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The Computer Club kinda fizzled within a month of inception.
For the first meeting about two thirds of those having expressed
interest showed up, including our sponsoring teacher. By the second
meeting it was already down to four of us, three for the third and
then just Luke and me for the rest. While I had started trying to
teach code and programming concepts to the novices, once it was just
down to Luke and me it became a straight computer gaming get
together. We were using the offices' new Trash 80 Model III
in the first two months, but once it was clear we didn't need the
extra space of the conference room, the office staff strongly
encouraged us to move back to the original Trash 80 Model I
room.
And so once a week, Luke and I would stay late after school and play
computer games together. I could play as much as I wanted to at
home, but it's amazing what a difference a second person makes as
they get to enjoy your play and then you get to let your hands have a
rest as you see their play style and strategy. While there were two
player games, Luke and I had exhausted them by our Junior year and
pretty much stuck to the flashy graphics based video game clones made
for the computer.
After two hours of play, it was time for Luke and I to go home.
Originally we'd take the late bus, but then I had the moped and he
soon borrowed a car from his parents for these days. Once Winter set
in I was back to using the late bus and he continued to use his car.
I think one time he offered to drive me home, though I was in the
opposite direction, and we ended up grabbing a pizza and spending
time at my home town's local arcade which had cropped-up over the
previous years.
By late February I was looking forward to it warming up enough so I
could get back to using the moped by March. Luke drove home once we
were done playing at school and I waited outside for the late bus to
arrive. Zack Hatch came out of the main door of the school and
spotted me as he made his way to his car, ''Do you want a ride?''
The Hatch house was only about a quarter mile from my family home and
so it wasn't out of his way to give me a ride. Over the previous two
years of High School, I'd often catch a ride home with him during the
handfuls of days I'd stay late at the school. This time was
different though as it was the first time I'd seen him since the end
of my Junior year of High School.
Taking the familiar passenger seat as he started the car, I suddenly
wondered how much he knew of my devolving school year. If he
didn't know anything, should I tell him? My fear was soon
pushed aside as I realized he was more interested in having someone
to talk to for himself. I finally found out why he had been on
sabbatical...
Late in my Junior year, they had discovered his wife had cancer. It
was soon apparent that he would have to take up more of the workload
at home as well as help ferry her to and from appointments as she
entered treatment and thus he had taken the year off from the High
School. He told me many of the details, which I've long since
forgotten, but it wound-up that things had not been going well during
the course of the year and he was afraid of losing her.
Not only was he talking of his wife, but also of my original best
friend's, Pete's, mother. Was this why Pete had been so unwilling to
say anything to me about why his father hadn't been working this
year, as he didn't want to have to talk about his mother's condition?
The thing
was, I had known her well, too. When Pete and I were best
buds in Elementary School I'd spend plenty of time at his house and
she'd be there. One time I followed Pete and his sister's pattern
and called her 'Mom' by accident. When my mother had first moved to
the apartment town and taken me with her, separating me from all my
friends, Pete's mother, Zack's wife, had been the one I had spilled
my heart out to about the loneliness I had been facing that Summer.
As Pete's and my friendship had faded by Middle School, so had my
opportunities to see her. In my typical out of sight out of mind
way I doubt I had thought of her at all in the previous six years and
assumed that everything was as it had been. But now I was finding
out she was likely in her last year, if not months, and Zack was
devastated with what he had to face.
The only reason why he had bumped into me was that he had to get some
paperwork at the school concerning his time off. As we reached my
driveway he asked me how things had been going for me this year?
With everything he had told me, how could I possibly add to his
load by giving him details of my collapsed year? I said,
''Fine,'' as he pulled up to the door and noted how dark the house
was. I told him my father just wasn't home yet. I thanked him for
the ride and passed on my best wishes for his wife. I didn't see him
again that year and only once briefly the following year when he
picked up some milk at the grocery store.
I'm sure he must have finally found out some of the details of my
school experiences when he returned to work the following year. I
wonder what he made of it, or if it just paled in comparison to his
own loss...
We never talked again.
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