Jessie's Beginning

Jessie’s Beginning

“I do not know why I am going to this high school reunion. I was only there for my final year, and I have not seen or talked to any one of my fellow students of that year over the last 10 years. My family had moved from far away from where I got all my previous education to get to this place, where my father and mother both got a better job. I did not grow up with the other students, so I was not perceived as being ‘one of the old gang’. I hope that the people who were in my class have name tags on so I can call them by their name. Otherwise I very probably will not have a clue who is who. If I don’t wear a big tag myself, I suspect that no one will know who I am or who I was. Still, I decided not to wear one. I don’t want someone to say ‘I don’t remember you’ when they read my name like it was written in a foreign language.

During my time at this school, I only went to one dance for the soon-to-graduate class that year. No one asked me to dance even though I wore what I believed was my sexiest outfit. I was desperate. I had to dance, so I rather randomly picked one boy, who was out sitting quietly in a chair by a wall and apparently friendless like me. It was near the end of the evening. The boy was in my class and sat not far away from where I sat. His name was Wilbur. Choosing him was not quite completely random. I had seen him doing gymnastics, and I thought that he would be able to dance just as well. I was wrong. He was something of a clumsy dancer. Unfortunately, after our one dance, he walked away slowly and awkwardly, without making any comments, not even a thank you for asking him to dance when apparently no one else would do so.

I am now at the school

I am now at the school. It does look very familiar, not too much change in the building greets my eyes, other than it seemed to age along with its former students. As I entered the front door, I was asked by a very young and enthusiastic female greeter what my graduation year was. Once I told her, she directed me to the appropriate room. I gave the greeter a big smile, in response to her own, so she could not see the lines of dread on my face. I believe that I fooled her. I could see that she wanted to see only joy.

I walked up the stairs, and took a deep breath before entering the room. I hope that no one calls me ‘new girl’. Some of the raunchier guys used to extend that term to ‘nuuuu-d’ girl’. I never want to hear that again, in either version.

Here goes! There were pictures from our time taped onto the blackboard. There were no pictures of me, but I was not surprised by that. I sat in the back of the classroom in every class that I took, and I stood in the back of the room now. It was only after a few moments that I walked slowly to the front of the room.

Leaving the School

I left the room after about an hour of being almost completely neglected by the people in the room. When I remembered a name, I would say something like, “Aren’t you Fred Jones?”, and the reply invariably was ‘I’ve forgotten your name’ or, ‘aren’t you new girl?’ or the defensive ‘I’m not very good with names from the past’. I heard them later remembering other people’s names rather quickly.

I went to where the teachers were. I recognized them, one or two of them by name, but none of them looked at me like they had ever seen me before. There were tears in my eyes when I went out the front door. The greeter said that she hoped that I had a good time. She wasn’t very perceptive. She just had her mind set on bubbly.

I had only made a few quickly made steps heading for my car, when I heard a voice shouting my name. “Jessie, is that you.” I looked over to where the sound seemed to be coming, and I saw a man sitting on a bench away from the front door. I looked up and saw that it was Wilbur. I replied, “I have always been Jessie. Thank you Wilbur for remembering and speaking my name”. I made a point of saying his name so that he knew that I remembered him from the past as well. Then I walked over to the bench and sat beside him. I asked him why I did not see him in our old classroom. Before I gave him time to answer, I told him what my experience had been, and asked him whether he had gone through something similar before I made my way to the classroom.

He replied by saying, “I will tell you a story from our days at the school. I was in the change room, getting ready to go to our next class. It will be part of an apology in a way.”

Jessie wondered how that could be, but said nothing.

“ A bunch of the boys, you could call them a kind of a gang, were talking about the girls in our class. One of them referred to you as ‘nuuuu-d’ girl’, and then following their obvious leader, they repeated his words, following them up with the snorting noises he made like those of a pig. I suspected that it was possible that they would speak those words and rude sounds when they saw you going to class. I said to the leader that you appeared to be having a hard enough time with the “nuuuud girl’ comment, and that he should show some respect for someone who was just trying to get accepted. His reaction was immediate and violent. He had just put on his heavy shoes and kicked me several times in the shins. I could barely walk while the others left the change room. I limped to the health care room and had my leg bandaged up. This was just two days before we danced. I had to limp away from you, but I did not want to tell you why. You must know what male ego is like for a teenager, especially when dancing with a pretty girl.”

I said to him, “I did not see you in the room that was set up for our class.”

“I lost my nerve when I began to walk into the room. I saw the former gang leader and his menial friends, and heard them insulting some of the people they had mocked when we were teenagers. I knew I would soon receive that in person if they saw me. My immediate reaction was to avoid being seen. So I left the school, and sat on this bench, trying to figure out what I should do. I am very glad now that I did.”

Jessie replied with “So am I”. This was Jessie’s beginning of a sweet and lasting relationship that would give both of them joy. She would never have imagined that such a relationship would be with an old school mate. Wilbur felt the same way.