The Book

H. Muhammad

It was quite sometime ago, I came to know a person by the name John Ianucche (ethnic Italian American). After a while we became good friend. We used to hang out,got high on weed, went fishing, jamming and did a lot of stuff together. There were times that we hanged out at famous local nude dance joint till wee hours because he had to pick up his sister who worked few nights a week as a stripper at the bar.

He told me that it was a bit awkward for him the first time he saw his sister dancing totally naked, and he still felt the same every time when he came to picked her up. I tried to make him felt better and I told him that I have no problem with that at all because she(his sister) was one hell of a babe. She's a fox. She was one hot, gorgeous sexy girl.......wa cakap lu (John understood this phrase). We had a good laugh that night.

John was the kind of guy who I could say a bit spacy, couldn't care less type of guy, cool, simple minded ,and at times he could really be an annoyance. He was from broken home with no deep religous background. One day after good set of jamming in the basement he came upon the translation of the Quran, he asked me if he can borrowed it, I told him to go ahead since nobody really read the book. It (the book) had been sitting there and collecting dust for quite sometime. He started carrying the book everywhere with him and seem so obssesed reading it. And it went on for almost a year.

I noticed the personality change in him to better him. He was calmer,happier ,more in control of himself. It caught me by surprise that one night after getting our supply of 'six-pack's (our favourite COORS) he asked me to pull over by the road side. He told me that he had to pay his dues to the 'salvation army'. He started contributing some portion of his weekly pay to charity. Wow he really did change. I told him that what he did was good as long as we can still go pick up his sister from her workplace. We had a good laugh.

It was that same night he told me that he is already a Muslim and asked me load of 'why' questions on Islam which I couldn't answer any. He told me that he don't understand why the muslim pray in such a way, which he couldn't find it anywhwere in the Quran. I burst out and buffed him " U son of a bitch! if you want to be a muslim, you just follow them, or else go back to your church! Cut all that crap questions of yours. Why can't you just follow!".

I could very well remember that exact line. It was my last sentence to him. I regret it, because he died the next night. It was friday night. He was on his way to help out at the *'soup kitchen' (soup kitchen is a place where they give out free hot meal and shelter to the poor and homeless during winter run by volunteers.) when he was hit by a drunk driver.He died on the spot, his body laid motionless at the front door of the soup kitchen.

If angel really existed, he was the angel that came to me. If heaven existed, he deserves it. Where ever you are John, I am really sorry dude.



Copyright © H. Muhammad