A Gorgon In Dade County
A Gorgon In Dade County by Jon-Paul Smith Ronald kept telling me there was a Medusa that lived in Dade County up on the mountain in a trailer. “She got snakes in her hair,” he said, his eyes getting wide behind giant plastic frames, holding his hands around his head. “Keeps em up in curlers.” “They’re not Medusas. They’re Gorgons,” I said, handing the joint back to him. “Medusa is the name of a person.” He ignored me every time I told him that. I’m not sure he understood the difference. He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Born and raised on Sand Mountain. Three years in the state pen. Didn’t learn to read until he was maybe twenty-five. Even then he kinda struggled with it. I got to know him back when he was slinging weed for my step daddy. After a while he got tired of smoking weed with the old man so he took to hanging out with me in my room. I was twenty one years old, a junior in college, writing code in Pascal on an ANSI terminal. It always made his eyes