Time of Your Life
01.
When I was eleven, my mother had asked me to grab her credit card from the drawer of her nightstand in her bedroom. This wasn’t a time in her life that she was particularly proud of; she had an infomercial shopping addiction. Whether it was a ‘clapper’ or ‘the next generation in hair removal products’ you name it, she bought it.
As I searched through her belongings, expired grocery coupons, take-out menus, old bank statements, tweezers, a pack of unused tissues, I came across a small Polaroid. Immediately I recognized a younger version of myself in the foreground of the photograph. But as I admired the Polaroid, I found that my attention gravitated towards the other boy whose profile was partially obscured by my own.
I reached into the drawer and held it between my thumb and forefinger, and for a moment or two I examined it as one would a baseball card- on the front was a captured still of an ‘athlete in action’, on the back were their ‘stats’ for that season. The ‘stats’ on this card, in a loose hand read ‘Ben and Brody, Spring of 2000’.
Although much of the boy was obscured what was perceptible held an eerie resemblance.
As you get older, there are a lot of things in this world that you tend to forget- where you had your house keys last, to turn off the television before you fall asleep in front of it, what your thoughts were before the pop-fly to center-field knocked you right in the kisser.
But, then there are things that you do remember- when Suzie Feltman the girl next door broke your heart in the 4th grade; the kid who put a wad of gum in your hair when you were 10 because rumor had it that you were the one who stole his prized holographic charazard pokemon card from his desk; and your first friend.
That day as I held the Polaroid between my fingers, I would remember Benjamin. We were best friends. He liked superheroes and cars, the ‘fire-cracker popsicles’ that the ice cream man always seemed to have a never-ending supply of. Ben liked to play ‘hide-and-seek’ and wrestle.
But that was all that I could remember.
Never did I think, that Ben and I were anything more than childhood friends.
Never did I think, that Ben and I were brothers.
As I searched through her belongings, expired grocery coupons, take-out menus, old bank statements, tweezers, a pack of unused tissues, I came across a small Polaroid. Immediately I recognized a younger version of myself in the foreground of the photograph. But as I admired the Polaroid, I found that my attention gravitated towards the other boy whose profile was partially obscured by my own.
I reached into the drawer and held it between my thumb and forefinger, and for a moment or two I examined it as one would a baseball card- on the front was a captured still of an ‘athlete in action’, on the back were their ‘stats’ for that season. The ‘stats’ on this card, in a loose hand read ‘Ben and Brody, Spring of 2000’.
Although much of the boy was obscured what was perceptible held an eerie resemblance.
As you get older, there are a lot of things in this world that you tend to forget- where you had your house keys last, to turn off the television before you fall asleep in front of it, what your thoughts were before the pop-fly to center-field knocked you right in the kisser.
But, then there are things that you do remember- when Suzie Feltman the girl next door broke your heart in the 4th grade; the kid who put a wad of gum in your hair when you were 10 because rumor had it that you were the one who stole his prized holographic charazard pokemon card from his desk; and your first friend.
That day as I held the Polaroid between my fingers, I would remember Benjamin. We were best friends. He liked superheroes and cars, the ‘fire-cracker popsicles’ that the ice cream man always seemed to have a never-ending supply of. Ben liked to play ‘hide-and-seek’ and wrestle.
But that was all that I could remember.
Never did I think, that Ben and I were anything more than childhood friends.
Never did I think, that Ben and I were brothers.
♠ ♠ ♠
revival and a re-write of an old story I had up a while back; unfortunately when the computer went, the files for that story went with it. let me know what you think.