Oh the things you see

The other day I went to the store and on the way out I passed a whole passel of gentlemen with mental retardation. I didn't really pay attention to them, until at the end of the group I saw one that I recognized. *!* Why did I recognize this guy? Was it from my 6 months working at State School? Nnnnoooo. I remember. Flash back to the fall of 1989. *imagine Scooby Doo wavy line effects at this point of the narrative*

It was my first time away from Argyle. I was finally at Denton High, a much bigger and varied school. Most of the people from Argyle went to Marcus or Northwest, so I felt freed from my past. It was a good time, ripe with possibility. Second period came around, and the PE coach sat us all down and announced to us that everyday, we would be running a mile. If we couldn't run a mile or didn't want to run a mile everyday, we were to get up right now and go to the councilor's office and transfer to ROTC. ROTC would count for our PE credit and all we had to do was sit in a desk for an hour everyday. Well, that sounded like the life for me, so I got up and gat, along with several other girls. Within the hour I was sitting in ROTC, listening to Major Ivy's stupid jokes and doodling. Certainly the life, that.

There was just one problem. There was only one hall that I could take to get to ROTC, and for some reason the special ed students hung out in that hall during the time when I was going to class. EVERY DAY. One of the guys took a liking to me, and would talk to me everyday. Not wanting to be rude, I would say hello and make comments like, "That's great!" as I hurried past with my head down. Soon this fellow decided I was his girlfriend and would find me all over the school. At lunch, he would stand in the middle of the lunch room and scream, "There's my girlfriend," while pointing at me. When I was on the bus with the few Argylites who did come to Denton, he would stand across the street from the bus announcing that he was looking for his girlfriend until my busmates would gleefully point me out to him. Before school, when I was on the way to ROTC, any time he could, he would run up to me shouting everything that came into his head, but mostly his feelings for me. It was, to say the least, embarrassing. My friend Cathy told me I should complain, but I wouldn't, I didn't want to get the poor guy in trouble, so she told her dad, who said he'd take care of it! I was a little apprehensive, but also relieved. Well, a couple of days later, I'm sitting in Mrs Waldo's classroom before school (she let me and Cathy hang out there so we wouldn't have to hang out in the hall with the rabble), and Cathy comes in and tells me they want to see me in the office. What, why? What did I do? Nothing, of course. It turned out her dad had gone in to talk to the powers that be about this guy with Cathy, and they pulled the guy and his special ed teacher in and he kept saying, "THAT's not my girlfriend!" They finally asked Cathy if she knew where the girl in question was and told her to get me. It happened to be a Wednesday, the day I had to wear my ROTC uniform to school, so in I come, looking so prim and proper with my black pumps and nice blue a-line skirt and my baby blue shirt pressed just so with official looking patches and pins all over, and my hair all neatly put into a turned under french braid, and they tell me to tell what happened. I try to play it down, saying it wasn't really that big a deal, but Cathy keeps piping up with all the details. They tell the guy that I am not his girlfriend, and that if he can't interact normally with people he'd have to go back to State School. At this news, he grew quite agitated and started shaking his head violently and saying, "NO, NO, I don't want to go back, I'll be good!" I felt so bad for him. They told him this was his last chance, and that if he bothered me again, he'd have to go back. Then they dismissed me with an apology for my hardships. Forever after that, when I went up the hall to ROTC, he'd see me, and his eyes would light up, and he'd start to move toward me, and then he would remember and the light would die and he would snatch his hands against his chest and turn away from me and face the other way. I felt bad that I caused that light to die, but I also felt relieved that it wasn't being announced to the world that I was a retard's girlfriend. I mean, I already got enough ribbing cause the Argyle bus was a "short bus," I really didn't need a retard boyfriend on top of that.

And the day before that at ANOTHER store, I actually ran into Mrs Waldo! Man, you never know what you'll see at the store. Crazy.