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The sword is mightier than the pen, pal
When I was in fifth grade, our class did a penpal exchange with a school in Texas. They tried to match boys up with boys and girls with girls (because the opposite sex was, at that time, ostensibly still cootie-ridden), but the numbers didn't match up quite exactly. So I got matched up with a boy.
And did I get matched up with a good-looking boy with common interests to make up for it? No. They sent us their class picture with the letters and mine was the nerdy-looking one, front and center, sitting cross-legged in such a way that it looked like he was going to use his knees as wings and fly away. I don't remember now what his interests were, but I know they didn't match up with mine at all. I believe he didn't even like reading. I was annoyed enough to have to correspond with a boy, but why him? Although I've forgotten his real name, I shall never forget that his nickname... was Smiley.
He was dubbed, with typical 5th grade wit, Smiley Butterfly Idiot. I've never participated in penpal exchanges since. Wouldn't it be nice if the story ended there?
Yes. Yes, it would. The summer before my senior year in high school, the phone rang. It was a boy, which was quite unusual. I had no idea who it could be.
"This is Smiley," he said, as though we were best friends and he called every day and I should automatically know who he was.
"Smiley? Smiley?" I was confused, but it was beginning to dawn on me. You really don't meet a lot of Smileys.
"Yeah, we were penpals in 5th grade. So what are you up to?"
"Up to?"
"Yeah. You still like to read?"
He talked to me for about half an hour. I was petrified and rather disgusted the whole time and just wanted it to be over. What kind of person calls up an old fifth-grade penpal that they never corresponded with beyond the mandatory in-class letters? And asks them what's new in their life? Out of the blue? Why did he still remember me? Why did he still have my phone number?
Somehow he came up in conversation the other day and it occurs to me that I'm still living here, where he knows the number. Is he just going to call every eight years for an update? Hopefully by 2006 I'll be long gone.
srah - Thursday, 4 September 2003 - 4:35 PM
Tags: stories
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Comments (18)
Mr. Hibbity Gibbity - September 5, 2003 - 7:32 AM - ℓ
Hmmmm, maybe he's related to Bill Gates though.
Actually . . . that's kind of sweet. Who knows, maybe he's grown out of his 'geekiness'.
It could happen.
katie - September 5, 2003 - 8:40 AM - ℓ
Perhaps he 'bloomed' in college. Now he's a hunk, who has learned to love books and language and travel, and wining and dining his luvuh. He's also a successful doctor who makes lots of money, has digital cable, and a villa in Provence.
He's just waiting for you to accept him.
Mr. Hibbity Gibbity - September 5, 2003 - 9:42 AM - ℓ
How 'bout Smarmy?
Cheryl - September 5, 2003 - 4:18 PM - ℓ
How come I never knew he called you?!?
Hee hee. I like this post.