Ah fall! The leaves begin to turn, the weather begins to cool down...and here in southern California, the whole damn place seems to catch on fire! It happens every year! The sky is covered with thick brown smoke and you hear fire trucks screaming by all day long.
For me, a junior high school teacher, it also meant the start of a new semester and a whole batch of new students to educate. I took my job seriously and put in all those extra hours that are necessary to really do a decent job of teaching. I loved the kids too. Every year there would be the usual goof offs, smart alecks, brown nosers and delinquents. But there were also always a few special kids that I really enjoyed teaching. Sometimes, I got to keep in touch with them after graduation.
There was one special boy I'll never forget. No, not a student as it turned out but unforgettable just the same. We lived in a semi remote neighborhood overlooking the San Fernando Valley and carpooling was just something everyone up there did. We all took turns and sometimes you had to deliver a student to a different school than the one your kids attended. That's how I met Tommy.
My son Justin told me of a new family that lived just across Topanga from us. They'd recently moved to Los Angeles from Louisiana and my son described them as "A bunch of out of it hicks." I believe the term today would be "Nerds" but I scolded my son for his insensitive comment.
"They dress all hokey!" He insisted. "I heard the son wears brown shoes!"
"Justin don't crucify him just because he comes from the South!" I quickly shot back. "Remember, your mother came here from Texas. Same general neighborhood you know." My son just rolled his eyes and didn't respond. He was mortified the next day when he found out I'd sought out the new family and invited them to join the carpool.
"Ma! The fellas will be all over me!" He wailed. Honestly! children can be so cruel. Justin had little to say about this matter, however and we began to pick up Tommy and his sister Juliet every other morning. Tommy was a quiet lad and attended Taft high so I had to deliver him to school after the others had left the car. I attempted several times to strike up a conversation with the boy but he was clearly feeling like a fish out of water in California and was uncomfortable trying to talk to me about it.
"It's just...real different here" was about all I could get out of him. I remembered what it was like when I moved from Houston and how unfriendly the children here seemed back then. I made no further effort to pressure Tommy into conversation knowing that he would eventually make friends here. I urged him to give it time.
The school year passed slowly and Tommy was fortunate enough to go back to Louisiana for a visit over Christmas vacation. I knew he was eagerly looking forward to the trip and I asked him about it when school resumed in January.
"It was fun, yeah." He told me. "Got to see all my old friends again. They's all askin' me about those California girls and was it really sunny and warm all winter?" He smiled.
"Do you have a girlfriend back in Lake Charles?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Oh...I don't guess I do. There's one girl I was always kinda sweet on..." Tommy looked out the window as we approached Taft. "She said she missed me and stuff."
"Well, it sounds like maybe she would like to be your girlfriend Tommy." I told him, happy that he was finally opening up even if just a little.
"I think maybe I goofed it up though Mrs. Brockman." He replied looking up at me. It was rare for Tommy to even make eye contact, he seemed so painfully shy. We'd arrived at the high school and he just said "Bye" and jumped out of the car as usual.
Justin refused to make any attempt to make friends with Tommy even though they both played baseball and were not that far apart in age. He considered Louisiana to be just west of Mars and anyone from there didn't deserve to be considered "One Of the Guys." So Tommy and I usually waited until the car was empty before chatting. It wasn't easy to get Tommy to speak so I usually would rattle on about events in my life and hoped Tommy would respond. Eventually, he did from time to time.
By June of course, the weather was heating up and school was finally winding down. Tommy and I had our own little talks every morning en route to school and I came to understand that I was virtually the only friend he had. The last week of school I decided to invite him to our home to swim over the summer. His face brightened when I mentioned it to him and he said he'd ask his Mom if it would be okay.
Of course Justin was aghast when he found out. "You invited that fink over to swim Mom?" He was ready to launch into another of his tirades when I interrupted him.
"Listen Justin, he won't get cooties in the pool and it's my house too you know. I can invite anyone I want over to swim and you don't have to make friends or even be here for all I care." That was fine with him.
I got a call from Tommy's mother thanking me for the invitation and she said she hoped her son wouldn't be intruding. I assured her that he was perfectly welcome and hardly anyone used the pool during the week anyway. My husband and I were actually nudists and were rarely home on weekends when we usually went to the camp down in the canyon. I didn't mention that to Tommy's mother for obvious reasons.
So I wasn't surprised when I began to get occasional calls from the lonely young man and he would show up all ready to dive in the pool. I have a long standing policy of now allowing anyone to swim alone for safety reasons so I usually hung out on the patio with Tommy while he frolicked in the water. I'd fix a pitcher of lemonade for us and we'd sit under the umbrella and chat afterwards.
