The summer after grade 4 was definitely the most miserable summer of my life. I couldn’t get Neve out of my mind. I missed her so much all I could think of was calling her to try and talk her out of her decision to cut me from her life completely.
I cracked open the Mississauga white pages and flipped through to Campbell. What I saw was unbelievable. There were pages of Campbells with literally hundreds of listings. I never would have thought there were that many Campbells in the world, much less one little city like Mississauga. I closed the phone book knowing full well I would never find her in that mess.
Next I tried knocking on the doors of all my classmates that lived in my area of Meadowvale. Jason Ashton was my next door neighbor. Eugenie Fitzgerald and Brian lived behind my house on Starfield Crescent. Remy Kaiserman lived at 2755 Windwood Drive. Across from Lake Wabukayne on Inlake Court lived Sammy Maltby. Larry who I had virtually no relationship with by then, lived on Bucklepost Cresent. Talking to Larry would have been pointless, but his kid sister Karen was in the same dance school as Neve, so I thought she more than anyone might know how I could reach her. I knocked on all their doors and talked to each in person.
I also knew where Robert Dykeman lived on Bonham Boulevard, but I elected to call him by phone. His house was just a bit too far of a walk from mine. I also talked to Cassandra Raponant on the phone. I looked up Holly Presley in the phone book (Holly was Neve's closest girlfriend by then), but her number seemed to be unlisted. I may have called other kids from our class, but I only remember talking to Dykeman and Raponant.
I asked each one of them the same questions. Do you know where Neve lived? Do you know her phone number? Do you know any sports she may have played, or how I can get a hold of her? They all gave me essentially the same answer. You knew her better than anyone. If you don’t know we certainly don’t.
As time went on I got pretty desperate. I knew the phone book was all I had. Eventually I decided I didn’t care if I had to call every Campbell in the city, I was going to find her. I started at the first listing and worked my way through. After I had called maybe 20-30 listings, something occurred to me. Her dad was a school teacher and he was sure to have an unlisted number, because if he didn’t his students would prank call him.
I remember that, because one of our teachers at Vista Heights, Madame Fisher, had a listed number and one year she started getting prank calls. She was certain it was someone from our class doing it and she pleaded for whoever it was to stop. When it didn’t stop she informed the class that she had her number changed and unlisted.
Exasperated I closed the phone book. I did everything a ten-year-old could think of and I was out of ideas.
Then I had a thought. I opened the phone book to my name this time. There were exactly five listing for my last name that year. Out of those five listings, one was my place where I lived at home with my parents. One was my brother’s apartment and one was my sister’s apartment. That’s when I realized that if Neve really wanted to talk to me and she called only one of those listings, her odds of getting me or someone else in my family were 60%. I was again at her mercy. Not a happy place to be.
As time ticked by I started to give up hope. It hurt, but I could understand why she wouldn’t call. Sure I grew up with a violent father, an insane mother and a brother and sister that were both ten plus years older than me that I had virtually no relationship with.
But Neve had a mother that loved her, a father that loved her and a relationship with her brother that frankly, I was jealous of. Not only that, but now she was getting paid to go to ballet school, which was something she loved. I thought back to the time when the guys in our class picked flowers out of sympathy for her. I remember the easy time I had rallying almost every person in that class to swarm a guy on her behalf. That girl was adored. She was beautiful. I knew she would be forgetting about me pretty quick.
I cracked open the Mississauga white pages and flipped through to Campbell. What I saw was unbelievable. There were pages of Campbells with literally hundreds of listings. I never would have thought there were that many Campbells in the world, much less one little city like Mississauga. I closed the phone book knowing full well I would never find her in that mess.
Next I tried knocking on the doors of all my classmates that lived in my area of Meadowvale. Jason Ashton was my next door neighbor. Eugenie Fitzgerald and Brian lived behind my house on Starfield Crescent. Remy Kaiserman lived at 2755 Windwood Drive. Across from Lake Wabukayne on Inlake Court lived Sammy Maltby. Larry who I had virtually no relationship with by then, lived on Bucklepost Cresent. Talking to Larry would have been pointless, but his kid sister Karen was in the same dance school as Neve, so I thought she more than anyone might know how I could reach her. I knocked on all their doors and talked to each in person.
I also knew where Robert Dykeman lived on Bonham Boulevard, but I elected to call him by phone. His house was just a bit too far of a walk from mine. I also talked to Cassandra Raponant on the phone. I looked up Holly Presley in the phone book (Holly was Neve's closest girlfriend by then), but her number seemed to be unlisted. I may have called other kids from our class, but I only remember talking to Dykeman and Raponant.
I asked each one of them the same questions. Do you know where Neve lived? Do you know her phone number? Do you know any sports she may have played, or how I can get a hold of her? They all gave me essentially the same answer. You knew her better than anyone. If you don’t know we certainly don’t.
As time went on I got pretty desperate. I knew the phone book was all I had. Eventually I decided I didn’t care if I had to call every Campbell in the city, I was going to find her. I started at the first listing and worked my way through. After I had called maybe 20-30 listings, something occurred to me. Her dad was a school teacher and he was sure to have an unlisted number, because if he didn’t his students would prank call him.
I remember that, because one of our teachers at Vista Heights, Madame Fisher, had a listed number and one year she started getting prank calls. She was certain it was someone from our class doing it and she pleaded for whoever it was to stop. When it didn’t stop she informed the class that she had her number changed and unlisted.
Exasperated I closed the phone book. I did everything a ten-year-old could think of and I was out of ideas.
Then I had a thought. I opened the phone book to my name this time. There were exactly five listing for my last name that year. Out of those five listings, one was my place where I lived at home with my parents. One was my brother’s apartment and one was my sister’s apartment. That’s when I realized that if Neve really wanted to talk to me and she called only one of those listings, her odds of getting me or someone else in my family were 60%. I was again at her mercy. Not a happy place to be.
As time ticked by I started to give up hope. It hurt, but I could understand why she wouldn’t call. Sure I grew up with a violent father, an insane mother and a brother and sister that were both ten plus years older than me that I had virtually no relationship with.
But Neve had a mother that loved her, a father that loved her and a relationship with her brother that frankly, I was jealous of. Not only that, but now she was getting paid to go to ballet school, which was something she loved. I thought back to the time when the guys in our class picked flowers out of sympathy for her. I remember the easy time I had rallying almost every person in that class to swarm a guy on her behalf. That girl was adored. She was beautiful. I knew she would be forgetting about me pretty quick.
