Mr. Egan

Mr. Egan

Counselor at Fenwick High School

The tables in the cafeteria were like very long picnic tables but none of the benches were attached. The benches all filled up quickly. I was terrified when I first entered that room. I had no idea where I was going to sit. It took me a few years to find a place at a table where I felt like I fit in and it was a major relief when it finally happened. I didn't recognize that a lot of other kids probably felt the same way.

Time marched on.

I really believe that Brad was welcomed to our table as one more member of the fringe but given that we were juniors and he was a freshman some not so gentle ribbing came to pass. Brad was one of the only kids I remember to be called by his first name. His father was the promoter for a local heavy metal band named Diamond Rexx and Brad took the time to get fan club badges made for each of us. Lubeck still has his his and recently reminded me that Brad's mom was hot.

Brad seemed awkward then but in retrospect I was as much of a Napoleon Dynamite as he was but without the dance number or the girlfriend. I had huge glasses, feathered hair and a mullet and wore a jean jacket sporting Iron Maiden and Guns 'N Roses buttons on the front and an iron-on Metallica patch on the back. Day after day on the way to school I stared out the back window of the Pace bus blasting both sides of ...And Justice for All on my walkman. Being cool was pretty lonely.

One day at lunch Wojtowicz and I decided it would be funny to knock over our bench with Brad on it. We'd seen it happen before at other tables. We simply sat on opposite sides of him and on some rudimentary cue we both stood up while tipping the bench. Brad instinctually stood up with us so when the bench fell all we really accomplished aside from inspiring some hooting and hollering from neighboring tables was to make complete fools of ourselves. We righted it and went on with our lunch.

Egan was a cafeteria monitor in addition to his counseling responsibilities and he must have put two and two together. After lunch Wojtowicz and I were sitting near one another in study hall when Egan entered our classroom. Without any announcement he quickly walked up to us, grabbed us both by the ties, pulled us up and out of our seats, dragged us down the aisle, out the classroom door, down the hall and then swung us simultaneously into the lockers. We were terrified! I don't remember exactly what he said to us after that but I do remember what the inside of his mouth looked like. He was bellowing at us from just inches away. In a nutshell, Egan demanded to know why we were picking on Brad. We didn't have much to say. He suggested that we would regret it if it ever happened again. We got the message!