That Was Then, This Is Now

Content Warning: This section of the guide mentions trauma resulting from substance use and family violence.

In the 1960s, 16-year-old Bryon Douglas, the narrator, and his good friend Mark Jennings visit a bar near their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mark is about a year younger than Bryon. The two grew up as brothers as well as best friends; Bryon’s mother welcomed Mark into their home six years earlier when Mark’s parents shot and killed each other while drunk. The bar is run by their friend Charlie, who is 22. Bryon jokingly asks Charlie for a beer, then he and Mark order Cokes. As he serves them, Charlie reminds Bryon and Mark that they are behind on paying their bar tab and warns that he will “come looking” for them if they don’t pay soon; they promise to pay the following day. Charlie also tells them that their friend M&M Carlson is looking for them. When Mark refers to M&M as “a hippie in a hood’s part of town,” Charlie counters, “This part of town don’t make nobody a hood” (12).

Finding no one to hustle at the pool tables, as is their habit, Bryon and Mark go looking for M&M, a serious, trusting 13-year-old kid nicknamed for his habit of eating M&M candies.