Doug Hurtuk kept very little on his desk at the Pedagogic Publishing company in New York City; the obligatory photo of his wife and kids, an aluminum water bottle, and most prized of all, a marble notebook from his days as a student at South School which he locked away with his laptop when the day was through. While most grade school mementos often get trashed as the students make their merry way into the real world, Doug kept this notebook in particular because it documented a monumentally pivotal day in his life; the day he realized his life's calling in writing, as well as the day he met his best friend.
Harry sat next to me in Room 2B. He looked like any second grader except for one thing; Harry liked to do horrible things. When I first met Harry out on the playground, he had a shoebox. I asked him "What's in there?"
"Something. What's your name?"
"Doug." I said.
"Want to see a girl scream, Doug?"
Before I could say anything, Harry took off after Song Lee. When he trapped her by the tree, he opened up his box and dangled a garter snake in her face.
Song Lee screamed!
That's when I first saw Harry do something horrible.
As the last ten minutes of his lunch break whittled away, Doug stared wistfully at the words on the journal; recalling that fateful morning on the playground. Over the course of his time there, Harry Spooger would go on to become the catalyst for most of their adventures both momentous and mundane in one manner or another in the second and third grade. Naturally, Doug would go on to fill more and more journals documenting these adventures. Looking back, Harry was only "horrible" in the sense that he was unconventional. He wasn't not a bad child; he was just interested in things that the other kids in class weren't, and unabashedly vehement in how he expressed his fascination for those things. Sure, there were times where Harry got carried away, but when Harry knew he'd done something bad, he tried to make up for it by being good.
Eventually, however, all good things eventually come to an end; and when Harry's family moved to Belcherville, it was (to say the least) a gut punch. Over the years the two boys planned lots of opportunities to hang out; sleepovers, movies, bumming around various places, etc. When Doug got his learner's permit in high school, the first thing he did was make the trip to Belcherville and see a movie with Harry. But when push came to shove, the rest of the South School kids slowly picked up the pieces and went about our lives without the Spooger boy.
Over the years, other members came and went as far as that social circle was concerned. Dexter moved to Nevada after fourth grade and Song Lee moved back to Korea just before the end of our sophomore year of High School. Their beloved teacher Mrs. Flaubert (nee' Mackle) had a daughter named Rose and took a job as a preschool teacher in order to get a better work/life balance as a mother, while Mr. Cardini and his wife ultimately retired to Florida. Graduating high school was the final nail in the coffin as they all went our separate ways and set off to conquer the world in one form or another.
But even with that, the two gentlemen still remained (relatively) close. Doug went to a local community college and found a home on the campus newspaper's editorial board. Harry meanwhile went to Louisiana State and interned at the Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium; an internship that ultimately became a job which in turn lead to a transfer to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. In a bizarre coincidence, Doug's tenure with the school newspaper impressed the editor in chief who had connections with a publishing company in New York City by name of Pedagogic Corporation, an American multinational publishing, education and media company that publishes and distributes comics, books and educational materials for schools, parents, and children. Because of this, they had the chance to meet up every now and again for lunch or dinner.
Jolting Doug from memory lane was a vibration from his phone. Steeling a glance around his office, he clandestinely pulls the device from his pocket and smiles at the text he'd just received.
Doug. Meet me tonight at the Brooklyn Diner at 6:30. I have big news.