Wednesday, March 11, 2020

No Looking Back

Like my friend Mary at Scattered Thoughts did yesterday, I stopped by the grocery on my way home today. In general, I feel we are well-provisioned to stay at home for a while if need be, but it never hurts to stock the pantry a little bit more. At 4:30 in the afternoon, it was rather quiet, and aside from the sanitizers, most everything else was on the shelves or being refilled as I shopped.

The big news for us was running into a good friend who is also a teacher, buying lobster dinners and steak, seeing a current student and his mom, shopping for cereal and milk, and then being stopped by a tall young man in his mid-20s.

"TJ?" he asked, using the nickname of our school.

I looked closely at him, and somehow the last 13 years faded from his adult face so that for a minute I could see the boy he was in 2006-7. "Philip?" I said, and he smiled wide.

"I can't believe you remember me!" he said, but then cast his eyes down. "Well, I guess I can," and I knew he was thinking of some of the trouble he had gotten into in middle school.

"What are you doing now?" I asked, changing the subject.

He told me he had been in the army and was now training to be a firefighter. I thanked him for his service, and he filled me in on some of the guys he kept in touch with.

"You should come by school one day to see if it's changed," I invited him.

"No way!" he said.

"You know you're welcome anytime!" I laughed. "If you change your mind... or the place catches on fire."

4 comments:

  1. Lobster dinner? I might have followed them home!

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  2. This is awesome writing and an impressive feat: "somehow the last 13 years faded from his adult face so that for a minute I could see the boy he was..."

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  3. Love this - I agree with Leah - that is a golden line - and amazing memory.

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  4. I am so impressed that you remembered his name after all this time! The last line made me laugh out loud. I loved this.

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