Back at the end of September, the legacy orchestra played at Rice for their first beginners concert. It was really great to play and see Mrs Fox and Mrs D and walk down the old hallways and visit my old orchestra locker and help stack chairs at the end of the concert. (haha it hadn't even been half a year at that point but I still was really nostalgic.)
Anyways, after all the chairs and stands were racked and put back into the correct rooms and most people had left and the sky was dark purple with a tinge of red, I walked outside to the sound of crickets chirping and a breeze of cool air. I tried to call my mom to pick me up but for some reason the call wasn't going through so I just hung around near the flagpole enjoying the quiet and hoping I wasn't being bitten by too many mosquitoes.
There were some other students and parents talking to Mr. Glasscock who was staying and making sure everyone got their ride home and no one was left by themselves in the dark. Slowly, one by one, all of the students left as I kept trying to call my mom. So then it was just Mr. Glasscock and me, and he asked when my parents were going to come, and I explained that my calls weren't going through for some reason, and I started feeling bad for making him stay for so long so I just started walking in the direction of home and maybe just hide behind the building until he thinks I left and idk? I also just kinda wanted to be alone and yeah.
So Mr. Glasscock walked up and was like you still here? And I was like yeah but I finally got a call through so the two of us sort of just sat on the curb near an orange-glowing streetlight waiting for my parents to come.
Mr. Glasscock I guess couldn't take silence so he was trying to make conversation.
"How's Jasper?" he asked in a tired sounding voice, and I was just like "It's okay."
"Is it harder?"
"I guess, but it's not as different as I thought it would be."
"I have 2 daughters in high school."
[I can't really remember what I said to this, it was probably something lame like oh that's cool]
"How are your grades?"
"Okay. Not good enough."
"What are they, like 96s?" this said with a sort of sad tired laugh in his voice.
*heh heh nervous laughter*
..
"How's your GPA?"
"I don't know, I haven't calculated."
"GPA takes all the fun out of learning."
..
"Yeah."
At this point I looked up to see his face, dimly lit by the orange glow of the streetlamp. His tired face, a face I imagine once glowed with limitless joy in teaching and learning, now just so done and not even frustrated anymore, just tired. Disappointed.
Mr. Glasscock had now gone on to complain about the mosquitoes, but I had the sound of his voice, the look of his face imprinted into my thoughts, where I turned the image over and over in my mind the whole ride back, staring out the open window at the houses going by, glows of orange against the dark sky.
