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The road on my way out of town was detoured and I’d been
thinking about going to the cemetery all weekend long, so I took the detour as a
sign from the universe. I pulled into the cemetery and realized it had been so
long since I had been there that I had no idea where the grave sites were. I
walked around and around and finally stumbled upon them. The stones were bigger than I remembered, the
school pictures faded after almost twenty years, and the letters are ragged and
dirty.
He was a popular guy – a great athlete,
a hard worker, and, most importantly, a nice guy. We had two classes together
that school year and he was always nice to me. He didn’t have to be nice to me,
the nerdy girl with no athletic ability or social skills to speak of, but he was
so kind to me that even now all I can say about him is that he was everything I
could hope any teenage boy to be. In drafting
class, he was two assignments behind everyone else and when the teacher began
lecturing him about it, he gave me a cheeky wink. When he didn’t know how to do the math
problem, he propped the book up on the table and asked me how to do it (I
remember the exact problem – nesting functions, if you must know). When I congratulated him on a big win, he
seemed surprised that I had been at the game, and gave me a big hug and a thank
you.
She was his girlfriend and my friend. I
remember driving to a football game and she was singing Sold (Grundy County Auction) and C and were laughing at her as she
shook the entire car with her vigorous dancing. I remember all of us hoping she
would just get through that pom routine without messing up. She wrote “Kim’s brithday”
on a teacher’s desk calendar and for months after they died, I would see that
every day, pondering the significance of the misspelling and the fact that the
much looked forward to birthday would never be celebrated.
I remember telling him once that she
was one of the greatest people I knew – so sunny and cheerful. He looked me in the eyes, his face completely
serious for once, and he nodded.
They are linked together forever now. Who
knows if they would have been together after high school. Who knows if they
would have lived up to their potential.
Who knows if they would have gotten married, had kids, had successful
careers, or ever moved out of that little town. Who knows if we would still be in touch. Who knows any of it?
When I sat down in the wet grass in the
cemetery this morning, I told them all about the news. I imagine they’ve heard
it from other visitors, but I gossiped just like they were there in front of
me. I told them about my hopes and dreams and how far I’d come and how much I
think of them and how whenever I feel like it’s all too much and I just want to
give up, I remember them. I remember their happiness, their kindness, and I
remember the chances they never got. I
don’t give up – I reach harder because of them.
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To see what Bestest Friend wrote about the theme of the day, check out her blog, Too Legit to Quit.
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