Friday, March 18, 2016

frozen in time



Mae forgot to close her mouth. Ben practically shut it for her, when he nudged her in shoulder, to wake her up to reality.

Irwin Kimble was home, and he was looking straight at her. Oh, that smile. How could she forget it?After all, he was her first crush in seventh grade.

"You, do look familiar," he said with a wince and a smile at the library counter.

"Oh..I-" Mae started.

"No, not you." Irwin put a stop to it, ever so quickly before she could unload a middle school moment. "No, you." He almost pointed to Ben, but after all Irwin was the best mannered boy in school. Was..he was no longer a boy?

Mae thought she might collapse if she looked at him any longer.

"Huh?" Ben looked startled as he held on to a cart of books he was going to double check, in the back and almost toppled them over Mae, but she manage to steady the cart just in time. "Me?" Ben drew a blank.

"You,beat me in the fifth grade Spelling Bee." Oh, Irwin smiled just like he used too. He was the pride of the class, after all.

"I..I could spell?" Irwin's revelation made Ben burst into laughter. "That's really..I dunno what that is, dude." Ben shook his head with a smile. "Seriously, I can not spell." He sighed.

"Um..well..you..remember what happened to him..don't you?" Mae winced hard, not wanting to go on public record about Ben's accident, even if she guessed it was self-inflected, and probably too pitiful to explain. "High School." Her last words to clue Irwin in.

"High school?" Now he looked dumbed down, "Oh, did we go to high school together?" He winced.

Mae made a quick smile.

"Yeah, I remember you." Obviously, just like she thought, he didn't remember her at all.

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