Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Twinge of Sorrow

Don Chase

I am doing my final assessments for the end of the course on my student’s One Act Plays. I have a different standard for each one based upon their potential, as determined by the quality of materials on their port, the overall quality of their play, and if they followed the model in writing it.

At first I thought about treating everyone the same but since grades don’t really mean anything in this course decided upon this alternative approach. The talent, skill and experience that each bring to the table make “One shoe fits all,“ a non starter.

Each student has made a concerted effort and so it is a pleasure to do the final assessment. My best student tended to follow her own light which is OK but part of a workshop is to try the model provided by the course. In the military I taught at the Command and General Staff College and I frequently had students who were destined for positions of command and staff way above what I could ever manage. Some of these has really bright lights and sometimes went off in tangential directions and I tended to hold the reins rather loosely. Thus I have been on the race across the prairie, off the beaten path and never failed but enjoy the ride. This is how it was with this one student and reining her in was all but impossible. Still what she wrote was a darn good play, that stands out vividly in my mind. “What the heck are you sniveling about Percy?” I hear you say. “I’m not sniveling,” I reply indignantly… “just SHARING.”

On trips my daughters used to play what I called the legal game. One would hit the other and the other would say, “She HIT me.” Her sister would reply, “I didn’t I SHOVED…. Gently.” They sounded like a couple of bickering lawyers… Like an EX President, saying “I didn’t have “SEX” with that woman.“ Here I am “Sniveling” and trying to substitute the word “Sharing.” What is this world coming to?

Actually I count myself lucky to have five good students who worked hard to produce the best play possible. I’m “SHARING” dang nab it and don’t you dare refer to me as a “SNIVLER!”

Last night I had vivid dreams again. In this dream I worked for a company involved in a hostile take over. Who do you suppose was the point girl for the company involved in the forced change in régime… My old Girlfriend. When I saw her I kissed her lightly on the cheek and she told me “Don’t do that again.” Then she started to dismantle the company before my very eyes. She still looked like I remembered her, although she has had five husbands since I knew here way back when. I don’t know why she made the process such a hostile experience, since to my recollection it was me that got down graded for a new model. I really liked her. What was her problem?

Last year I got a call from a girl I had a crush on in High School. She was my best friend’s girl friend and they broke up. I asked her to the prom and she told Don and he got mad and we had a fight. Now get this… Forty years later she is divorced and tracks me down on the internet and tells me she is sorry she didn’t go with me to the prom and got me beat up by my best friend. She asked if I was married…

I felt a twinge of sorrow for her… She was a pretty girl then and was now living alone and her children were gone. She was a librarian. She gave me the phone number of Don who I hadn’t spoken to since the ass kicking.

When I got him on the phone his voice was slurred. No he wasn’t drunk. He had gone into law enforcement and was transporting a prisoner when the guy slipped his feet between his hands and got the cuff’s chain around Don’s neck. He almost strangled him and Don suffered a stroke. Anyway I heard his wife in the background say, “Don’t get upset Honey…” and we talked. At the end of the conversation he said… “I love you man.“ It really choked me up.