The Castaways

           It has been more than thirty years, but looking back, it feels like only yesterday.

           It all began back in the late 1980s. It was my graduating year at Madison High School, and I had a feeling that it was going to be “my year”.

           Growing up, I was known as the loner, the geek, the outcast, and the nobody. Those who did not know me, turned their noses up at me. Those who did know me, but sought acceptance from the “cool kids”, were two-faced during school hours. Then there were my true friends. The small group of people who chose to like me for who I was no matter who was around. That is who this story is about. We called ourselves, “The Castaways”.

           Our little group of misfits consisted of three guys, including myself, and two girls. All of us were unique in our own little way.

           First there was me. My name is Francis Muldoon. I grew up in a less than middle-class neighbourhood with my parents, Henry, and Janice, two proud Irish Americans with a knack for getting into trouble. My dad worked at a factory on the outskirts of town that made cases for beer bottles. Lord knows he had his own collection of those boxes at home too holding all the empty bottles that he would finish off every night. My mom, on the other hand stayed at home with me and my little brother, Jacob. She tried to be a good mom, but with my dad drinking away his paycheck each week, she had to find ways to make extra cash to feed us kids. That is how she got started as a dancer in a strip club on the weekends when my dad was home with us. It didn’t seem to bother him much. Instead, he would brag about it over drinks with his friends while they watched the game on TV.

           My school life wasn’t much better. We moved around a lot because the rent never got paid on time, which meant we switched schools a lot as well. By the time I started tenth grade at Madison High though, things became more stable at home. My dad was offered a promotion as foreman at the factory. His drinking cut down too now that he had more responsibility. My mom gave up dancing and found a weekend job working at the Piggly Wiggly as a grocery clerk. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was an honest living.

           With me no longer switching schools every few months, I was able to increase my grade point average too. I even joined the school concert band, taking on the trumpet as my instrument of choice. It was difficult at first, but I practiced a lot (when the noise didn’t disturb my parents or the neighbors), and eventually got good at it. That is where I met my best friend, Victor.

           Victor was the tuba player in our band. He was a little on the heavy side, so he was teased quite often. The bullies in the school nicknamed him “Tubby Tuba”. He was such a nice guy with a great heart, so it angered me when his feelings got hurt. He was the one person that I knew I could always rely on, no matter what.

           Walter was President of the yearbook committee. He was an amazing photographer, even as a teenager. He could capture a person’s best features with the click of the shutter. Walter met Victor and I while he was taking pictures of the band for the yearbook. I admired his professionalism, even while being bombarded with paper spitballs from some of the other students.

           Nancy was a mathematics genius. Her problem-solving skills were off the chart. I had never seen her use a calculator or even a pencil and paper to work out a problem. She did it all in her head. I hired Nancy to tutor me in Algebra.

           Then there was Lindsay. Nobody quite knew what category Lindsay fell into. You see, she was a geek like us with a vast knowledge of astronomy and a hunger for science-fiction films, but she was also part of the cheerleading squad. She was the only one of us who managed to cross over to both sides without repercussions from either group. Everyone seemed to like her among the geeks and the cool kids.

           When we first started hanging out together, we would walk down by the creek. Sometimes, we would even go swimming if the water was not too cold. There was one day though that we found that we were not alone down there. Kirk Henderson, Captain of the football team, along with a few of his teammates followed Lindsay from school and into the woods where the creek was located. Kirk kept trying to get Lindsay to go out with him on a date, but she kept turning him down. She knew what he wanted and avoided him like the plague.

           We were all sitting by the edge of the creek when Lindsay arrived. She slipped off her shoes and was about to dip them into the water when the noise of crackling branches caught our attention. When we turned to see what was making the noise, Kirk and his goons came out of the trees taunting us.

           “Look at what we’ve got here, boys,” Kirk said smugly to his friends. “It’s the geek squad hiding out in the woods. Too afraid to show your faces in town, geeks?”

           “Get lost, Kirk,” Lindsay retorted. “You and the roid boys are not welcome here.”

           “Lindsay, babe, why do you hang out with these losers when you can be seen with me?”

           “Nobody can be seen with you, Kirk. Your swelled head takes up too much room.”

           Kirk felt his face turning red with embarrassment mixed with anger. Nobody had ever spoken to him that way. He walked up to Lindsay and slapped her across the face. Then, out of nowhere, two big hands grabbed onto Kirk’s shoulders from behind and pushed him face first into the cold creek. When I looked up, I saw Victor standing where Kirk once stood. He had a look of hatred on his face as he gazed down upon Kirk’s now-drenched body. Kirk must have felt humiliated, because he pulled himself back onto dry land and rushed over to his teammates, passing between them. They all followed like lost puppies behind him.

           Lindsay walked over to Victor and kissed his cheek then wrapped her arms as tightly around him as she could. Victor stood there in shock. No girl had ever showed him affection like this before, especially one as attractive as Lindsay. She thanked him repeatedly for his bravery and spent the rest of the afternoon by his side, calling him her big grizzly bear.

           As the sun began to set, we left the creek and started walking back toward our homes. As the stars began to appear, Nancy would start singing popular songs of that era but change the lyrics to words that had to do with math. For example, in the song, “Africa” by Toto, she would change Africa to “Algebra”. She also changed the song, “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles, to, “Multiplication then Addition”. We would all laugh and sing along. It was fun and educational.

           Walter snapped pictures of us as we walked. He had us all stand next to the town sign at the edge of town then, using the timer on his camera, he took a group photo of us all. I still have that picture hanging on the wall in my den to this day.

           After graduation, a few of us went our separate ways, but with the promise that we would stay in touch. Victor was supposed to go to the same college as I was, but he began dating Lindsay and followed her instead. Walter went to a college across the country that had an amazing photography program. Nancy received a full scholarship to Princeton University where she excelled in the mathematics graduate program. I decided to stay in town and go to the community college to get my teachers degree. Eventually, I ended up teaching music at my old high school.

           The five “Castaways” lost touch over the years, so I decided to see if I could get the old gang back together. I invited them back to our hometown for a dinner. Victor and Lindsay were still together after all these years, but I barely recognized Victor. He had trimmed down substantially and put on a lot of muscle. Lindsay looked as if she had hardly aged since we parted ways. Victor was working as a fitness instructor, while Lindsay landed her dream job working for NASA.

           Nancy now works as a college professor teaching advanced mathematics. She had married her professor from Princeton and now has three children. When I asked her if she remembered the songs that she used to make up, she told me that she uses that method to help teach her kids at home and her students at school as well.

           Walter started up a photography studio soon after college and he was making a great success of it too, until tragedy stuck. He was hired to photograph a modelling shoot in the Arizona Desert, and while finishing off his last few shots he heard a rattling noise, then seconds later, felt the sting of fangs puncturing the skin on his right calf.

           According to witnesses who were there at the shoot with him, Walter was bitten by a Mojave Rattlesnake. His vision began to get blurry, then his throat began to swell, and he could no longer breathe. His muscles became weak, and he dropped to the ground, grasping at his throat. They were miles from the nearest hospital, and nobody thought to pack antivenom or even a first aid kit. He died before they could get him the help that he needed.

           Victor, Lindsay, Nancy, and I stood in my den staring at the picture of our Castaways and gave homage to Walter. Then, after dinner, we all went down to the creek where we used to hang out. We were surprised to see that it hadn’t changed much over the years. The trees were taller, and the creek did not seem as wide as we remembered, but the water still felt refreshing when we sat with our feet dangling into its cool ripples.

           Following our walk down memory lane, we took a stroll to our old high school where I got permission for us to all to take a walk through. I showed them where I taught the music class. Victor grabbed one of the tubas and started blowing into it, letting out a loud honk.

           “I’ve still got it,” he said with a laugh.

           We went past a wall filled with graduating classes from over the years, and we located our pictures. Nancy couldn’t get over the “big hair” that she and Lindsay used to have back then. Victor looked at his picture and said, “Never again,” to which Lindsay replied, “Hey now! I thought you were pretty cute with those chubby cheeks.” Victor just shook his head and laughed then gave her a kiss.

           The school custodian wandered down the hall pushing his cart full of supplies. I stopped him and said, “Hey guys, do you all remember Kirk?”

           Their jaws nearly hit the floor at the mention of his name. Kirk went from being the one who ruled the hallways during our school years, to the guy who sweeps the halls. I introduced Kirk to each of them. He barely acknowledged Nancy, and with Lindsay, he almost began to drool until Victor spoke up and asked, “Do you remember me, Kirk?”

           Kirk looked at him for a minute with a dumbfounded look on his face, then Victor reminded Kirk about the swimming lesson that he gave him at the creek years ago. Kirk’s face turned white and said, “Tubby Tuba? Is that you?”

           “In the flesh, or lack there of,” Victor replied.

           Kirk quickly excused himself and went back to work, looking back over his shoulder as he walked. We left the school and said our goodbyes before everyone headed out of town, but not before we vowed to never lose track of each other for this long again. I stated that friendships like ours are a rarity these days, and I suggested that we make this get-together an annual event. As the years pass, our friendships only continue to grow stronger. The Castaways are friends worth holding onto.