I couldn't believe we had graduated together.

The sun had weathered his skin as much as it weathered the air conditioning units he worked on

Last week, I called the HVAC company to have some work done on my air conditioning unit. I still had cool air coming from the AC unit, but I been hearing a few strange noises over the last three days. This time of year, it often took longer for an HVAC technician to arrive because of breakdowns that occur during heat waves. It surprised me it took him less than a week to arrive at my house. When the HVAC technician arrived, I showed him to the air conditioning unit and offered him a glass of iced tea. It was so hot outside that I couldn’t let him work with the sun beating down on him and not having something cold to drink. He refused the iced tea, but he accepted a bottle of energy drink that I had in the fridge. I noticed he kept looking into the kitchen window at me as he worked on my air conditioning unit. I thought he looked familiar, but I thought maybe he was someone my brother graduated with, and my brother was almost 10 years older than I was. You can’t imagine how shocked I was when he told me his name and this time it clicked. I had graduated high school with this man, and yet he looked so much older. The sun had weathered his skin as much as it weathered the air conditioning units he worked on. Before realizing who the HVAC technician was, I thought he was at least 50 years old. When I finally recognized him, I realized he was no older than I was, and I was only 32.

Heating device