jaylar
There are many insults one can pay. The greatest is forgetting.
Years ago, Bryan was, in his mind,’King’ of the School. He always remembered how people deferred to him, how he strode about the campus as a colossus. He could recall almost every day of his time in High School. Where he was, what he did, on and on.
He was deep in his forties, still strolling about as if he were some sort of royalty.
At some function he heard a woman admit what High School she had attended. He turned to her and asked when?
He didn’t notice she was surrounded by a half dozen people, and they had been discussing some tangential topic.
She told him.
“I was there at the same time,” he stated, looking into her face. She viewed him, blankly.
“I am Bryan Paler.”
Her face stayed blank.
“Bry an Payler…” he repeated slowly.
“I don’t remember you… “ she said, shaking her head.
He looked at her, and he actually recalled that she used to wear her hair in a long lank way, no style. She turned back to her friends, and they spoke of other things.
How was it she didn’t remember him? Everyone had to remember him. Didn’t they?
The fact he had lived all his life thinking he was important and noticed, and yet…he left the function as if someone had died.
