Glory Days

Popcorn ceiling. He closed his eyes and opened them again. Popcorn ceiling. 

“That’s strange.” Dave thought sleepily as he lay in bed looking up.

He lay there staring at the ceiling as the faint glow of dawn pushed behind the blackout curtains. He shut his eyes quickly as the thought of the ceiling sunk in. 

“I don’t have a popcorn ceiling in my house. We didn’t when we moved in and we didn’t when we remodeled 4 years ago. I remember because there was an argument over that. Where the hell am I?” Dave said to himself.

He peeked out from behind one eye lid and looked up. Popcorn ceiling. He quickly shut it back.

“Okay, okay its fine. Just think Dave, just think. What happened last night? A party. That’s right a party. My 50^th Birthday party. Yep, now we’re cooking. 50 years old. I wonder which one of the jack asses thought it would be funny to put 50 candles on the cake. I bet it was Robby. Real cute Robby, it looked like a California wild fire when they brought it into the room, but why the popcorn ceiling? I got home from the office and came in the house. Sarah was there and had her hair and makeup done and told me we were going to eat at Mardell’s for my birthday. I told her no. We got into the car. I drove, parked, walked in. Surprise! I was surprised, surprised that I had enough friends to fill a room even as small as this one. Surprised that I had just spent all day with most of these people and that they still came. Free food and drinks will help people tolerate you I suppose. Only three people I really liked were in the room; my two high school buddies Robby Cull, Kyle Reese, and my wife Sarah. Everybody else are fine, there is just no real connection. Cake comes, ‘make a wish’ they say. I make a wish…I make a wish…”

He slid both hands out to the edge of the bed he was on. Stiff cotton sheets and a quilt sandwiched his hands as he reached both edges of this bed at the same time.

“A twin size mattress!”

He jerked both eye lids open and sat up. Clothes littered the floor and furniture. A half eaten bologna sandwich stuck out from under some papers on a desk and posters littered the walls. 

“Look at em” he said out loud.

Airplane , Beverly Hills Cop, Conan, First Blood, and The Terminator. 

He looked down at the bed he sat in. The ‘broken dishes’ pattern quilt that covered his legs was something his grandmother had given him. His hands felt the fabric.

“Holy crap, look at my hands” 

They were lanky, thin, and smooth. He felt his face then threw the quilt over his head and lay back down in the bed. 

“Okay, Okay, Okay, be cool. I was at my 50^th birthday party. I wished for the chance to have one day back in my glory days in high school, I wake up and…”

He peeked out from under the quilt. Popcorn ceiling.

“I am in my parents’ house, 18 years old, and it’s the 1980’s. Son of a..”

“Davey, get out of bed, school!” a voice said from behind the bedroom door.

“Davey? Nobody calls me Davey except…”

He threw the quilt off of his legs and swung his feet around to hit the ground. His looked down as he felt the strength of his legs. No creaks or pops, no aching. He leapt from bare carpet spot to carpet spot afraid to step on the piled clothes not knowing what was underneath.  He jerked the door open and his mother was standing there.

“Mom?” He said.

“Sheesh Davey you gave me heart attack.  Since when do you pop out of bed in the morning? Go eat breakfast. Here.” She hit him in the chest with a clean set of clothes for the day.

“Mom I…” he stopped

“Go, or you’ll be late and I’ll be getting a call from Principal Rawlings again.” She said as she turned and lugged the hamper of sheets and pillow cases down the hall.

Not able to speak he ran after her and hugged her from behind.

“Thank you.” He mustered into her back. Turning around, he did as he was told and ran down stairs. 

Before he got to the kitchen he heard the kitchen door open and heard someone walk in.

“Come with me if you want to live.” the voice said.

Kyle Reese was one of Dave’s best friends but ever since The Terminator had come out he had become popular because of his name. Kyle loved the attention, but had gotten into a habit of only talking in Terminator quotes.

“Morning Davey.” Kyle said with a cutesy voice.

“Don’t call me Davey.” Dave said immediately annoyed.

Dave reached for a box of bran and stopped himself

“You know what, I’m not hungry.” He said as he jumped into the clothes his mother had given him and walked to the door. “Let’s go to class before whatever is happening disappears.”

“O, in a hurry to see your girlfriend huh loverboy?” Kyle said as they both walked to Kyle’s 78 Fairmont.

“You are going to be an ugly old man Kyle.” Dave said as Kyle started the engine.

When they got to school Dave stopped before walking in to look at the old place. The building was built in the 1950s and he knew that in another 10 years it would be demolished due to the heavy presence of asbestos.  The new high school, a school that his kids would eventually attend, would be a characterless shadow of this concrete behemoth.

When he walked in the door a high pitched scream came from his left but before he could react a small eager girl had thrown herself into his arms and started kissing him. He was too off balance to reciprocate and before he could get his balance she jumped down grabbed his hand and started pulling him down the hall.

“O crap.” he thought as he followed behind. “I was dating Sarah’s best friend Wendy, senior year.”

Wendy was a short bombshell of a girl who had developed early and he remembered why he liked her and it wasn’t her brains. He watched her walk for a second then remembered she would eventually cheat on him with Jake Taylor when he started summer work before college. A decision that would lead to an unwanted child and a short lived marriage. He pitied her.

He was glad to be drug through the halls because he felt somewhat lost in this world. He looked at the faces of the students and teachers as he walked down the hall. Mr. Bentley, the English teacher who, Dave was sure was ancient, couldn’t have been over 40. Mr. Bentley was speaking to Ms. French a substitute teacher that Dave always thought of as an attractive mature woman couldn’t have been a day over 23. 

There was Tim Dawkins, who would inherit the appliance store that his father owned, which would in turn go out of business when a big box store moved to town. There was James ‘the tank’ Thomas who would join the Army and loose his life in a training accident in Georgia.  

Then he saw her leaning with her back against the lockers, arms crossed around notebooks and papers. She had chestnut hair, red rimmed large thick glasses, and a body shape that wouldn’t become popular until 1992. Sarah Reese was Wendy’s best friend. She was quiet, polite, unassuming, and never dramatic. Dave was looking at his future wife and the mother of his two children. He had never noticed when he was younger how pretty she was. She was always muted by the antics and drama of Wendy. Wendy flaunted her body, and to her credit she knew what she had, but Sarah had never worn a two piece bikini in her life, but kept hidden under cardigans and sweaters. A fact he appreciated at this moment all the more.

“Good morning Dave.” Sarah said

“Good morning Sarah.” Dave said quietly “Gosh you’re beautiful” he wanted to say. 

He was shocked how similar his daughter looked to her at the same age. The bell rang to send them to first period. Wendy closed her metal locker door with a slam and grabbed Dave’s hand once more to lead him to first period.

Dave’s first class was Spanish II. His teacher was Ms. Boston. Ms Boston was a portly white woman who had probably never been to New Mexico much less Mexico. He listened to her accent and it was quite poor. Dave and Sarah had traveled to Mexico and South America multiple times for vacation and work, so he knew what a well rolled r sounded like. Ms Boston gave the class hand outs with pictures on them and left them to teach themselves. 

“No wonder I could never remember any Spanish from High School.” Dave said as he rolled his eyes.

About an hour later the bell rang sending him to his next class, Home-Ec. Home Economics was a class made up of 99% females except for Dave. He thought it would be an easy A and it was also so Wendy and him could have every class together.

He rolled his eyes when he walked in but not at the class or the people, but at himself. If he had shown some type of interest or care for tougher courses maybe his college years would have been less difficult. He looked around the room and recognized several of the ladies, but he knew one better than the rest, his sister Mary. Mary was three years younger than he was and was three times smarter. She tried to trip him as he walked past making the other girls close by giggle. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek turning her red as a beet. 

After Home-Ec was over and he was full of casserole he went to third period Geometry. Mr. Knight was one of the two math teachers in the school and he was old even to Dave’s eyes. A man in his late 70’s Mr. Knight would not live to see the end of the school year. Some people said it was his heart, but most people said it was his 28 year old girlfriend that killed him. Dave believed the later because he went to the funeral and saw the smile frozen on the lifeless body of Mr. Knight.

During the class they had a pop quiz which was normal for Mr. Knight’s class and Dave worked the problems with ease while Wendy copied over his shoulder. Why had he thought all math was so difficult? Again, he regretted not focusing on it when he was younger. If he had only known how common and important math was when he was younger he may have been able to enjoy his job more.

After the third period bell rang it was time for lunch. As they walked to the cafeteria they were joined by Sarah and Kyle. The cafeteria was bustling with noise as they made their way to the corner table. Kyle smacked a kid in the head in the back of the head and laughed on the way to the table which made Dave stop in his tracks. 

“Why did you do that?” Dave asked.

“What are you talking about, we always smack the nerds and airheads around?” Kyle laughed.

“Not anymore.” Dave said flatly and sat down.

Wendy and Kyle looked at each other confused, while Sarah stared at him over her coke bottle thick glasses.

“What’s up losers?” a loud voice yelled from across the room.

Robby Cull had been following Dave around his entire life. Whatever Dave did, Robby did. When Dave went to summer camp, Robby went to summer camp. When Dave went to his grandparents house, Robby went to Dave’s grandparent’s house. He was like a stray dog that never wanted to leave.

“Nice shiner Robby, who’d you get into it with yesterday?” Kyle said.

“You aren’t going to believe this story, So there I was…” Robby went on.

While Robby was talking about fighting a truck driver at a gas station it occurred to Dave that Robby always seemed to be fighting, but the only times they were not around each other was when Robby went home at night. Dave sat there for a moment digesting the thought as Robby acted out the headlock he had the trucker in with great theatrics.

“How could I have been so blind?” Dave said to himself. “Robby was afraid of swimming in the deep end of a pool, how could I have believed he would have been crazy enough to get into a fistfight with a stranger twice a week?”

“Dave?” Robby said. “You gonna eat that ham and mashed potatoes?”

“No Robby, you can take it.” Dave said as he slid the plastic tray across the table.

As they sat and talked to each other Dave just sat and watched them. Their entire lives were ahead of them and countless decisions and opportunities lay ahead. It amazed Dave how the fates of these people were already in motion but the clues and hints at their future were lost in the noise of the now. Dave couldn’t believe it. He had an opportunity to go back to a day in his past and re-live it, but instead of running around with Wendy, or getting into a fist fight, or telling a teacher off, all he wanted to do was sit and watch these people.

“How lame am I?” Dave said to himself. “I could be in the back seat of a car in the parking lot right now, but instead I am sitting, listening, and looking at these kids try to figure life out”

He watched Sarah listen and laugh at Robby’s story. Her smile was wide and he could see every tooth in her head when she smiled.  She was on a different league than the rest of them. She was classy and somehow mysterious. 

“I can’t believe it took me so long to figure out how wonderful you are. I have to be the luckiest man on earth because of you” He said to himself. He let out a deep sigh and smiled at her when she made eye contact with him for a brief second before looking away.

The next two hours consisted of Chemistry, which Dave appreciated but still didn’t care for, and World History. World History was taught by Dr. Young. Dave remembered how much he loved this class even when he didn’t care anything else about school. As an adult, history was still fascinating to Dave. Dr. Young railed on about ancient Rome in a way that made any modern documentary look like amateur hour. The man was a true talent and it was even better than he remembered it.

“Dave, let’s get out of here and go to the gym.” Wendy whispered as she put her hand on his thigh.

“I’m listening” Jake said never breaking his attention from Dr. Young.

“Come on Dave, this is boring”

“Why don’t you see if Jake Taylor will take you to the Gym?” Dave snapped at her. “Wendy I..” Dave started to apologize but she was gone. 

“Some wounds never heal I guess” Dave said to himself.

The last period of the day was study hall. Wendy was giving him the cold shoulder so he went alone. It was quiet in the room when he settled into the desk. He was tired. There were so many emotions, but mostly he just missed the time when he could be himself and the only place he could do that was with Sarah. He missed his house , his wife, and his routine.

 “There are too many unknowns at this age. It’s exhausting. Youth is for the young.” Dave whispered out loud.

Dave put his head on the desk and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again he was on his back looking up. Plaster ceiling. He blinked. Plaster ceiling.

He closed his eyes and felt high thread count sheets under his fingers. He slid his hand over to his right and hit a warm body. He turned his head opened his eyes and saw Sarah sleeping next to him.

He was back in his house, in his worn familiar body. He looked back at the ceiling and closed his eyes.

“Glory days” he whispered.