The display said something like “Bowl with the best, Bowl with what the professionals use, Bowl with ‘RHINO BALLS‘.” And as I walk by I start laughing. “BOWL WITH RHINO BALLS” I yell ahead of me. AND THEN IT JUST CAME OUT OF MY MOUTH. I DON’T KNOW WHY, BUT I SAID IT “THEY USED TO CALL ME ‘THE RHINO‘ ONCE!” and Aaron drops his bowling ball and IMMEDIATELY AND I MEAN IMMEDIATELY turns around, walks back and gets right in my face and says “WHEN DID THEY CALL YOU ‘THE Rhino‘, WHEN DID THEY CALL YOU ‘THE RHINO‘! WHAT GOT ME WAS HE SAID IT TWICE.
I was caught off guard by his actions and I blurted out “In high school” I said. They used to call me “the rhino” in high school, it was my football nickname. I will never forget the look in his eye as he was examining me, studying me. The thing is I LIED, they NEVER called me “the Rhino” in high school. “The Rhino” was actually a friend of mines “nickname” and he was on another team. My “nickname” in high school was “B A” for “Bad Ass“.
The moment after I said, “They used to call me ìthe Rhino.” What “popped” into my mind was not some high school football game. What “popped” into my mind was ME, STANDING ON A ROOFTOP, LOOKING DOWN, AND YELLING AT THE MAN WITH THE WHITE HAIR “BECAUSE of I’M WEARING MY NIKEíS“, AND THEN I WATCH AS HE TRIED TO CLIMB THE WALL THE WAY I JUST DID. HE COMES REAL CLOSE (COMES UP 3-4 FEET SHORT) AND SLIDES BACK DOWN. AND AS HE SLIDES BACK DOWN, I’M LOOKING RIGHT AT HIS FACE, RIGHT IN HIS EYES. AND HE IS LOOKING RIGHT INTO MINE. AND I REMEMBERED THE GIRL THEY HAD JUST KILLED WHEN THEY RAN HER OVER.
But that was it. Each of those memories was about 5 seconds long and somehow I knew there was more but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But I had punched a hole in their “alternate reality” and some memories had dripped through.
THAT’S WHAT BROUGHT IT BACK! A PROFESSIONAL BOWLING BALL. WHO’S BRAND NAME IS “RHINO“, THE “RHINO BALL“, THAT WAS THE EVENT WHICH TRIGGERED MY MEMORY. THAT’S WHAT I REMEMBERED, THE MAN WITH THE WHITE HAIR, JUST AFTER THEY RAN OVER THE GIRL. I lied to Aaron not out of fear.
It just flew out of my mouth. I didn’t even think about it. I just told the story about it being a high school “nickname“. As we began to bowl, I could tell Aaron was not himself, nervous, anxious, and he asked me about “the Rhino” again and again. “Are you sure that’s when they called you “the Rhino?” He asks. As I’m about to bowl I turn to him and say “Pretty f*cken sure asshole! Watch this,” and I pictured myself throwing a strike, I start on my approach and I whizzed that ball down the lane and I threw a strike. I had just taken a crash course in acting. Because I lied again. At that point what was going through my mind was the girl, the man with the wooden blocks, the trial, Brian talking to Mr. Green, the lab.
And as I’m bowling all these things are rushing into my mind. “Put it out of your mind,” I say to my self. “Think about it later” and I played it down. I got away with it because I hadn’t made the “Aaron connection” yet so I wasn’t in the least bit nervous. I honestly just wasn’t going to tell my best friend, out of the blue, that the Rhino was the term they used to call me when I was back in college and involved with the government, and mind control experiments, and how I was an unstoppable super-assassin who possessed superhuman abilities!
That would fly over like a lead balloon. So I kept it to my self. We bowled several games and consequently drank several pitchers of beer. As we left and drove back to Aaron’s he asked me to come in, several times. I said, “Nah man, I’m beat, I’ll call you in the morning.” He pushed it to the point to where I said something about it. “What’s wrong with you man? I’ll call you in the f*cking morning.” And I managed to play it down again because I wasnít afraid of Aaron. That night, I didn’t literally sleep at all (and I really haven’t slept a single night since and it’s been over a year). As I sat on my couch and thought about the “Rhino ball” I remembered being on the roof again. Then I remembered the girl. I then backtracked to the parking lot, running up the stairs, the girl, the roof, the jump.