Twenty Years Ago

Vicinity of Vermont & Vernon via Los Angeles Times

Twenty years ago I was a college senior living on campus at Jefferson and Vermont. It was Wednesday, Stop Day, the day between the last day of classes and the first day of finals. That morning I had a job interview near the airport. I didn’t like using the freeway so I took Florence home through Inglewood. It was 1:00pm when I went through the intersection at Normandie a few blocks before I turned north on Vermont. My Drama final was the next morning. I put in a videotape: Crimes of the Heart. I wasn’t watching TV, didn’t know what was happening. My RA knocked on the door holding a bat, told me to stay inside, to watch the news. I watched a police car be overturned near the courthouse. I tried to call my parents, let them know I was okay, but there was no dial tone. I stared out my window, watched a crowd marching north, flames in their wake. I was holding the phone, twisting the cord, when it rang. It fell to the floor and I picked it up, asked, “Hello?” My friend’s dad was on the line. Had I seen his son? He’d gone to lunch with his grandparents in Brentwood but had not been seen since. I couldn’t tell him I could see his son’s parking space and that it was empty.