The Headmaster :- Part 1

a story by Brainstormandthethinker

For the last 30 years he had been the headmaster of one of the most prestigious Academies in the state of Maine. He spent at least the last eight years battling with an aggressive form of cancer. Sadly two months previous he had received the dreadful news. The one which he had hoped he would never have to hear. The battle was lost he was terminally ill and was dying. Perhaps he had no more than a few weeks to live.

That night he sat in front of his computer typing out his letter of resignation. Tomorrow he would submit it to the board, intending to step down from work as effective immediately. The following week he would be checking into a hospice where he expected to spend his last days.

His family didn't seem to care they seem too busy squabbling among themselves trying to determine who gets what after his passing. As he neared the end of his life, such things seems so trivial and petty to him, even insignificant. He knew they would still be continuing to squabble amongst themselves long after he had gone.

Typing a letter of resignation was not exactly his job, That was supposed to be the work of his personal assistant. Sadly the faithful but elderly Mrs. Gray had retired two weeks prior. Her replacement was a young blond, fresh out of secretarial school not the sort of person he feels he can put his faith in. Make no mistake she was competent. She passed the interview with flying colors and though feisty she had a clear sense of direction and responsibility. Everyone on the panel but him seemed certain that she was the best candidate to get the job. Perhaps in the end she would serve better whoever was going to replace him.

With the word processor loaded and the appropriate letter template displayed in front of him in full view, he briefly sat in his chair and stared at his PC's view screen. All that remained was for him to type in three paragraphs and then save the file. Next all he had to do was to print the document and after that it would be job done, a simple task.

But tonight there was something wrong. No matter how hard he tried to focus he couldn't concentrate. He was lost in his thoughts, there was something else on his mind. So he decided to pause and reflect for a while.

A series of stray thoughts were invading his mind. There were about something that happened as far back as 55 years ago at a time when he was in high school. Definitely a long, long time ago, a time when he was a young man, somewhat chubby but healthy. But why now, this sort of thing has never happened to him before. In fact throughout his entire life he has always looked forward and never back.

Deciding to explore further, He recalled high school. Things were definitely different back in those days, he wasn't one of the popular students yet he was fortunate that he was not one of the unpopular ones either. Had that been the case his life would have been an utter misery back then. Though a member of the out crowd he survived and he did have his own circle of friends. As one might say "even the biggest losers have birds of a feather*1".

He recalled the elite crowd of jocks and cheerleaders. Popular, athletic and top of the list, back then it seems that their part-time jobs was making fun of people like him. Today those of them were still alive were long past their prime. The have had their share of the limelight, they rose up but now today all status and achievements they had made was reduced to naught. Most were gone and those few left withering and wilting away in old folks homes. Some with their memory barely intact, others probably daydreaming of the good old days past, the days when they had high status which today they no longer had.

And then lastly he recalled her. With beautiful curly raven hair she was part of the out crowd just like he was. But she never let it get to her, every time he saw her she always seemed happy and smiling.

Indeed he liked her a lot, though to this day he couldn't be sure if he ever had any feelings for her and even if he did he knew she would never have reciprocated them. She was just content to have him as a friend and that was fine by him. Even after all this time he could still picture her, that warm smile.

That was her, always there with a few words of kindness always there, always had something to say that would make you feel good about yourself no matter how helpless or miserable you felt.

Then there was this scandal followed by a tragedy, people said she caused it. After the tragedy he never saw her again, some of the elite had also died in the tragedy and those who lived would later implicated in a scandal and then knocked off of their pedestal. They went on to have there lives, some achieved their dreams, other never achieved their aspirations and then there were those who never achieved anyone expectations. But in the end, all off them fell into steady decline and by this day remained utterly forgotten.

In some way his pathway now may not be any different than their, at least not today. Even if all was well and had he not been terminally ill, he would still have been in a state of decline. At 67 years he was old school. Today new ideas were replacing old ones, the time would come soon for him to stand aside and let newer revolutionary minds to take his place. Still he would have left behind a legacy that if not remembered for ever would surely not be forgotten so quickly.

He couldn't help mustering a chuckle as he wondered what his obituary would look like not that he would be able to see it. She never had hers assuming she didn't survive the tragedy.

Today the tragedy was forgotten like everyone and everything else. Back then it wasn't one of those little things. In the short term aftermath everyone knew someone who in some way had been affected by the tragedy.

The strangest thing of all, he thought was that despite all the thoughts flowing through his mind and keeping him from typing his letter, he could not recall any more what was he doing when the tragedy was taking place. Even after all this time. Try as hard as he might he could not remember. He certainly never forgot what happened after the tragedy had come to pass.

To Be Continue In

Remember Me One More Time.

*1 This is the same quote used by Detective Mulchaey in the 2002 adaptation