It had been awhile since we had all gotten together, probably close to four years. Oh, I'd seen a few of the guys here and there - Jake at his brother's wedding, Jorge and Trent at the bowling alley on 4th st., and of course Gary, who still worked in the same department as I did - heck, we run into each other quite a bit, but it was never planned and we didn't talk much, just exchanged pleasantries and went our separate ways.
The group had been tight in the beginning, but that's how it always is when a group of strangers are thrown together to work on a somewhat dangerous, long-term project. Once the project was completed though, we all just fell out of contact - not intentionally or with any animosity, we just all sorta went back to doing what we did before we had to work together.
Somehow, someone (it might have even been me), got the idea we should all get together and catch up with each other, see how everyone was doing, etc., etc.
The remarkable thing was that all fourteen of the guys were still around and had the time and inclination to get together.
And that's how, on a cold, windy early Spring day in late April we all found ourselves gathered together around a large rectangular table (which was actually three smaller square tables joined together by the very accomodating restaurant staff).
Everyone spent at least ten minutes chatting with whomever was next to or across from them, and several guys (Don, Anthony, Trent) didn't even sit down until they'd walked the perimeter of the table and exchanged greetings with everybody present - the wait staff (there were two assigned to us) had a dickens of a time getting the drink orders in, but handled it without a single misstep.
By the time the drinks (second round) and food orders had all been served, I'd spoken with everyone at least for a few minutes. It was nice, as far as these gatherings go - no one had suffered any major setbacks, everyone was still working and above water financially - at least that's what was reported.
About halfway through my salad, Jer, who was seated to my left, threw out a conversational gambit, asking everyone in general if they were all satisfied with what we had accomplished. A lot of nodding of heads and "Yes's, yeah's," and "of course's" followed by a call for a toast to "Team Arcanum!" was the answer.
Then he turned to me and almost half-whispered another, more specific question. With a far more serious intensity, Jer said, "Do you think the project was your greatest accomplishment?"
I turned to look straight at him and replied, "No Jer, not my greatest accomplishment. I regard simply surviving this long, you know, not dying, or at least not suffering a major injury, my biggest accomplishment."
Ever have one of those moments when everyone has inexplicably quieted down at the same time you say something not intended for everyone to hear? Well, that's what happened to me right then.
The quiet was deafening, as they say.
Which was broken by Jer's loud laughter and the almost roar from Blaine exclaiming "Don't we all, don't we all!", and the concurrent laughter of everyone else at the table.
That's when I realised everyone had been holding the same thing inside that I had been for the past four years, and now we had all just let it go.
No comments:
Post a Comment