Well, he didn't really remember me, which was something of a blow to the ego, but I finally did hear back from Kevin Platt (see "Where Are They Now?" below) so I could tell him this:
I don't even know if you remember this thing you said one day to {name
withheld to protect the innocent}, in defense of our teacher at the time, Mrs. Levin.
Said classmate had been bitching and whining and moping around for Jake whom
we all missed terribly...I believe he was rather unfairly fired from the school for being
a somewhat renegade teacher, thus depriving us of what should have been our
Second Year of Jake. In his place we had acquired Mrs. Levin, who I can
barely recall except to say she was fairly unremarkable. Mystery girl that day
said yet another bitchy little thing about how Jake would have done things
differently, and in my version of this event you raised your little self up
out of your chair and told her in front of the whole stunned and silent
class of 5th graders that she should cut it out, we all missed Jake, but he
was gone, and Mrs. Levin was our teacher now, and we'd all heard just about
enough from her about Jake this and Jake that. And then you sat down.
At the time, I felt like applauding, but I was instead pretty much stunned
into silence like the rest of the classroom. Years went by but that scene
has always stuck in my head and I've always wanted to say thank you to you
for speaking out, and doing it so well. The chick in question was bossy and pushy and
difficult, and even though she was my friend she was also intimidating. You
put into words that day what I had wished all along to be able to say to her
but was unable.
So this is what inspired me to hunt you down. You probably think I'm a
nutcase, you might not even remember this thing you did, but there you go.
I remember.
Naturally, he didn't remember the incident either. But it felt good to tell him, and it's lovely to be in touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment