The next thing I knew, I was lying flat on my back looking up at… MY GRANDFATHER?!

“Grandfather?” I asked, unable to believe that I was suddenly seeing him.

“Lie still boy,” he said, while brushing my hair out of my eyes.

I heard something to my right and turned my head to see some strange lady and, “Stacks?” I said, unable to believe what I was seeing. Stacks was standing beside Grandfather and she was crying big whale sized tears.

“Alvin you scared the life out of me!” Stacks said half crying and half laughing.

I looked back to Grandfather, hoping he had some answers and noticed him wincing from the curse word that Stacks had flung passed his ear.

“Your perfectly fine boy.” Grandfather said with a soft nod of his head.

That strange lady came over and handed a white cloth rag to Grandfather. She then looked into my eyes, “You are fine Alvin. You had a little fainting spell, that is all.” Her words seemed to come out sounding almost robotic.

I didn’t realize how rude my question sounded when I asked, “Who are you?”

She told me her name and said that she was the school nurse. Then Stacks said that she ran to get the nurse after I passed out.

“I thought you were dead or something!” she said this time with more laughter and less tears and punctuated it with a hard sniffle.

Right about then a man walked into the room, I recognized him instantly. Well that’s not entirely true because although I knew he was our Principal and can remember Grandfather calling him by his first name of Carl, I could not remember his last name. Then again, I don’t think I have ever known his last name. I know it was an odd thing to be thinking about just then, but I can’t help what I was thinking.

Without getting up from my side Grandfather looked up to my Principal and smiled cordially before returning his attention back to me.

Now like I just said, I knew from earlier that day that Grandfather and my Principal were old buddies. So, when Grandfather saw him come in and hadn’t reacted surprised to see him; well that just didn’t add up for me.

Of Course I found out later that when Grandfather had dropped me off, he hadn’t gone home to watch Wheel of Fortune like he’d led me to believe he was going to do. No, instead he had spent the evening walking the halls and chatting with my Principal, while the two of them made sure that no one was getting into mischief. When I heard that much, it also explained how Grandfather had come to my side so quickly.

My Principal got one look at me and said, “Alvin Holloway, I’ve seen entirely too much of you already this year!” and then he winked so that I would know that he was only joking with me.

I hadn’t made the connection until much later that he had also remembered seeing me in his office on my first day at Boyd Junior High. I think he was right, he’d seen too much of me already this year and it wouldn’t bother me at all if he never got to see me again!

I know it’s anti-climactic, but that was pretty much the end of my evening. Once I was able to sit-up I said goodbye to Stacks; Grandfather thanked the school nurse and Stacks, and the Principal were going to escort us to our car, but as I was walking out of the nurses office Stacks called my name.

“Alvin?” she said almost as though she was begging me not to go just yet.

I stopped and looked; actually everyone had stopped and looked. Thankfully Grandfather, the Principal, and the school nurse had the decency to go on ahead and allow me to catch up to them.

Once we were alone, Stacks smiled, wiped at her eyes and I noticed that besides her red eyes from where she had been crying, she looked just as lovely as when I had first saw her that very evening.

“Sorry I scared you so badly.” She apologized.

I was going to say something cool like, “You didn’t really scare me” but we both would have known that wasn’t true. I mean, I had passed out right in front of her. Come to think of it, that’s the second time someone has scared me so bad that I lost consciousness. I don’t think I like the idea that I am a fainter. Anyway, as I was saying, I thought about saying something cool, but instead I apologized too.

“Yeah, well sorry I scared you too.” I said while kicking at an invisible pebble with my shoe.

She smiled wider as she added, “And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about this or about your…” she put her hands around her mouth and whispered the spelling of, “D I A P E R S.”

Just hearing Stacks spell the D-word made my heart begin racing again, but not like before. This time it was different; kind of the way Jacquelyn made me feel whenever she would email me and say something about them. I can only describe that feeling as being like a bunch of birds flapping their wings inside my chest.

“Oh and just in case he didn’t tell you;” Stacks had lowered her hands and continued speaking at a normal volume, “no one knows about Christian. Especially BB and Fish, so don’t let on that you know. He doesn’t want them to know.”

“Is he really Larry’s twin brother?” I asked.

“Yeah he is,” she said and just as before I hadn’t noticed that she was slowly moving closer to me. However, this time I wasn’t moving away. I also didn’t notice that the closer she got, the faster the birds seemed to flap.

“I think Larry knows about me.” I blurted out without even meaning to say it.

For some reason that made Stacks laugh a little.

“You don’t get it do you?” she said almost squealing.

She was only a couple feet away from me and still I hadn’t noticed that she was getting to close.

“Get what?” I asked.

“Larry and Christian might be total opposites on the outside, but inside they are exactly the same, right down to the same wetting problem.” She said.

I probably would have fell over from that bit of news had Stacks not done what she did next. She leaned down and kissed me right on the lips. It was a long kiss that seemed to last nearly an eternity. Okay, it was probably only a second or two, but it sure seemed a lot longer.

I don’t remember retrieving my coat and things or walking out to the car for that matter.

“Did I even say goodbye to Stacks?” I wondered to myself as I climbed into the front seat and instinctively buckled myself in.