Thus it continues

Well, the story of Frankie is still a work in progress. I'm not sure where it is taking me. More of the story, picking up from the last post.

And there he was at Homecoming. He stood the side, alone. Frankie had on a pinstriped suit, a good looking suit, but it was just a size too big and hung askew on his thin shoulders. He wore a Fedora, like one the Rat Pack might have worn. It was a classy hat, that be sure. In his hand he clutched a gorgeous red rose, a perfect, gorgeous red rose.

“Frankie! Looking sharp!” I said by way of greeting.

He gave his peculiar grin, a thin lipped half smile.

“Whose the rose for?” my date asked him.

“She’s on her way,” said Frankie, the smile widening just a little.

“Well cool!” was my response.

We exchanged a few more words and my date and I headed out to the dance floor leaving Frankie alone on the side.

*

I had two classes with Frankie. I was a peer tutor for another student in the same Special Ed class as Frankie, and he sat in front of me in Choir. I would like to say I knew him better than the others. We had had a few conversations and I always had a smile for him in the halls. But, the truth of the matter is I knew nothing about him. Looking back now, I am filled with a strange curiosity for his life; his passions, dreams, pet peeves, hobbies, and habits, all of which I don’t know now because I never asked then.

I think back to the faces I passed every day in the halls of my high school. The faces and the routines of the faces were familiar. Every day, I knew whom I’d see with whom, and where they’d be. The drama nerds, the band geeks, the emos, the cowboys, the jocks, the well liked, the disliked, the popular, and the outcasts, all were familiar to me. And yet, how little I knew. I had my cliques, they had theirs. We stuck to our own kind. Sad and strange as the years fall away how much we are alone.

Frankie ate lunch on a table with the Special Ed class. It was the table closest to the lunch line and closest to the library. Jokes, conversation, and food were shared at their table, the same as any other. What, I wonder, was often the topic of conversation?

*