Armchair Pundits

Summer Stock 2005

Part II

Cal sat by the window watching the scenery pass by as the bus made its way through the city. His mind replayed the fight for what seemed like the hundredth time. How did it start again? He wasn’t sure he couldn’t remember the details. Why had he exploded like that? He never had before. Why did Rick come after him like that? Another question he couldn’t answer.

Deep in thought he continued to look out the window. Looking at the buildings and houses without really seeing them. The fight replayed again.

He suddenly gave his head a shake that was barely noticeable to those sitting around him on the bus. He consciously pushed the fight scene from his head. He had to stop thinking about it. It was, afterall, such a long time ago. He did the math in his head. Nineteen, no twenty years ago. He had no clue why over the past several weeks the memories of that fight on playground from twenty years ago seeped back into his mind.

He had been feeling nostalgic of late. Maybe it was finding that ten-year reunion booklet. He had tossed it aside when it arrived two years ago. He had no interest in going back. But, he ran across it a month or so ago, buried under a pile of unimportant papers in his rolltop desk.

He had looked through it again. More carefully this time. He dissected each entry, each persons little biography. He knew how they were written and he knew why they were written. For the most part, they were written to impress. “Look at me. Look what I’ve accomplished. I am somebody.” At least that is what they seemed to say.

But, Cal had read beyond the surface. He looked into every nook. He read between the lines. He had read over Linda’s entry. She had sat in front of him in Trigonometry his Junior year. She was a nice girl. She lived a state over now and worked in a retail clothing store. She had a daughter. Cal wondered if she had married and divorced or had she just gone from carefree high school student to single mother. Whatever it was, she was facing a difficult life now. Much more difficult than the entry in the booklet revealed. There were many more just like Linda. Different circumstances, but in the end a similar difficult life. Too many questions lurking under the surface.

Cal smirked to himself. It was after all a reunion booklet. No need to be a downer. “Hi, I’m Jimmy the Jock. I’m on my third wife already and have filed bankruptcy once. I dropped out of college after just three semesters. My life is a disaster. You might as well just tattoo a big ‘L’ on my forehead for ‘Loser.’” No. No one would write that. Even if it was true. The ten-year reunion booklet was a chance play spin doctor with the story of your life.

He remembered coming across his own entry. The vague job description. No sense boring everyone with the details. His life wasn’t an action movie, at least not yet. Then the lie. “I can’t wait to see everyone at the reunion.” He had no intention of going. He had worked so had to get away. He had no intention of returning.

But maybe in the two years since he had received the booklet he had mellowed. When he found the booklet again, he began thinking more and more about his old friends. What were they doing now? What had happened to them? He had googled a few just to see if there might be any information about them. He had thought about calling one or two but had decided against it.

Maybe it was all that thinking about the past that had done it. Maybe all those memories had pushed the memory of the fight to the surface. He couldn’t say for sure.

There was an electronic buzz overhead and the bus driver called out the next stop. This was his stop. Cal smiled to himself. If he kept riding the bus maybe someday he would be able to figure out the meaning of life.

As the bus slowed and stopped, riders rose from their seats and shuffled to the door. Cal waited for a lady to pass and then joined them. “Thanks,” he mumbled to the driver’s automated wish for a good day.

He inhaled the fresh air as he stepped off the bus.

posted by Squirrel @ 12:27 PM