Maxine Pt 2

Part 2 of my attempt to make my life seem more dramatic than it really is. I think I'm really just writing to be writing. Here is the conclusion of the Maxine story.


We stood outside the Savannah Civic Center, freshly minted high school graduates. Maxine had her thug boyfriend's arm draped around her. My Brandy look a like girlfriend stood next to me, paying more attention to her friends in the school band than to me. Although events of the last year (too embarrassing to write about) had strained our relationship a little, Maxine and I found our way back to the comfortable friendship we had nurtured over the past 6 years. I had accepted that Maxine would never be my girl, even getting in (and out) of a serious (for high school) relationship. Although I still felt her, I was no longer playing myself for her.

"So what are you doing tonight?" I asked.

"The family is going to dinner and then to the party at the Masonic Lodge"

"Oh, so you just forgot to invite me" I joked.

"No, come on now. You know, everyone is gonna be there. What you need an engraved invitation or something?" she said, hitting me on the arm.

"Okay, then I'll see you there tonight. I'm gonna roll with Kareem and Tori."

"Congratulations Hoodlum! We did it!!!"

"Damn, right, Princess! High School Graduates!"

We hugged and she gave me a peck on the cheek and then we went our separate ways. I walked across the parking lot with a sense of relief. For some reason, at the time, high school felt like war. If only I knew that school was cake compared to going to work every day and paying bills.

I never did make it to the party, though. I went to dinner with the fam and I was just about to roll out to the party when my father took me aside to offer me some words of wisdom between sips of Seagrams and drags on his Newports. I got ready to leave again, and then my mother cried and held on for dear life. Then my grandmother had to pray over me. Before I knew it, it was late as hell. When my boys and I got to the party, the police had already shut it down. Something about somebody shooting off guns in the vicinity. Savannah was like that. You couldn't ever have any function without violence happening. I went through all that to say that I missed Maxine. As the summer went on, my lack of a car as well as my hanging out with "Brandy", prevented me from seeing Maxine again. Before I knew it, it was time for college, I went to Savannah State and Maxine went to Georgia Southern. It was only 45 minutes away, but I never saw her again.

Until tonight. Just by chance, Maxine, or her doppelganger, just happened to be in the same Kroger, at the same time, on the same night as me. I don't usually talk to people when I'm out, my self diagnosed social anxiety disorder stops that. But I had to know if it was her. I don't know if I really wanted it to be her, or not. I mean, what can I say that I have accomplished in the 15 years since I last saw her? Never married, no kids, not where I want to be in my career. What if it was her and she achieved her dream of becoming a lawyer while I didn't become the successful rapper or writer that she told me I could be? What if she is happily married with children while I am perpetually single, albeit mostly by choice? What if? Oh, forget the what ifs? I decided to go for it and approached her in the ice cream aisle.

"Hey, Maxine?" I inquired.

She didn't look up. Although we were the only two people in the area, she must have thought I was talking to someone else.

"Excuse me, Is your name Maxine?"

"No, I'm such and such." I forget what her name really was.

"I'm sorry. You just look like someone I went to school with. Sorry for bothering you"

"No problem. Where did you go to school?"

"In Savannah."

"Nah, I'm a Grady Baby. I'm from here."

"Okay, sorry again. Have a good night."

It wasn't Maxine. But it looked just like her.