My understanding of Geek Day is that it is primarily stories of a geeky nature. Since I see things a little differently than many, my story is actually about two events in a geek's life. A thanks to Chloe Tzang for organizing the event and to BlackRandl1958 for her editing.
2011
She was a goddess. I was a geek.
It shouldn't have happened even once, let alone twice.
They will remain as two of the greatest memories of my life.
Memories that until now had never been revealed to anyone else. Memories that I had kept to myself for 32 years.
Maurice Ramrocky died earlier that day, freeing me from a promise that I made 32 years ago. A promise I made so I could keep on living.
Thirty-two years ago, I slept with Maurice's ex-girlfriend twice. He found out about it, kicked the living shit out of me and threatened to kill me if I ever went near her again or talked about what happened. When I awoke from the concussion, I figured he was serious, and indeed, stayed away from her for all these years and never told another soul about sleeping with her.
Maurice didn't even wind up marrying the woman, breaking up with her even before our hook-ups, but I wasn't taking any chances--ever. Maurice was 6-5, 240 pounds and played Division I football for Michigan State. I am 5-10, 175, after lifting religiously for 32 years, and the closest I ever came to Division I football was sitting in my TV room watching on Saturdays in the fall.
The woman in question was named Traci-Gayle Bilyew, 32 years ago. Last I heard, her name had changed to Traci-Gayle Rollins. I haven't seen her since before my unfortunate run-in with her ex-boyfriend. My health has definitely looked up since that encounter, so, no, I wasn't going to go looking for her.
My name is Reynolds Spencer. I'm called Spence by most people. In high school I was one of those faceless, nameless kids in a school of 2,500. Schools stratify into the popular kids, the smart kids, the jocks, the kids who got in trouble all of the time and then the rest of us--2,200 kids in the middle.
I was also one of the smallest guys in my class. I graduated at 5-6, 117 pounds. While I didn't think I was that bad looking, the girls in my school had a lot of choices when it came to guys, and a guy my size wasn't high up on the list. I also tended to be on the quiet side as a way not to draw attention.
Oh, yeah, then there was the hair. That was the one thing that Traci-Gayle and I had in common. I had a shoulder-length dark brown natural, and T-G had a mid-back-length black natural. In the 1970s, there were a number of white people who got perms for Afros; there were also a number of kinky-hair people who had the "Jew 'Fro," a small picked out white Afro. Then there was my hair: under normal circumstances, a true natural; under humid circumstances, a full Afro, no perm needed.
To some in school, I was "the kid with the hair;" to others, I had to be biracial. Either way, the hair was just one more reason for girls not to think that highly of me.
It's not like I had zero dates in high school. I just didn't have a lot, and almost no repeats. So, as my high school career was coming to an end, yes, I was still a virgin.
Prom was rolling around in two months. I had two potential dates lined up, one my choice, the other the choice of several friends who were trying to fix me up. Diana Ballesteros was a short, slightly chubby, dark-haired girl with big brown eyes and a bubbly personality, the kind of girl who had a bunch of friends of both genders. My friends thought I should ask Joyce Salters, a nice kid with wavy blonde hair who rarely went out with anybody, but seemed to be friends with everyone.
I thought long and hard about whom I was going to ask. Prom was a big deal back in the day, and was usually a weekend-long event involving the prom, a meal at a nice restaurant and some sort of outing the next day. It was common to spend $200 or more for the weekend, a lot of money for a kid in those days. Of course, everyone knew that prom weekend was a great opportunity to get laid.
While Diana was my personal choice, my friends thought I should ask Joyce because they knew nobody else would ask her, and she was so nice everyone wanted her to have a prom weekend. I thought Joyce was a great kid, but if I was going to spend that kind of money, I really wanted to go with my top choice. Unfortunately for me, my top choice turned me down in favor of Billy Sullivan. I was crushed, and decided I wasn't going to go at all. My friends really put on a big push for Joyce, but I just didn't want to go at all once Diana turned me down.
Since all of my close friends had dates, I knew prom weekend was going to be a quiet time for me. I had grown okay with that. My plan was to hit a movie Friday night by myself--the ultimate loser move. So much for lifetime memories... until the impossible happened.
After parking my mom's 1972 Ford LTD in the parking lot at the movie theater, I was heading in when I spotted her standing off to the side of the entrance. It was a nice May evening, and she was standing there in short shorts and a thin blue top--obviously braless. I know I did a double-take, and I'm pretty sure I drooled. What was Traci-Gayle Bilyew doing standing there by herself dressed casually when the prom was about to start? Where was her boyfriend, Maurice? Something wasn't adding up.
"Hey, Traci-Gayle. What are you doing here? Why aren't you at the prom with Maurice?" I asked as I walked up to her.
She started to look at me like I was vermin, then her expression changed to one of sadness. She knew me about a minute's worth, mostly because goddesses like her didn't hang out with geeks like me.
"You okay?" I asked.
I could see the wheels turning in her head. I assumed she was trying to decide if she should tell me the truth or make up a lie. Considering who I was in her life--nothing--I guess she figured she could tell me the truth.
"No, I'm not okay," she practically whispered. "Maurice dumped me last week and he's at the prom with Mahalia Freeman. I was just thinking of going into the theater. There's absolutely no one around to do anything with."
Yes, I totally understood where I fit into T-G's life. You get used to it after a while.