EnterTravis By Ron Cummings

I remember the first time I met Travis. I was a junior in high school and he was a freshman. I was known for having really bad suicide trips. I just had my last bad one. I went through a second story window at the school and somehow survived. One night, I'm at home and I get a knock on the door and there stands Jay Long and this really skinny, brown-eyed, big-smiled kid. They basically ran me over when I opened the door. I was like, "Hey Jay what's up?" What was up was that they were walking down High Hill and they had heard a fight and something about a guy having a shot gun. Well they or rather Jay, knew I lived on Edwards St. (the street that's next to it). So they came over. For some reason they thought that if they were at my place that I would protect them. Here I am, a really depressed, suicidal teenager, and they think I can protect them....Okay. Well, something in me said, "there's something about this kid." So I went on it. They stayed awhile and I never let my eyes off him for two years. I was by his side the whole time. I was two years older than him. And I loved him like a big brother would. I never got the chance to tell him in words, but I think my actions said it all. I helped him in everything that I was able to. I was a track and field head, so I took him in and taught him what I knew. I even helped him through his problems with dating his friend's ex-girlfriend . Which was a strange one....but fun. Before he came along, I was like a house in the woods with no lights On.... Dark and scary....when Travis came into my life, I totally changed. He was the one light that lit the entire house. He was the one candle on the cake that burned the brightest. I have so many memories, so many good times. I hope that I can share them all. I don't have that many really good pictures of him. Mostly old track and field stuff of him running....kinda, Travis-in-motion things. But I do have one picture that I have kept with me for seven years....it's him and I together at my graduation in 1993.... I keep it close at all times. I will miss him and I will love him always.... Ron Cummings 11/3/00- St.louis