"That's a great shirt. I loved that show." The fifteen-year-old kid bagging my groceries said.

He was talking about this shirt.



And about this show.




I paused for a moment. To be truthful I don't hear that about shirts I wear that much. I looked at the kid taking a moment to gain some kind of an idea of what I could say to such a great, but unexpected compliment. I rarely talk that much in public settings so just saying 'thank you' takes time for me to muster out of myself.

"I'm sure you hear that a lot though," he said cowardly like he was ashamed to have even mentioned my shirt in the first place. I felt bad that he held some shame at this point. I should have replied faster in order to give his excitement for the shirt its needed pride.

"Actually I don't hear that that much," I said as I watched him bag my groceries. I was a grocery bagger at his age. I was just as tall and lanky too.

The kid smiled, even his acne smiled a little. "Have you seen Fire Walk With Me," He asked.

"Oh yeah," I said ready to have a conversation, "hopefully one day the real version will see the light of our eyes though."

"The real version?"

"Yeah, the director's cut is almost three hours long and his version had every character from the show in it."

"Well this makes sense. I always thought the movie felt like it was edited in a choppy way."

When I was his age I looked at how film's were edited too.

"Why doesn't The Lynch just put that version out," the kid asked as he packed my cheese in with my turkey meats.

"Well," I explained, " some company in France owns in it. They don't want to give the film and footage up unless they get a few million up front."

"Oh." The kid looked sad by this news, like I had shown him the greatest Christmas gift then set it on fire and pissed on it. By this time he was finished with my groceries and I had paid. It was time to leave the store.

As I pulled out of the line the kid said, "I never understood Bob though."

I stopped my cart at the dismay of the line I was now creating behind me; eyes began to roll the moment I stopped moving. "Bob was all that was evil, the original evil possibly. The problem was the show never got to get to the point of explaining Bob and The Black Lodge further. I don't even think David Lynch had fully gotten that far in understanding Bob himself, but that is how David Lynch works. Visual first then figure out the story."




"Well that is The Lynch," the kid said as I exited out the sliding glass doors.

That conversation was more worthwhile than any I had in college. I need to talk to that fifteen year old version of myself again.