A Homecoming

A little over four years passed after high school, and I had not seen the Queen in all that time. Many things happened that will be covered in more detail on other blog entries, so we'll cover the important stuff that plays into the re-meeting. I had gone out with this girl we'll call Allison, for reasons that will be apparent at another time, on and off for about a year with considerable time within. It was on and off because she enjoyed making up (albeit convincing) stories about going out with other people, just to avoid getting any closer than "just friends" to me.

Well, one day she called and asked if I would come over so she could try and explain some things and apologize for her actions while we were closer. I had nothing better to do, so I went over there. She talked for awhile about things that happened between her and the other people in her life (way too long a story for right now), and following that story, hinted at wanting to go to a Halloween party at some point and wanted to know if I would consider going. I didn't want to commit, so I said, "Ok." Roughly translated, that means, "I understood everything you just said to me, and I don't want to either commit or say 'no' so I'm saying 'ok' just to acknowledge you and make you think I said 'yes' when I really didn't specify."

And so that night ended without any real fanfare or anything. She was stand-offish, which for her means she was acting completely normal. She said she would call me "tomorrow."

Tomorrow came, and I was off. I hung around the house not doing any particularly interesting. Part of me wanted to wait by the phone (yes, I can be that pathetic sometimes), but another wanted to blow her off, since she never lives up to her promises anyway. Enter my brother: The Engineer. This guy can build stuff. He's an elecrician by trade, but "electrician" hardly measures up to his eclectic and talented nature by which he does everything. He currently "lives" in a loft above a gymnasium floor at his church. He sleeps at our parents' house, but he lives there. Follow?

Anyway, before he lived there, he spent time at home where I lived prior to the Queen taking me away to her planet. The Engineer was all of 2 years out of high school at the time, and he wanted to go to the Homecoming game. He actually still enjoys going, but I digress. I felt that was the perfect opportunity to blow off Allison and get out of the house. She was never going to call, anyway (and she never did, by the way -- of course).

We walked to the stadium, which at the time, was only a half mile from our house. Once we got there, we saw an interesting change to the stadium we grew up with when we went to school. You see, the week before there was a big fight, or something, between the opposing sides at the football game, so the geniuses in charge thought it would be a great idea to place these big, yellow, steel gates between the home and visitor's sides.

There were several problems with this idea. Mainly, the one concession stand sat directly behind bleachers for the home side, and they made the fence bisect these bleachers. This means that some of the home team viewers were on the wrong side of the fence. Same thing on the other end of the field. Though there was no concession stand, there were two sets of visitor side bleachers -- one on each side of the fence. The fence was guarded, but the guard was willing to let people pass form one side to the other through the gate.

This was the only week they had this in place. I'd gone on a subsequent week and the gates were wide open with no guard at all.

The Engineer saw someone he knew after we arrived and I just hung around for the game part, standing near the band that I'd been in once. Halftime came, and they allowed alumni of the band to sit in the bleachers where the band sat to watch the halftime show. The show rolled on and I turned to the left.

And there she was.

She recognized me and smiled and waved. I bounded over to the fence so quickly that the band parent guarding the stands apparently thought I was going after someone (remember, they'd had a fight the week before). I got called down, and I had to convince the person that I saw someone on the other side I knew. They made me stay away from the fence! Seriously, those people were watching the same team I was. They're on the home bleachers. Silly idea...

Anyway, we gestured to meet down by the fence at the concession stand, since there was a way through. I went down and around and met the rent-a-cop guarding the fence. Here's how that conversation went:

"Hey, I want to get through."

"Why?"

"I want to talk to someone on the other side."

"You can't come back if I let you through."

"Fine."

With considerable reluctance, the guard opened the gate, and with a sort of poetic irony, I crossed over from one side to the other to be with her. And you know what?

I never came back.