The Forced Apology

Short Story

The Forced Apology
An Unforgettable Experience

To Lottie, remembering something said years ago was easy, when it was loving and beautiful and it touched her heart —or something that broke it, like her first experience with rude and obnoxious.

During summers in high school in the 60s, Lottie was a lifeguard and a Red Cross swim instructor at a lake on the outskirts of town.

It was a beautiful lake with a nature trail around it for hiking; a campground; picnic tables, shelters and grills; a net for volley ball; a baseball field; waterslide; and what teens loved for Saturday night dates all summer long, a dance pavilion overlooking the lake.

One Saturday afternoon, Lottie was on duty in her lifeguard chair when Taylor, an upperclassman, began flirting heavily. She took her job very seriously and told him she was responsible for the lives in the lake and he was being a nuisance. She didn’t want, or need, to have her attention diverted. She asked him to go sit down and leave her alone.

He promised to sit down when Lottie agreed to go out with him. At the time, she was dating her high school sweetheart, Sean, who later would become her husband.

Lottie told Taylor she was dating someone she really cared about. Again she told him to go away and let her do her job, but he wouldn’t listen. Taylor stayed at her lifeguard chair, bragging about how eligible he was with a multitude of reasons Lottie should go out with him instead.

Again, Lottie told him as politely as she could that he was annoying and worse, he was endangering the swimmers in the lake. She had a job to do that was far more important than listening to him, since she already told him to leave her alone.

Taylor wouldn’t give up and Lottie finally lost her composure. She told him she wouldn’t go out with him if he was the only boy in their high school. That made him angry and Lottie never forgot what he shouted:

“You’re nothing but a childish, selfish, self-centered bitch!”

No one had ever been so rude and obnoxious, but he at least left her alone so she could do her job.

Lottie and her best friend, Maggie, were going to the dance at the pavilion that evening and meeting their guys there at 7:00. After work, she called to share what the upperclassman had shouted at her at the lake. Maggie was as shocked as Lottie.

By 7:30 that evening, only Maggie’s date had arrived. Just then, Lottie saw the troublemaker standing in front of her wearing a shiny new black eye. Sean stood behind, nudging him forward.

“Cath’, this jerk has something he wants to say to you.”

Taylor apologized for his rude comment, his obnoxious behavior, and for bothering her while she was on duty at work.

Sean wouldn’t say how he found out, only that bad news travels fast in a small town —but Lottie has never forgotten the hurtful remark.