D and his
girlfriend picked me up in front of the gym after a series of
miscommunicated
phone calls about where to meet. I climbed into their car and
we exchanged
awkward hellos. D had lost weight but gained a beard and
several
piercings. His girlfriend, E, asked me if he looked any
different. I
mentioned his beard and E laughed, then gestured towards
his
piercings. "I bet these are pretty new too, huh?" she asked. I
agreed,
though I
pretended I hadn't really noticed. D smiled sheepishly and stuck
out his
tongue, also pierced.
We fell into
the comfortable rhythm of asking about actual and possible mutual
friends. I
told D what I know of our old classmates and he reciprocated.
E offered
the names of students she knows here but they all sounded
unfamiliar.
The conversation faded out and I spent the rest of the car ride
trying to
will myself to recognize the names she mentioned. D occasionally
punctured
the silence with descriptions of his friend F, who we were about
to pick up
at E's house. "He's from the middle of nowhere in Vermont.
Like the
other day when we were driving downtown he went ÓThere's a black
person!
There's another black person!"Ó I was unsure what to make of this.
