Charlie's Gym Teacher

Charlie was the best rope climber
We had

I know what you're expecting

I know the 'typical' gym teacher story

Typical gym teacher story is--

Kid couldn't climb the rope

Tried and tried
Couldn't get up there

And the rope story becomes a metaphor
For life and achievement
And a happy ending
If he ends up climbing the rope
Scaling the mountain
Running right through the red tape
As the music slows
And the crowd cheers

Or he doesn't get up the rope
And it's a story about life's downfalls
Life's unfair
Life's cruel
Life's a bitch

And I know what you expect from me
The gym teacher

I understand that I'm supposed to be bitter
Because I didn't want to be a gym teacher
That I'm supposed to be uneducated
And bald and hairy everywhere else
And growl and bark
And terrorize small children

But that's not the story

The story is I teach gym
When I'm not teaching English
Because our school's a little low on funds

I once wrote a forty page paper in college
On Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

My favorite movie is The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I am not a moron
But I am a gym teacher
And I was a good gym teacher
And it didn't matter
Because at the end of the day

Though he went through both a drama club and Goth phase
Charlie Stamp was a great runner, a decent basketball player
And he could make it to the top of the rope in twenty seconds or less

I used to call him 'Spidey'
Because you'd blink
And he'd be at the top of the rope
Just waiting there
For you to tell him to come down

So no stories about me screaming at the kid
For being a loser
Or a nerd
Nothing like that

As a matter of fact, I had Charlie
For Creative Writing

That's how I found out about...

I guess he'd been taking piano lessons
And, uh, his teacher--

She was--woman

Lived on the same street as me, actually
And she'd, uh, well, she'd do a half hour lesson with him
She'd been teaching him since he was eight
And then when he got into high school
She upped the lesson to an hour

--This was all in his story--

And when she started teaching him for an hour
She'd stop at the half hour mark
And just play some records for him

Tom Jones, weird shit

And they'd...

They had a relationship
From the time he was fourteen
Until I read the story he wrote
And I...

I knew he took lessons on my street
With...her

I knew

So...

I showed the story to the principal
The principal called social services
There was an investigation
There was...there were....

It was, as you can imagine
A terrible experience

By some miracle
We managed to keep it under wraps
From the rest of the student body
But Charlie was...really traumatized
As you can...

It's understandable, of course

The day after senior prom
I came into the gym
To work out

--Why join a gym when you work as a gym teacher, right?--

And there's Charlie

At the top of the rope

So I call out to him
I say, 'Charlie, c'mon down'

But he doesn't

I say--'C'mon down, son'

And he doesn't even move

So I sit down
Right on the gym floor
And I say--

'I'll wait for you, Charlie.  I'll wait for you to come down.'

Well, wouldn't you know
I kept my eyes on him
But...after an hour or so
I fell asleep
Looking up at him

And when I woke up
He was gone

But there was a thank you note
Lying next to me

Never got a thank you note from a student before

I don't know if that kid ever found peace
But I sure hope he did

You know, you see these kids everyday
For four years
And then they're gone

Huge parts of your life
Come and go
Arrive and disappear

And honestly, you forget a lot of them
You know, because your brain--

It just can't hold all those faces
All those names
All those stories

But Charlie?

I remember Charlie

Just between you and me
Sometimes
I wish I didn't

Awful as that sounds

I wish I could forget that image

Of him up there
Hanging on for dear life
Scared to come down