Old School

The floating book shop enjoyed three quick sales today, and then business died. My thanks to the middle age woman who bought a book in Russian, and to the young one who purchased Stephen King’s story collection Skeleton Crew; and to another who selected Effortless Living: Wu-Wei and the Spontaneous State of Natural Harmony by Jason Gregory and Damo Mitchell.

Here’s an excerpt from Present and Past, the story of two friends in their 30’s, Freddie and Tony, on a cross country car trip. Freddie speaks first:

“One time she isolated my desk, as if I wasn’t fit to be part of the class. It was horizontal, up against the wall, near the door. After we finished a test, I started giving Donna Geritano silly hound dog looks.”

“I don’t remember her.”

“Her family moved to Long Island after that school year. Anyway, Sister Grace might’ve been deaf, but she had an eagle eye, despite thick glasses. She was in the last seat in the last row. She spotted my act. I saw her spring up, make a beeline to the opposite corner and then right toward me. I knew what was coming. She took a hold of my hair, pulled my head back, and battered me.” He pantomimed the action, laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“The insanity of it. Strange to say, but I respect and remember her more than any of my other teachers. Her methods were deplorable, but she was completely dedicated.”

“You shoulda slapped ‘er back.”

“Yeah, right. Not everybody’s like you.”

“Damn straight.”

“One time Johnny Califano was at the blackboard. He had to spell ‘equipment,’ which Brooklyn guys like us pronounced ‘aquipment.’ She yelled: “E! E! E! and rammed his face into the slate. He was bleeding from the mouth. Finally he got it and Sister Grace looked heavenward, as if she was talking to God, and said: ‘It’s like pulling teeth!’”

“Whatever happened to that nut?”

“Last time I saw him I was a sophomore in high school, sitting in the stands at Midwood Field with our J.V. team, watching our varsity get slaughtered. His older sister put him in a boarding school after their mom died. The father disappeared into the bottle a long time ago. He was on a class trip.”

“To a high school football game? That’s musta been the cheapest school goin’.”

“Midwood was hot stuff back then, undefeated two years in a row. Brent Kaufman was a great running back, Larry Getto All-City quarterback. I wonder where they are now.”

“Probably cooped up in some office, kissin’ ass.”

“I remember Johnny exposing himself in class a couple of times.”

Both of them laughed.

“He had balls, not like you,” said Tony. “What’d the girls do?”

“I was too busy trying not to laugh out loud to notice…”

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