“I think memory is a curse.” – Dr. Tachyon, Joker’s Wild.
The Empire Strikes Back had just recently come out, so I must have been in the 3rd or 4th grade at the time. It was recess, and as usual, my friends and I were playing on the wooden fort in the playground at Desert Cove Elementary in Phoenix. We were playing Star Wars, and one of our group, a kid named Aaron, had brought his Yoda action figure with him to class that day. It was a brand new release in the toy line, and none of the rest of us had it yet- I’d only seen it in the Sears store at the mall. It was so awesome; Yoda was such a great character in the movie. We were all jealous of his new toy, me so much that I just couldn’t resist the temptation to swipe it when no one was looking. Just grabbed it, put it in my pocket, and reveled in my covetousness.
The recess bell rang, and we all collected our toys. Aaron looked in vain for his Yoda, but couldn’t find it, obviously, and never suspected that one of us might have taken it. He seemed a bit dejected, but in retrospect, probably wasn’t too broken up about it.
After school that day, I went over to my best friend Sean McArdle’s house to play. I confided in him that I’d taken Aaron’s Yoda, and we had fun playing with the toy and our other Star Wars action figures in his back yard.
Gradually, our consciences got the better of us, and we began to feel guilty over what we- I- had done. Together, we resolved to right my wrong and return the toy to it’s rightful owner.
I did that the very next day at recess. Once again playing around the wooden fort in the playground, I placed Yoda in what I felt was a strategic location- somewhere in a crevice where he could be seen, but was relatively hidden from a casual inspection. I let a brief time pass, and then I called out to Aaron that I’d found Yoda and motioned him over. He seemed relieved that his toy had been found, and wrote the whole incident off as just having missed Yoda the other day when looking for him. I think I was more upset about the whole incident than he was. All was well in the world. My conscience was relieved.
Somewhat.
To this day, more than 30 years later, I still feel guilty about stealing Yoda. Does that make me a moral person, or just someone who can’t let things go?
