Betty went to Burton and I went to Stokes. We didn't know anybody who went to Woodmont. So, at Hillsboro, she kept seeing Burton People and I kept seeing Stokes people and we never saw any Woodmont people. It was like we were on these tectonic plates that moved around and bumped into each other, but never really came together.
I went to Woodmont once, after school. It was early fall and I remember being out on the basketball court. I had a camera with me. I cannot imagine why I would have been carrying a camera around, but I know I had it because I took a picture with it.
I took a picture of Cam Talley and Trish Champion. Both standing together, in angora sweaters and sheath skirts, holding their books in their arms, and smiling. I pointed my kodak at them and took their picture. I can't believe I had the guts to do that. Cam, I had blown my chance with in first grade, and I never even spoke to Trish Champion until we were both in our forties. But somehow, through gestures and signs, I guess, I conveyed to them both that I wanted to take their picture.
I kept that picture for forty years. It was in a big cardboard box in the attic with hundreds of other pictures, taken over the years, but I knew where it was. One day, Betty told me that she had thrown out all the old pictures in that old box, except those of our immediate family. She knew what she was doing.
But I still have that picture in my mind. It was late afternoon and the sun was behind them, low in the sky. And there were leaves on the ground.
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