lederhosen

I don't remember things in absolutes, I remember them relative to me; I always thought of my first-grade classroom as a great big barn, and was amazed when I went back years later and found a pokey little place half the size it ought to be.

Later on at school, I got bullied quite a bit - I'm sure that comes as a VAST surprise to you all - and while there were quite a few people involved (including a couple of the staff), my particular nemesis was a kid called Francis. He was some years older than me, much bigger (I was one of the smallest kids in my age group, although I eventually caught up), and he had a vicious temper. Most of the bullies would wait for some sort of provocation, or camouflage it so they could pretend they weren't, but Francis was the sort who'd just walk up and pick a fight out of the blue.

We caught the same bus home from school, and I came to dread his temper. I think we were only at the same school for a couple of years, but I remember him as worse than any of the other bullies. Eventually, he got kicked out - I think it was for poor grades or something, rather than bullying - and that was the last I ever saw of him, though not quite the last I heard of him.

And as I've aged, in my mind Francis has remained bigger and older than me... but it struck me today that I'm nearly twice as old now as he was when he died. He was picked up for under-age drinking; a junior policeman left him unattended for a couple of minutes while they went off to call his father, and when they came back he'd hung himself with his scarf. Somewhere, many years ago, I overtook the ogre and never noticed.

(Bizarrely, it was ruled 'accidental death'. There was a widespread rumour as to why the coroner might have accepted the AFAIK unsubstantiated theory that it was a fake suicide attempt gone wrong, but since I've given enough information to identify the people involved I probably shouldn't go into that.)