We've got dinner theater tickets and so I take the boy. It's one of those musical productions where every waiter has a part and between courses gets up on stage. This evening's production is a "Rock and Roll" themed event, so there's Madonna, Boy George, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, the Beatles, there's dozens of roles and no matter who you are you'll have a turn on stage.
We're watching this and I think I recognize someone. Someone I went to elementary school with, one of the 'luminaries', as it were, a smart kid, I grew up in a small town, there weren't many 'smart' kids and so I marked him from the crowd, everyone did, as being destined for great things.
Now I think I recognize him because in the wee hours one evening a couple of years ago I googled his name, curious as to what had become of him. and had found that he was playing in a touring show playing at this theater, and I had meant to drop around and say "hi" but circumstances didn't permit.
So he's serving, he brings me my wine, he's a big "AC-DC" type wig on his head but there's something about the face - the accent, the voice is all wrong, not what I remember at all, but the height - that would be about right, and the face...
The boy has dropped his spoon, character waiter picks it up, talks about spoons falling from the ceiling, this must be the worse job in the world - not really "serving", you're more an "entertainer", it's somehow as if you couldn't get a job as a waiter or as an actor and so ended up being the character waiter.
I'm filled with sympathy for him, ridiculous given my own situation of being a waiter-slash-unemployed, and he's made eye contact with me a few times and I'm not sure if he's recognized me....
I confront the waitress - she breaks character for a moment to confirm my suspicions, the boy is watching. He's just applied for the performing arts program and I tell him this could well end up being his career. He's not too enthralled with my vote of confidence.
The show goes on and eventually he drops by, the character waiter, and we talk. How long has it been? About 30 years. In fact, almost exactly 30 years, and you realize how old we're getting. And we talk briefly, catch up, he's now in "Arts and Entertainment" and I'm - well, I'm overwhelmed with compassion (and this only because there's an inability to recognize or acknowledge my own predicament...). He gives me his number, we'll go for coffee and catch up another time, he's working now, and so he walks away between the tables talking loudly to himself so that everyone can hear:
"It's OK to look at me, I'm famous...."