Remembered Fondly, If Not Quite Accurately

I got excited and wanted to write about this at noon today but I just could not find the time, so I’m going to quickly write about it now…

There was a visitor at my workplace this morning who recognized me. He asked me if my name was Katie and with surprise on my face, I told him it was. For the next few seconds I was left to guess who he was. I thought the guy looked familiar, but I could not come close to coming up with a name. He finally told me his name is Eddie. It turned out he was a fellow schoolmate of mine when we were kids, though technically I don’t know if we ever had a class together.

He told me that he remembered me for one specific reason. It seemed that when we were about 13 years old we both went to the same dance that was being held in a church auditorium or reception hall. While at the dance Eddie asked some girl to dance and she rejected him, in Eddie’s words, “emphatically”. I can’t remember now the exact phrase Eddie said the girl used to refuse his offer to dance but it went something like, “Wooo you’re gross, get away! Get away!” Eddie was smiling and shaking his head as he recalled. I found the recollection, given the way Eddie told it, mostly funny, but in a painful sort of way.

Eddie told me that he was just a kid and was crushed by the girl’s harsh rejection. He sort of chuckled and said that he was almost in tears. But according to Eddie, a few minutes later I asked him to dance and instantly he felt better. Eddie said that he had always believed that I overheard what had happened between him and the other girl, and my asking him to dance was an act of amazing kindness.

I told Eddie that I remember going to a dance or two in a church back in those days but I could not remember asking him, or anyone, to dance. I kind of smiled as I said that in all likelihood I had not overheard the rejection he remembers so well, and when I asked him to dance it was probably for selfish reasons such as; I wanted to dance.  

Eddie grinned and said that he would have to give it some thought, but that he was probably going to continue to believe that 15 years ago the 13 year-old Katie was so humane and sympathetic that she felt compelled to ask a forlorn 13 year-old boy to dance. I have given this whole thing a few hours of thought and I have decided that if he wants to remember it that way, I have no objections.