He didn't understand

 He didn’t understand. Hearing a knock at the door of his second-floor garage apartment in a rundown section of Westville, his feet moved slowly, keeping pace with his mind. Opening the door, Orville was surprised to see, on that early Saturday morning in May, a stranger. Bemused by the appearance of an unknown face way too near his own, he stepped back, almost tripping over his clunky house shoed feet.

"Orville, it’s me, Wallace don’t you remember me?"

 With the voice flowing into the face, a shudder rippled through Orville’s doughy body. Remembrances of hurtful teasing and bullying 20 years ago at Westville High were conjoined with the shiver from the past.

             " I came to apologize for the way we treated you in high school. I have wanted for many years to do so. When the news of the 20 year class reunion came out, I promised myself I would find you. Can I come in?"

              'Yes, I guess"

 Realizing Orville was not encumbered with all of society’s niceties; Wallace found a chair in the sparsely furnished efficiency apartment and sat down.

             " What do you want? I don’t like you."

             "Orvy…."

              "Don’t call me that."

              "God, I am so sorry, bad habits eh? Orville I really want to try and make up for the way we treated you in high school"

              "You were the leader; you said I was a fat, dumb kid, you were the worst."

With head bowed, Wallace said. "yes you are right. I was the worst and I am so, so sorry; I was hoping maybe we could spend some time together the next couple of days, get to know each other."

              "I don’t know"

"I have my new car outside. Maybe we could go for a ride and just talk a bit. We can fill each other in on what we have been doing for the last 20 years. You can probably see my car from your window there."

Cars had always enthralled Orville, a collector of match box cars from the age of six to that very day. Eagar to see the car. He hurried to the widow and pulled back the scalloped edge of the gauzy white curtain.

"Wow, a ZR1, it's beautiful"

"I just picked it up. Would you like to ride in it?"

"Would I ever?"

Wallace drove Orville around Westville, a small town in western Kansas, even getting on I-70 where he showed off the ZR1’s performance. All the misgivings about Wallace disappeared with the thrill of riding in the beautiful yellow corvette. As they rode around, the now friendly former Westville wildcats talked about themselves. In the conversation, Orville mentioned he worked at the ARC thrift store Monday thru Friday but was on vacation this week.

              "I can’t believe it; I work for ARC in Missouri."

              "Really?"

              "Yeh I work in the office"

             "Cool"

              "Orville, I need to go see my aunt. Would you like to go out again tomorrow?"

  "Yes, could I drive the car?

              "Do you have a license?"

              "Yes, but a licensed driver has to be with me"

After Wallace dropped Orville off, he went inside and, rasing the corner of his mattress, took out a 20 dollar bill and almost ran to the Ace hardware store 6 blocks away and purchased a matchstick car, a yellow ZR1.

That night Orville fell asleep holding the little corvette clutched tightly in his fist, held close to his right cheek all night long.

The next morning, Orville awoke with a right fist locked shut, seemingly unable to move on their own. Orville used his left hand to pry open each finger of the fist until that bright yellow ZR1 fell to the floor. Seeing that he had slept late, Orville hurriedly dressed, grabbed a protein bar and pulled a chair up to the window so he would see Wallace as soon as he arrived.

Wallace drove up right on time and before he could get his door open, Oliver was opening the passenger side door and dropping into the seat.

              "When can I drive, see my license?"

              "Wouldn’t you like to practice a little? We could go to the old K-Mart store parking lot."

              "Yeah, that’s a good idea."

They spent 20 minutes in the parking lot, surprising Wallace Orville wasn’t a terrible driver. "Orville I think you’re ready to drive around town. I bet some of your friends will see you driving this car and think it’s yours. I will sink down in the seat so no one will see me."

"Oliver, with a king of the world grin, cautiously drove around, telling Wallace exactly where they were in a town they both knew by heart. Mentioning to Wallace that they just turned onto Johnstone Avenue, Wallace blurted out, Oh, I almost forgot I need to take some jewelry into Reeds Jewelers to be repaired. Can you park in front of it?"

              "Sure"

Once parked, Wallace still slouched down, reached underneath the passenger seat and pulled out a black cloth bag with a drawstring and said come on in with me. Quickly entering the store and walking up to the glass enclosed counter, Wallace spoke when Mr. Reed immediately recognized Orville with a smiling hello Young Man.

              Wallace, showing Mr. Reed the bag, said, "I have some old jewelry here. I wanted to see if the clasps could be repaired and some of it cleaned up."

             "Sure, let me see what you’ve got"

             "Oh, Orville, this might take a while. Why don’t you go out and watch the car, play some loud music?

              Thanks. I’ll do that

Orville went to the car and proudly entered the driver’s side and began listening to music as suggested, not too loud, because he didn’t want to offend anyone, but with Kicker subwoofer pounding away, he was oblivious to any outside sounds.

With his head down and bouncing to the music, Orville was startled when he saw flashing lights in front and behind and police surrounding the car with guns drawn.

When the solid door with a small slot was slammed shut, Orville stood staring at the small opening with tears in his eyes, saying "I don’t understand" when the little slot disappeared.

                                                                                The End