XXII

Flip’s haunting tale of early promise really struck a nerve. It stayed with me the rest of the day. I couldn’t stop thinking about his odd predicament.

That moment defined his life, changed forever who he was and how people would see him. For the rest of his days, he will always be FLIP KELLY: FORMER FOOTBALL HERO. That one spectacular leap, ten feet in the air, locked him on a path. It was the best and worst thing that could have happened to a guy like him.

And he’s had to try to live up to it ever since. Prove to everyone it wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t a fluke. He’s had to try and become the person people want him to be.

How odd, to have the most important event of your life happen so early. At age fifteen Flip had already done the greatest thing he would ever do. The entire rest of his life is just one long epilogue. To peak at fifteen, then be almost past your prime at seventeen, and by twenty-five be a washed-up has-been living in the glory days. At thirty-five he’ll be a ghost, a shell, a husk of a man.

He’ll never escape that one moment of greatness.

 

We’re sort of opposite ends of the same stick, in that respect.

I will never live down those first few minutes of that first class, that first day. I, too, will be forever defined by that one moment. In my case, it wasn’t a moment of glory, but of shame. I’ll always be Silly Billy, the gay pirate. And I have to fight that for the rest of my time here. It locked me on my path, all right.

So he is my opposite, and my twin.

So unattainable, and yet so connected on such a base level.

No wonder it was love at first sight!