwards, unconscious, Huw, pants less, is falling so that the two of us will land in a perfect missionary position on the ground at the base of the flagpole. Huw is wearing white fruit of the loom briefs with large holes in them. His left foot is stuck in the cuff of the wad of pants still hanging from the rope. His other leg is out of the pants, and his shoe is off.

Panel 2

We have now landed at the base of the pole. Both of us motionless.

Panel 3

Looking at us laying at the base of the pole from another angle. Neither of us have moved.

Panel 4

We are getting up. Huw rolling over to try to get his pants off the pole. I’m holding my head.

Huw: Guhhh.

Me: Oh god…

Panel 1

Huw is having trouble getting his foot out of the pants. I am getting up on to one knee. Still holding my head.

Panel 2

I am standing up looking at the front of my pants which are wet all over the front of the crotch. Huw still struggling with his pants.

Panel 3

One of us, or perhaps both of us pissed my pants.

Panel 4

I am helping Huw pull the pants off of the flag pole.

Cap: I don’t know how long we were out.

Panel 5

I am helping Huw get up from the ground. Our backs are to the actual football field.

Panel 6

Same POV as last panel, only we are now looking over our shoulders to see behind us.

Off panel: Ready! Okay!

PAGE 5

Panel 1

Looking onto the field. There are ten college age girls in cheerleader costumes practicing cheers. Some of them are looking at Huw and me, smiling.

Cap: But it was long enough.

Panel 2

Huw and I walking off the field together. Huw is hobbling, and I am helping him walk. He is holding his torn pants in his hand.

Cap: Since then, Huw has been able to predict if it will snow by the aching of his knee.

Panel 3

Huw and I are walking outside of the football stadium. The flagpole is visible behind the walls of the stadium, and as I help Huw walk, I look over to the pole.

Cap: And I still wonder what would have happened if I had gone first. I think my belt loops would have held for me.

Panel 4

Image of me hanging from my belt loops at the top of the flagpole. Looking at the world with wonder.

Cap: And for a few minutes, I would have known what it was like to be God.

Panel 5

Back to Huw and me hobbling down the street. Him with no pants and a horrible limp, me with a big wet stain in the front of my pants.

Cap: Ah, who am I kidding? I would have fallen to my death. All for science.