I Should Have Danced With Her

A personal history of missed opportunities

Illustrations by the author

In my high school gym class, they taught us how to dance. This was bad of them, having gym. Why is there gym?

If you immediately have an answer for this, you’re part of the problem.

I hated changing in the locker room. Before high school, I’d heard reports that they forced students to shower after gym. My fear lingered. I kept expecting the gym teacher to step into the room or unfold himself out of a locker and say, “Strip.” Those who remained clothed would be undressed violently by the nude and then dragged into the communal shower.

Only one good thing happened in the locker room. I saw my first real fight.

Brian Shaw, an old friend, battled against a wild kid, a youth freshly shucked from the deep woods. We had many wild woods kids at my high school. They had pine sap for blood, animal eyes in their heads, and they spoke only one language: heavy metal.

Erskine Academy was a Roman outpost, a hub of order surrounded by several barbarian kingdoms. Forest Kingdoms of Maine: Chelsea, China, Jefferson, Palermo, Somerville, Vassalboro, Whitefield, and Windsor.

I had been collected from the sticks of Palermo. Yes, I was of the woods, but not as much as many of the children…