Joel's Page
Best thing since Mikes Fuckin...I'unno
a sad story
2-12-05
"heeey joel, you wanna hear a funny story?" jd asked me. "my car is
dead."
"did you leave your lights on again?" jd nodded. "is it at the high
school?" jd grinned. "god jd, i'll give you are lift." and so i was to
trek jd across
the world to jump-start his car. i had to work in an hour and i was
wasting my
gas and my precious time on my negligent friend.
"how is not having spanish class going?" jd inquired. i hadn't really
thought
about spanish for a while. spanish two, the bane of my first semester
on a
daily basis, was finally over. i was the only senior in the entire
class, and i
didn't care enough about being there to get to know the younger kids. i
did
know one of them from the year before, however. his name was wyatt. i
didn't
think about him until later that night at work.
my spanish teacher, ms. cameron, came to eat at the restaurant where i
work. i
was terribly busy, but i went over to talk to her. i felt that i owe
her so
much more than a quick conversation, for she is one of the nicest and
most
caring teachers i have ever had. because of this i was awkward and she
probably
thought i didn't even want to speak with her. that is how it sometimes
is when
i come into contact with people. she introduced me to her son and i
said hello. "this is joel, he is a student at the high school, when he
wants to be," she
laughed good-naturedly. i retreated to the back room and to my dishes
with my
thoughts recentered on wyatt.
wyatt was a freshmen in my spanish class the year before. all wyatt
wanted to
do was have some fun , just like sheryl crow. he reminded me of myself
during
my sophomore year and the subsequent summer. the food fights we
started,
screwing with the librarians with andrew hickman, and my summer with
nic
hartmann. wyatt was the perfect cliche for the rebellious,
free-spirited youth
that i once was. he was made infamous during his freshmen orientation
when he
supposedly jumped off the high dive into the school's swimming pool
with all his
clothes on. pretty much everyone knew him after that. he was without
the fears
and anxieties that normally come with being a teenager.
this year wyatt was different. he sat by himself, and was quiet every
day. in
turn i was greatly disquieted by this. he spoke the loudest in the
class with
his silence, and this silence etched questions into my brain. what had
happened
to the individual who could whip my entire spanish class into a frenzy
what
happened to the the contageous spirit that he reeked of completely
i spoke to him once this year while we were watching a movie in class.
i sat
next to him and i noticed wyatt wasn't watching the movie at all. he
simply
looked down at his desk the whole time. "man, this class is lame," i
said,
trying to make small talk and act like some sort of hardcore rebel.
without
diverting his gaze he dryly replied, "then why are you in it?"
i wanted him to be the same long-haired kid that raised hell in my
spanish class
just one year ago. i wanted him to ease my mind and lay my fears to
rest. those words he spoke cemented my thoughts, and i was taken so off
guard that i
didn't say another word to him. not another word the whole rest of the
semester.
as the days grew colder and colder i saw less and less of wyatt. one
day he just
stopped coming to class. i haven't seen or heard of him since.
i don't know why i care about this person enough to write an article.
we were
never friends. we never talked in class. we never even uttered a single
'sup'
during the whole school year. but something happened to this individual
during
the summer that broke him on the inside. i will probably never see him
again,
but i will always wonder what happened to that guy in my spanish class
whom i
never spoke with.
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