Blondes and Bleachers continued...
...to be continued next week.
She called out to me, and I winced for now my schemes were going to collide
with truth. I waved to her as the rest of the band watched--inside I
was screaming, “Noooooo”. I told her I would come down at halftime and
we could split a coke. In her enthusiasm, she disregarded my plan and
began climbing up the back of the bleachers to reach me. I could not
believe she was climbing the steel cross beams! As I think of it today, it is one of the most romantic gestures I have ever been gifted.
In that moment I saw Tabitha’s face then asking me “who is that little
girl?” Once she reached the top (she must have been 25’ off the ground),
she squeezed her head in between the bleacher seats and begged me to
kiss her. To which I obliged. I remember the kiss, and it was the last
one we would have. After being teased by some of my friends and feeling
wholly exposed the entire week following, I wrote her a letter telling
her my feelings had changed, although I left out the part that I was
working my way to long walks and dates with Tabitha.
Laura
was heartbroken. She made one last overture by enlisting the help of my
sister who drove her to my house. She carried with her a cream colored
teddy bear and a purple envelope stuffed with tiny, shiny, metallic
heart-shaped confetti. I was furious with my sister but could feel
Laura’s pain and I hugged her and we talked and she left in my sister’s
beat up ‘77 Mustang II. As it puttered down the block and the putter
disappeared, I realized what I had done. I tore open the letter; the
confetti exploded all over my room; and I read page after page of a
wholehearted letter freshly speckled with the hopes and dreams of a
tender hearted girl.
Laura
always wrote me beautiful love letters which I saved for many years
until finally bringing myself to let them go almost as a right of
passage into another era of my life. Gosh, I wish I had at least one of
those letters...I can still remember the scent she would spray on them
and it has always made me smile whenever I pass a woman who’s wearing
that familiar scent.
...to be continued next week.
Too bad you don't have those letters, but the memories are sort of like tokens from the past, too, right? You created this very visual scene right at the start of your post. And then you paced your slice perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing a piece of memory.
Kevin
I haven't read all of the Laura and Oscar posts, but this is so intriguing! I gather this is personal narrative, but told from another person's point of view, right? So interesting. I'm going to have to go back and read the earlier posts.
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