"Hey!" We both turned, and the bully swiftly averted his eyes and skulked away."Hey!" We both turned, and the bully swiftly averted his eyes and skulked away. Andy looked at me and shook his head, as if to say, "sorry, kid, some people are just assholes," and he walked back inside. That was as close as I ever came to knowing Andy. No one bothered me again after that. It was some years later--11, to be precise--that I finally started taking better care of myself. Maybe it was hitting that magical three-oh, seeing the obits of men buying it at 35 or 40 from heart disease. It was, for me, time to shape up or risk shipping out. I tried the rower, then the climber, then the skier, then the bike. Each time, I'd wind up holding a fitness garage sale a few weeks after the purchase. Knowing my plight, a co-worker offered to go halves with me on a buy one, get one free membership in a local health club. This normally wouldn't have been my bag, but after stepping on the scale that morning, I was ready to take another shot at being in shape. When I first stepped into the club, I was mightily impressed. Everything gleamed, including the faces of the patrons, and the solid clinks and thunks of metal-on-metal sounded like music to me. I was psyched. I had heard rumors that fitness clubs were meat markets, but that wasn't going to be the case here--the place was full, but there wasn't a woman in sight. We paid our dues, picked up locks for our lockers, and trundled off to the locker room. What a layout! Sauna, whirlpool, big tiled showers... Showers. I used to hate them in school. The rest of me developed late, but parts of me, embarassing parts, were already full-sized by the time I was 11 or 12. Other boys would point and laugh, or snap their towels at it. |