The past

This evening I met with 2 of my friends to have dinner and chat. After dinner one of them and I were standing outside the restaurant talking some more. The parking lot didn't have a lot of light in it, but we could still see.

I saw a guy walking towards us and I figured he was coming from the restaurant and heading to his car. We kept talking. He stopped about 10 feet away from us. I wasn't expecting what was coming.

Him: Sorry to bother you but do you guys have fifty cents?

Before we could say anything he literally floored me.

Him: Are you Annie Andring?

I looked at him again.

Me: Eric Malcom??
Him: Yeah, remember, The Nutcracker...*rambles off*

I've known Eric since 1st grade. Every year we were in the same class. In the 5th grade we were both toy soldiers in The Nutcracker and spent a lot of time together then. He was a nice guy. I didn't see him as much in high school, he went off and did his own thing and so did I. His own thing did lead more into the drug side of life (and mine didn't). I probably haven't seen him since high school graduation in *cough*2001*cough*. So it's been a while.

I knew he was not doing that well because a few months ago my friend Morgan saw him as well and he was asking her for spare change out side of a grocery store. She said he didn't look that great.

He looked different. His eyes still looked the same as I remember, but the rest of him was different. He did ramble some like he maybe was intoxicated and didn't make a whole lot of sense before he headed off down the street. He said he was going away from the next block over because he heard shouting and that worried him. He was unkempt, but somewhat clean looking. His face wasn't hollow like you see with people who have certain drug addictions, so there was that. I don't think I ever saw him before with facial hair, and he had a light beard now.

His eyes were still the same that I remember looking back at me in our class photos.  

But he knew who I was. After not seeing him for over a decade, at almost 9pm at night in a rather dark parking lot from 10 feet away.
And he mentioned the school play we were in 21 years ago.

Something is still in there that remembers these things. And that kinda makes me sad, for him, that he's not the same guy I remember growing up. He was a nice guy and even in high school when we went our separate ways, he still talked to me. Said hi. Stuff like that. He was genuinely nice, especially since I was the opposite of everyone else he was friends with. I also remember he was protective of his sister who was a few years older than us and if anyone talked badly about her he stood up for her.

It made me really sad. I had to go to my moms on the way home and tell her that story because she's known him since he was in kindergarden. She was our music teacher and she did the play that year. It did make her happy that he remembered The Nutcracker and she was impressed that through everything he still had that memory of us all those years ago.

But it still made me sad. I don't know if I'll ever see him again, but I hope things get better for him.