Auditorium Conversations - Kelly

(Excerpt from Reflections of EL: In Search of Self)

September 1973
 
     Regan and I were visiting Music & Art High School. A reunion was being held just before the regular classes got started. Regan graduated in the spring of ’72, so there were still friends in the current term that she could get together with. I had graduated two years ago and was feeling like the senior citizen by being back. After we got past the front door, we walked up the wide stairway that held the familiar five brown doors at the top of the stairs. There were mostly younger people moving around us and it seemed like school was already in session, but I knew that it couldn’t be. Everyone else had his or her own reason for being there prior to the fall term and ours just happen to be a reunion visit.
     Once in the main entryway, Regan saw some girls she recognized and she started heading in their direction to the left. I didn’t know these people, so I told her I’d be in the auditorium and I’d catch up with her in a few minutes. I stood for a moment in that crowded room of noisy people and felt sadly alone. I quickly shook off my gloomy feelings and concentrated instead on being nostalgic. It was nice being in my old school and I wanted to look around a bit. I went to the right and slowly moved through one of the heavy wooden doors.

     The auditorium still looked the same. The first thing that always struck me was the tall, double-layered royal-blue curtains that towered towards the ceiling on either side of the stage. They seemed a bit older, but perhaps they simply needed cleaning. As I walked down the left side of the three sets of rows of seats, I could see the maroon colored stage, looking well shellacked and as shiny as ever. I had noticed when I walked in that there was a girl seated on the left-hand side of the stage steps. As I got closer, I realized that it was Kelly, who I had met two years ago when I was a senior and she was a sophomore.

     For the past two years, I’d been visiting Aaron in his dormitory some weekends at Pratt Institute. We would have long, convoluted conversations about relationships and how certain people got together and then couldn’t seem to stay together. Most times, he was talking about him and Tamara. I had come to believe that we make our own destinies and we then make decisions along the way. It wasn’t until this moment that I began to believe in fate. Was it just a series of random coincidences that caused Kelly and I to meet that day, or was this meeting out of my hands and I was simply along for the ride? 

     For the past nine months, except for the unhappiness I felt with Regan at times, I was pretty much in control of the way I was running my relationships. My head would later be spinning as I wondered what life would have been like if I had gone to the left in the hallway with Regan or if I had simply not come to the reunion at all. It was my time to learn that fate had a new plan for me and there was no way that I could have foreseen it.

     “Long time, no see,” I said as I came within a few feet of Kelly. I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
     We had met each other years ago through mutual friends and could not have said more than a few words back then. I’d always thought that Kelly looked young for her age, but now at eighteen, she looked nothing but attractive to me. A red knitted, droopy cap softly held on to her brown afro-styled hair. Her bright smile sat atop a tight red turtleneck shirt and wide brown and red plaid bell-bottom pants.

     “How have you been?” I asked.
     “I’m fine,” she replied with a slight smile. “I’m waiting for some friends. They should have been here already. How are you?”
     “I’m okay. I’m at Bronx Community right now; then I’m transferring to City College in January. Can’t wait. What about you? Which school did you go to?”

     “I’m starting at Baruch downtown,” she said as she twisted her mouth a bit. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, but I don’t know if I’ll like it. I’ll just transfer somewhere closer to home if I don’t. Hey, are you still seeing Regan? I remember you two were together back then.”
     “Yeah. Some things never change,” I said with little enthusiasm. “We’re supposed to meet some people also. Anyway, I’ve got to go. Would you mind if I get your number? I’d really like to talk to you later.”
     “Let me write it here.” Kelly wrote her number on the small pad she had on her lap, ripped the page out neatly and pointed it towards me, all in one smooth motion.
As I began to tug the paper from her fingers, she held on to it.
     “Don’t forget to call me,” she said, as if she were accusing me of something.
    “I won’t forget,” I said, acting as if I were apologizing. “But you’ve got to give me the number first.”
     She loosened her grip on the paper and I placed it in my pants pocket. After giving her another kiss on the cheek, I then turned and walked toward the entry doors. I wanted to check her out one last time, but I was trying not to seem too obvious. As I was walking past the rows of seats, I glanced over my shoulder. I found her watching me, and we began to smile at the same time as if we had both been caught. Once I got past the doors, I told myself I’d call her in about two days. Calling her sooner would seem a little too anxious, even though I really wanted to.

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For the rest of the chapter and story, read: REFLECTIONS OF EL: IN SEARCH OF SELF

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