A scene from my childhood

Every now and then—not often—Bruce calls me "Lolly". This is because of  a boy Bruce has never met, and the story I told about him.

When I was in sixth grade—I think it was in sixth grade; maybe fifth—our class did a square dancing unit for P.E. Now, generally, I did not like P.E. very much, but dancing... That was another story. Unfortunately I kept getting partnered up with this kid named Todd who didn't want to dance at all. And holding hands and linking arms with me was probably not very appealing to him either. Who knows? I got so irritated with him lagging along that I would yank him around, hooked to my elbow as he was, until I almost lifted him from the floor.

Then there was this new boy from Vietnam, I think, named Liem Dang. Unlike a lot of the kids in my class, Liem was interested in school and in learning. In short, he was my kind of boy—we thought the same way.

One day I was partnered with Liem for square dancing—and he actually danced! He learned the steps, and he skipped around just the way he should. After that first time, we always finagled to be dancing partners. I remember one day, just before we went to P.E., our teacher told us to choose our partners. I was near the door of the classroom, putting something away, and Liem was across the room, diagonally from me. When it was his turn to choose, we made eye contact—a tacit agreement. And he chose "Lolly".

We were accused of being boyfriend and girlfriend after that, of having a crush on each other. But really we were both just smart kids...who enjoyed dancing together.

I don't know what happened to Liem after sixth grade. I suppose I could facebook stalk him, but I don't need to. I will just remember him as a nice boy who danced with me and who called me Lolly.