Ghosts from the past

I saw an advertisement for a show that I recognized as the show a friend of mine had written 25 years ago. I haven't seen this friend in a couple of decades, and so I bought tickets hoping that he might be at the performance. The performance was wonderful. I had the demo tapes from 25 years ago, and I was familiar with the music. Of course they had reworked it, but the skeleton was the same, and as the music and the show washed over me, I was brought back to my college days. I had loved this music back then and I had associated it with my friendship with this guy, who was instrumental in my life in a way that he wasn't even aware. We had met as counselors in a childrens sleep-over camp that was geared towards musicals. One night when I was stuck doing bunk duty and all the other counselors were going out drinking, he gave me the tapes and libretto for Sweeney Todd and told me it would change my life. It did. After that summer, I spent a weekend with him at Eastman School of Music, where he studied. His dream was to be a composer of pop music in LA. I returned to my engineering studies after that weekend knowing beyond all doubt that I was supposed to be a professional musician. It took me 10 years after that to actually get around to it, but I finally did.

After the show was over, I was able to locate my friend. He didn't recognize me at first. Once we did the reintroductions, I told him how instrumental he was in my life, especially the weekend I visited him at Eastman. I told him that I now made my living performing, and that my love of Broadway had initiated from the night that he had given me Sweeney Todd to listen to. It was so great to talk to him. He told me he did make it to LA but that he no longer does music. He has been working as an Engineer!