Off the Grid – Part 2 of 2

Off the Grid – Part 2 of 2

High school hadn’t been a happy time for Earl. Being short, smart, and shy hit the popularity trifecta and paid off at the window with a generous amount of bullying, snickering, giggling, lonely lunches, and grades that were never good enough for his parents but always too good for the rest of his class. Still, Earl found himself goggling images of the reunion while he sipped his coffee. He had begun the tour firm in his conviction that he wouldn’t judge or indulge in any vindictive guffawing while cataloging people who hadn’t aged particularly well, gotten a little heavy, obviously had too much to drink, or in the exceptional cases of those who had completely let themselves go, all of the above. Vindictive guffawing wasn’t something Earl was inclined to indulge in but looking at pictures of your high school classmates after they’ve been around the block forty times is enough to make even the most charitable among us guffaw. And yes, at times vindictively.