The Arcade

Who’s next please?” Holly had been at work now for just a little over two hours, and she already wanted to go home. It wasn’t that she disliked her job – she found it better than a fast-food place – it was simply that she was bored, and she would rather be somewhere else today.

She took the customer’s order (two slices of pepperoni pizza, a breadstick, and a root beer), took his money and then dished up the pizza. After thanking him and wishing him a good day, Holly resumed stocking the Styrofoam cups and refilling the two napkin dispensers by the register.

She had ducked behind the counter to grab another package of napkins when she heard a voice say “Um…Holly? You in there?”

She nearly knocked herself unconscious on the underside of the counter when she stood up. “Ooof!” she grunted. “Wow – Cosmo…I didn’t hear you walk up.” She was rubbing the back of her head and looking at him with a sheepish grin on her face “Can I get you something, like a slice of pizza, or a coke or something?”

Cosmo stifled a chuckle and smiled “No, thanks. I just thought I’d come over and say ‘hi’. I’m in here all the time, and I never stop by, so – I though I would. You always say ‘hi’ to me – right? Well, I thought it was time I said ‘hi’ back.”

Holly just blinked. “Uh…okay, well – I’m glad you did.” She smiled back at him now, temporarily forgetting the sore spot on the back of her head. “Where are the other two – Bobby and Theo, is it? The three of you are always together, aren’t you?”

Cosmo smiled again. “I left them in the arcade. I started to feel a little woozy, and was going to go home and lay down for a while.” Holly turned to grab a large soda cup and started to fill it with root beer, which she knew was Cosmo’s favorite.

Sliding it across to him, she quipped with a grin “It must be from spending all that time under black lights looking at video game screens, huh?”

Taking a drink from the cup, Cosmo said “Thanks for the soda.” He chuckled a little and nodded “Yeah, probably. Anyway, I’m gonna head that way and chill for the rest of the day. I just wanted to stop by on the way out and say ‘hi’.”

Holly smiled, warmly this time, and said “I’m glad you did, Cosmo. We see each other all the time at school, but rarely get the chance to talk. I thought maybe you just didn’t like me, or something.”

Cosmo made a choking sound in his throat. Giving a little cough, he replied “What? No! I mean – I do like you, it’s just…well – I thought you…that I…” He started to blush.

Holly leaned closer and asked “That you what, Cosmo?”

Cosmo looked down for a long minute. “That I wasn’t your type.”

Holly’s eyebrows went up at that. “Not my type? What do you mean, ‘not my type’?”

Cosmo looked up at her this time “You know - the athletic, ‘A-crowd’ type. And you have to admit – I am definitely not that type. Let’s face it, Holly – me and my friends are pretty much in the ‘nerdy’ class.”

At this, Holly laid her hand on his arm “Cosmo, have you ever seen me with any ‘A-crowd’ types, or ‘beautiful’ people? In fact – have you ever seen me with anyone?”

Cosmo thought for a moment, and started “Well, I…”

Holly went on “The answer to that is ‘no’. When I’m not here at work, I am home studying, except of course when I am at the orthodontist getting these stupid braces tightened. And when schools out, like it is now, it’s even worse. What’s left, the library? TV?” Resting her chin in her hand, She was looking at Cosmo with eyes full of bemusement. He looked into those eyes and felt his heart jump, and it startled him.

“Uhh…well…soooooo…” Cosmo fumbled.

“So, doofus, I like you and I think you’re the type of guy I would like to hang out with.” Holly was still wearing the same bemused expression, but with a shy twinkle in her eyes.

At this, Cosmo suddenly felt lightheaded and, for reasons he couldn’t grasp, completely speechless. He gaped at Holly for several moments until her next question brought him out of his cataleptic trance

“So, doofus – are you going to ask me out, or just stand there with your mouth open?” She asked with a giggle. She had a very wry smile on her face now.

Cosmo had to clear his throat several times before he could answer “Uhh…no – I mean YEAH! That is - no, I’m not gonna just stand here, and yes I’m going to ask you out. Wow…is that all I had to do??”

Holly laughed. “Yeah, Cosmo – that’s all you had to do. That’s all you ever had to do…”

After making plans with Holly to go to the movies (The Empire Strikes Back, no less!), and getting her address and phone number, Cosmo headed toward the entrance. When he got outside, he felt a momentary flash of panic when he didn’t see his car parked where he left it. It was then he remembered that this was the year 1984, and he was only fourteen. He wouldn’t have a driver’s license for another two and a half years, or his first car until he was seventeen.

He turned to his right and saw the bicycle rack, and there it was, just as he remembered it: his blue Mongoose BMX bike. He also noticed that it was secured to the rack by a red cable with a pad lock. Again a brief attack of panic until he thought to check his right pocket. There it was: the key to the lock, along with the key to his parents – that is – his house. He unlocked the bike, wound the cable back around the post under the seat, and sat on his bike.

He had forgotten what it had felt like to sit on his old bike. From an adult’s point of view, it was a small, squatty thing. To him it was a sleek, stealthy, rugged curb-jumping machine. He liked the hum of the knobby tires on the asphalt of the street; a hum that increased in volume as he pedaled faster. When he, Bobby, and Theo were riding together, they were the “BMX Bandidos” – a moniker that would have elicited snorts of derision from others had it been spoken aloud. Still, the bike had been a gift from his grandfather on his thirteenth birthday, and he was proud of it.

Things had changed the year Theo turned sixteen, though. Theo had been on his way to the mall, riding his new dirt bike, to meet up with Bobby and Cosmo, when a car pulled out of a side street directly in front of him. The car had the green light. Theo never saw it coming. It was the first funeral Cosmo had ever been to.

Cosmo pedaled on in the direction he instinctively knew his childhood home to be. He didn’t even have to really think about it – he just rode. On his way home he passed places he remembered, some which he knew were still there – that is, places that were going to be there thirty years from now – and places that were going to succumb to the forces of economics and changing demographics.

He was still trying to wrap his head around this whole thing. Here he was, a 14-year-old kid (technically) with the mind and memories of a 43-year-old man. He knew things about the future. Things that were definitely going to happen – at least he assumed so, and things that would happen only if he didn’t change certain choices. The meeting with Holly in the mall was evidence of that. Of course, he had no idea what was going to happen now. Will we start dating? Will we become serious? The ‘will we’ road had many possibilities. All he knew was that - by that one simple act of saying ‘hello’ to her – he had irrevocably altered not only future events in his life, but also in hers. Sal hadn’t mentioned that.

It only took Cosmo about half an hour to get from the mall to the neighborhood where his fourteen-year-old self lived. As he pedaled down the tree-lined street, it seemed to him as if it had only been yesterday since he last rode his bike through this epitome of American suburbia. He missed it. Living on the East Coast had been a different life, sure. It had been faster, louder, and more dense. Here though, things were quieter; calmer. Days were not filed with frenzied noise and frenzied people. That this was Washington State perhaps had something to do with it. The weather was usually rather calm; Either it rained or it didn’t – but it was never hectic, alarming weather.

Then there were the people. Simply put: they were just plain friendly. When Cosmo and his family first moved here, the new neighbors were at the door before the moving van had even pulled away from the house; a ‘welcome to the neighborhood!’ here, a ‘so glad to have you!’ there. There were even a couple of fruit baskets dropped off with an invitation to a barbecue, and coffee and beignets, respectively. Cosmo had never even heard of a ‘beignet’ until they moved here. He had to admit - the tasty, toasted pieces of powdered, sugar-coated bread went very nicely with hot cocoa.

He also liked the school. Everyone he met seemed relaxed and pleasant. There weren’t any bullies, so to speak – and in reality, most of the kids he met had parents who were involved in the rapidly growing tech industry in this part of Washington, and were – by extension – “nerds.” By that measuring stick he fit in, for the most part. He still remembered how insular he had been the “first” time he was fourteen – and how shy he had been around most other kids at school. This time, he wouldn’t be so timid. After all, he knew what to expect – and that he had nothing to fear from anyone, really. Being a teenager will be much easier this time around, he thought, because he had the mind of his 43-year-old self, and could approach things differently – more wisely, he told himself.

He felt a renewed sense of purpose as this realization dawned on him, and started to pedal his bike faster as he saw his house come into view. Yes, things were going to be different, and it was going to start with his parents. There were many things left unsaid over the years – things that should have been said, and often. How did the fast-food slogan go – that is, will go? Change is Good. Yup. There were going to be some changes.

The question was – how would he know what else to change?