The long walk back; re-tracing my (miss) steps, what landed me there...

"Regret-able"  Was the last word I heard, upon departure, when he was finally "done!" with me...which was preceded by lots of similar impressions he tried to impress upon me, get me to commit to memory..."You better have a long talk with your Self as to what you want for a future...put your Self back on the straight and narrow path...to success...all you've managed to do is get your Self in deeper and deeper, and risking what They, all those that preceded me in this office, by the notes left behind, from previous encounters with you, in this very office...inform me you have...had, so much potential...so much for that...They obviously got you all wrong...too bad, so sad..."

"Right!" Is what I told my Self (in a voice, tone that was just about as in-sincere as he delivered it). As I strolled the well-worn pathway, the beginning of his so-called straight and narrow; I had already committed this one to memory, could do it in my sleep. Which allowed me to think about bigger things in my/our future. As to how to reclaim a time and place that Mr. Harris had conceived of (something like "four square and...") when he came to the brilliant! conclusion that with-holding recess! was about as close as tyranny, as we could experience, in "grade school". So much to plan, then do...as I found my Self quickening my pace and on the threshold...

"S-o-o-o?" The question I was ready for, the one my play-ground pals would inevitably ask upon my return, to the class-room, after all the rumors and passing of notes (as we were no longer allowed to carry our cells into the room, we were, once again left to "our own devices"). I knew they would be interested not only in how I my Self fared, but whether I threw any of them under the (school) bus...

"In a prepared state-meant" Well, a bit more ex-temporaneous than that, as I didn't have any notes whatsoever, in front of me, let alone a tell-a-prompter..."He hardly touched me at all...tried his best to brow beat me, bruise me ego, by refusing to laugh at any of my best jokes (OUCH!) but I kept a stiff upper lip, didn't give it up, took one for the team, and in the end all he managed to so, the jokes on him, is stiffen, firm up my already strong constitution..." 

"Time to get back, to work" While YOU might think, logically at that, that these would be the words to break up the brief huddle I was enjoying with my play-ground posse, these were the ones that I found my Self issuing to redirect their attention...away from what they overheard on the morning announcements, that "Recess! as you know it, has been put on permanent hiatus...due to the actions of a particular class-mate whose name I'm no longer allowed to share publicly, now that HIPPA has arrived here...but if you'll just look around...whose absence is conspicuous..."  

"Turnabout is (un)fair play" Not sure if he said it, among all the other idioms and meager messages that were just about lost on me, but this one came to mind as more of a collective response to his attempt to not only single me out for so-called "special treatment...since you are so exceptional" (again, dripping with false sincerity, that only a skilled "who-ligan" like my-self could pick up on..."who's fooling who here"?😈😁😅) but even to go as far afield from fair play as to turn my comrades in arms (out on the battlefield called the play-ground at recess! time) -- casting blame, at least a shadow of doubt. Well, if it's an (un)fair fight, as in a professional play-ground pugilistic encounter, he's about to meet his maker, I mean to learn from the best...

"I'll show him a thing or two..." A saying we all grew up with, a thing we said, but didn't always carry out. A subset of inner workings as in the study of thoughts and (in)actions we who make it a "practice" to watch and listen our-selves...

Primary Psychological Principles at Play - Next (well, you waited this long...deferred gratification, a powerful psychological construct in and of itself, if you come back, you'll also hear about my own spin on the "Pre-Mack" and "Locusts of Control"...principles) which are highly relevant, to Our cause at hand, and what's about to unfold back at the office -- to his utter 'dis'may...LOL, LOL, LOL...!!!)