I'll be seeing you

"I'll be seeing you some more. Maybe in heaven."
That's what the icy platinum blonde says to the private detective (the first-person "I" character) in "The Curtain," by Raymond Chandler.

I was thinking about that Friday when I typed it in my post.
And I remembered when someone said something like that to me, once.
When I was in third grade, my family moved during the school year -- in the fall, I think, but cannot be sure. I went to school on moving day, and my parents finished the whatever at home & picked me up from school in middle of school day.

A weird way to leave -- with the school-day interrupted, and all the students looking at me, and even the teacher.
Ehrm.
Everyone said, "good-bye" in a group of voices, & this one kid named Ted who always used to talk to me, or more like "at" me, 1st - third grade, in a challenging way -- kind of intimidating, so I tried to stay inside safe shell ... he called out, separate from the rest of the kids, "See ya in heaven!"

At the time, did not know what to make out of that. (Was not sophisticated enough, in third grade, to know that if a boy "bothers" you in a harmless way -- teases you, it could be he likes you...)

"See you in heaven."
Hmmh. Was Ted reading Raymond Chandler stories, in the third grade?

The other thing I could remember about Ted was one day outdoors he called out to another boy something about, "Who's driving the bus tonight? Is it Earl?" Eagerly, like he wanted the driver to be Earl, because that would be more fun than if the driver were anyone else.

And I was struck that Ted could call a grown-up man by his first name. I would not have been allowed to do that. I would have had to find out "Earl"'s last name -- (Stravinsky, whatever...) and then refer to him as "Mr. Stravinsky." Or..."Mr. Whatever..."

Ted seemed sort of grown-up, and daring and even commanding because he referred to the bus driver as "Earl." Earl the bus driver in Mineral City, Ohio.
Ted, the third grader.

See ya in heaven.

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