A MOONLIGHT SWIM

Just before our senior year began my friend Bette came home from a summer trip.  Her mother gave her a Welcome Home party at her luxury home and invited several friends and me.  I was thrilled to be included and invited a young man for whom I had not well hidden romantic feelings.  He did not share them. I believe he thought I was a nice kid.  One day while riding the city bus I glimpsed him mowing his lawn....shirtless.  My heart began to flutter in my still boyish chest.  So I had high hopes for the evening.

Bette arrived after her long trip (probably longing for a bath and bed) and found lots of eager friends parading around in bathing suits.  The moonlit evening was warm and lovely and we were all having a fine time swimming and eating and downing multiple Coca-Colas.  Since almost fifty-five years have passed since that golden night, my memories have all blurred together. But I do recall laughter and a certain amount of kissing, most of it involving my date who bestowed his favors on several of us girls.  The reasons for these kisses have disappeared in the mists of time, but he seemed quite cheerful afterwards.

At last we gathered together in lawn chairs and talked.  It occurred to me that our last year together in high school would start in a few days.  I was wise enough to know that those days would race by and soon be over, leaving us to scatter far and wide.  The magic of this summer evening would live only in our memories.  For a few bittersweet moments I felt a pang in my heart.  We had all spent our youth together and I didn't want this time to end.  But of course it did.

However, on the way home there was a brief interlude of more kissing which made me think that the future might indeed have something to offer.

NOTE:  Contrary to what I feared, we did not entirely lose touch.  Although Bette is gone (I still miss her sometimes) I am still in contact with many friends from that evening, including my young man.  Sometimes when I feel a bit down, I call up that ancient memory of him shirtless in the hot Florida sun and I perk right up.