Quite unexpectedly, I have a happy story to share.
Carnacki, trying to post a Happy Story Diary, was reminded by the dailyKos komputer kop he'd already posted his one diary today. He called me.
Happily, after a day where I had an abundance of round pegs trying to meet the world's demand to fill square holes, I now feel supremely useful.
Carnacki's happy story:
I've mentioned before that I have a biblio problem. (See Got a happy story?, for example.)
The other night, after a long and stressful day at work, I told Ms.
Carnacki I had to stop at the farm supply store to pick up rock salt for the water softener. I picked up the water softner and then went next door to Wonder Book and Video where they are having a moving sale. All books $1.
It was fairly late by the time I got there and there were only two other
customers, a couple, in the store. Wonder Book and Video has four locations and has been featured in USA Today and other publications as one of the great places to buy used books. I don't think it's as good as the Strand in New York City, and it's certainly not Hay on Wye in Wales, but nevertheless, it's the kind of place that a biblioholic makes excuses to his wife about in order to spend a couple of hours in the stacks.
The other couple was a biker-looking man in his early 30s with close-cropped hair, black leather jacket and tattoos on his neck. His girlfriend had bleach blonde hair and a cute, pixie face. I briefly overheard them as I passed to go back to the horror section. I didn't really hear what they were saying but I got the impression they were a nice, companionable couple.
I was going through the books. Pretty much everything good had been picked
over. I kept an eye out to see if any weird paperbacks from the '70s that Curt at the Groovy Age of Horror (not work safe) would want. But I scanned the racks looking for some ancient tome of forgotten lore or somethign like it that had been overlooked.
The couple worked their way down the same row of shelves. When they were
about five feet away, I noticed the man pick up Peter Straub's Ghost Story, one of my all-time favorites. I told him it was a very good book and worth getting if he hadn't read it already. He said thanks and looked up at me.
"Carnacki?" he asked, his eyes widening.
I nodded. His face lit up. "It's me, Moses!"
"Moses!" I said. "I can't believe it's you" and held out my hand to shake
his.
Then this big biker dude standing several inches over me and with shoulders like a fork lift crushed me in a hug.
I shook hands with him. The last time I had seen Moses, he was 15 and had
long hair that was always in front of his face. He also was shorter then.
I'd met Moses when he was 10 when I volunteered to join the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.
For years we'd met almost every weekend. I dragged him with me to haunt my
favorite book stores and took him bowling or to the park to throw a Frisbee around.
His mother had gotten him into Big Brothers at the advice of a school
counselor who thought Moses got into too many fights. He didn't have an ideal homelife.
I always thought he was a quiet kid and found it hard to believe he was
fighting with people. But he apparently did. I never felt comfortable really being a mentor so we just hung out, which in a way is a form of mentoring. I suspect my biggest contributions were I got him to stop eating his food, including steaks, with his fingers and I introduced him to the classics like AC/DC. he introduced me to a group I hadn't heard of at that time called Metallica. He bought a guitar and began to teach himself to play.
One summer when my youngest sister married I took him to the family farm in Ohio for a week. It was his first time away from home and my family made him feel very welcome. For a long time afterwards, his mother raved about Moses' manners and how much he helped around the house. It didn't last, unfortunately, and I often have wished I could have sent him to live with my mother.
About the time Moses really began to pay attention to girls, he began not showing up when he was supposed to and I understood. It surprised me when I heard from his mother that he had moved out and was living with a minister's daughter and after a while I lost track of him until he recognized me at the bookstore.
We talked for a long time. He showed me photos of his two children and I showed him the pictures of my three (he actually got a head start on fathering children on me so has one older than my oldest). He still plays in a rock band with friends and yes, they play AC/DC and Metallica covers.
That's my happy story for tonight. Your story can be about anything you want it to be.