Allan stood and sweated inside the cramped payphone booth at Hyde Park Middle School. It was tight, even for a middle school kid. The world record for people fitting into a phone booth was twenty-five at a YMCA in Africa in 1959. The booth smelled weird. He opened the door, but it insisted on closing. Instead, Allan wedged his foot in the accordion door, lifted the receiver, and made the call.
“Grandpa! You’ve got to get me out of this. I’m on the south side!”
A basketball hit one of the windowpanes of the phone booth, and it cracked.
“Please deposit twenty-five cents,” said the operator.
“Come on! Grandpa! When are my parents coming home?”
Allan heard his grandpa in fuzzy, indiscernible audio and fished for more change.
“How is this going to make a man out of me? I won’t live that long.”
“Please deposit twenty-five cents.”
“Damn!”
Allan kicked the booth with the foot, not holding the door open. A knock on the window startled him, and he turned. A black woman, around fifty, peered through the window in a red polka-dot dress and a school employee badge pinned on her dress.
“Excuse me, what are you doing and please don’t kick the booth.”
Allan opened the door to talk to the Polka-dotted administrator, “Making a call?”
“Are you supposed to be on that bus?”
Allan looked far off at the parking lot at the campers boarding.
“Yeah yeah.”
He hung up and stepped away until the phone rang. The polka-dot woman reached in to answer, but Allan ran back, and the two squeezed inside together.
Allan grabbed the receiver first, “Hello? I love you, too but I have to go die now."
Allan hurried away, hoping to avoid another scolding from the woman in the polka-dot dress. He crossed the school playground, bustling with kids of all ages wearing Camp Arapahoe shirts. As he walked, he peeled off the Raging Bull bandage from his face. A sharp, stinging pain shot through him, making his eyes widen. Grimacing, he tossed the bandage into the nearest trash can.
Across the playground, Yvette choreographed a dance with her best friend Stephanie, who was awkward and needy but strong. She was also wearing a pink shirt and red pants. Yvette and Allan turned toward each other in an instant. Their eyes locked, and for a moment, the world paused. Cue Barry White, I’m gonna love you just a little more, baby. However, their meet-cute moment ended abruptly when a ball flew straight at Allan, striking him in the nose for the second time, knocking him on his ass.