Running The Long Hallway

 

As part of the high school reunion weekend, the organizers had arranged a tour of our old high school. About 20 of the attendees met with our guide, a current junior. The rest opted for a football game in the cold. 

We were all on the old side of middle age. Most of the boys, once thin and cute, now had bald heads with beer bellies. From the look of their clothes, they'd done well. The girls looked as if there were thirty years difference when in reality all our birthdays had fallen in the same year.

I passed the rows of lockers, although I couldn't remember which ones were mine. Peeking thru room 106's window where I had sweated algebra exams, I saw an identical arrangement of chairs. I wondered if the glass was now bulletproof.

Mr. D's room was next to 106. He was the reason I felt I could become a writer and Mr. B's room, came next. He taught me to love Steinbeck and symbolism. History had come alive in room 109. 

There was the corner where I poured out my woes to Stu. The man should have been a guidance counselor not a janitor. I doubt if he is still alive. I could still hear him tell me, "Don't worry, he'll call." I wonder if he told his wife over dinner about  the different students who confided in him.

I was walking next to Dorothy. We hadn't been close friends or eaten lunch at the same table. I think I remember a science project together, but maybe not.

She looked at me, "Remember how they told us not to run in the halls?"

Not another word was necessary. We took off down the hallway that ran the length of the school, arriving at the other end panting. Good thing, we'd reached an age where we knew flats would be better than heels, no matter how good they made our legs looked.

The high school guide caught up with us, a frown on her face that only had one pimple.n"You aren't supposed to run in the halls," she told us. She probably wondered why she had volunteered to show us wrinklies around.  

Dorothy and I looked at each other and laughed. 

Although running down that hallway was not on our bucket lists, it should have been.

 I just wished I'd brought roller skates.