Magic 20

This is a repost of a story I submitted last fall. The only excuse I have for that first submission was I wrote it during and after some serious health issues and my mind wasn't working right.

When I submit a story I always tell readers I like the constructive criticism I get, but the slash and burn comments are deleted fast. On this story I got some good comments and suggestions back from some readers that I just had to agree with. Those comments made me realize I had hurried the original story and left some questions unanswered. So I decided to take some time to go over it again. This is the result. I think you will find the revised story makes more sense and is a lot better story to read even if the changes made it fairly long.

I didn't know what category to put this one in and had to settle for the romance category as that one seemed to be the closest to what the story is about.

I also have to thank stephanvista, my new editor for the fine editing skills without which this effort would not be readable. I apologize to him because when I get things back from an editor I always seem to change things so any mistakes are mine.

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1) The Wedding.

I think the easiest way to start this tale would be to say it all started when I was at a friend's wedding reception. In my wildest dreams I never would have imagined that being at that event would lead me to taking the first steps to reconnecting with the former love of my life.

The wedding reception I mentioned was for my friends Dennis and Darlene. They had been a couple since they went to kindergarten together and became close friends all through school. They finally hooked up when they finished University, where they finally started some heavy dating that led to this joyful occasion. I had to admit I was truly happy for them.

The invitation they sent me was for two people, meaning I had to bring a date. Therein was the problem. My heart had been ripped out by my first, last, and only love. The pain of having my heart ripped to shreds was the main reason there was no date for me. When it happened, it had hurt so bad I vowed to stay as far away from females as possible. I never ever wanted to find myself in the position of being hurt like that again. To be honest, when things went to hell in a hand basket I didn't want to see the girl that caused me that much heartache. The awkwardness of family and friends feeling sorry for me didn't appeal to me either. So I made the decision to disappear which was pretty easy to accomplish, I just packed up and left. I disappeared for five years and went far enough away I had no contact with anyone I knew.

Distance did nothing to help ease the pain... I still hurt. There wasn't a night that passed that I didn't dream about her. Some dreams were good dreams, but most woke me up in a cold sweat as I dreamed about the reason I was so far from home.

When I returned from my time out and tried to get on with my life, the wives and girlfriends of my friends thought they would get me back in the dating scene and help me forget the past. They tried fixing me up with single friends or acquaintances, and those dates all ended in a complete disaster. After a few of those I had no further interest in the dating scene. I know my friends were trying to help me, but after those first few attempts at matchmaking they had learned not to even try.

Anyway, I may have been single that night at the wedding, but I was having a rare good time with the group. Most of us guys had been friends since junior high and were still a tight group. When the gang got together, the bull-shit, teasing, and sarcastic comments flew like crazy. I think our table was the loudest in the hall with all the laughter caused by all the joking around. Right in the middle of another of Ben's never ending repertoire of jokes, I caught a quick glimpse of someone across the room that looked familiar.

There was something about her that tugged at my memory, but with just a quick glimpse and so many people dancing between her and me, I couldn't get a good look at her. A couple of minutes later the band took a break and all the dancers returned to their tables. This gave me a chance to get a good look at her.

Crap... A rush of anxiety came over me and my heart started to flutter because that woman across the room was Nancy. There was no mistaking her. I'd seen her face a thousand times, but in those days she always had a smile on that face. Today she looked concerned and clearly she was watching me attentively.

Seeing her over there sure put a damper on the festivities for me. I was sitting across the table from John when I recognized her. He definitely noticed something was wrong with me. I suppose he couldn't help but notice. I started to shake all over and turned as white as a ghost. After a few seconds the rest of my friends noticed my behaviour had changed. When they looked across the room and saw the reason for my reaction all conversation died down. They started to whisper back and forth amongst themselves, and then they exchanged looks as if they didn't know quite what to do about the situation.

I had to take a couple of deep breaths to steady myself as I continued to stare at her. My mind went completely blank, but my body reacted as if it had a mind of its own. Like some kind of zombie, I found myself trembling as I stood up and walked on shaky legs, across the dance floor. I don't know why, but I just had to talk to her. I'm sure the main reason was at one time I had considered her to be my second mother and I had liked and respected her a lot. Besides, a guy has to face his demons sometime, and I might as well start that process with her.

My friends just watched as I slowly made my way across the dance floor. I heard one girl; I think it was Margaret say, "Damn... Is that Allison's mother? He was doing so good... Sure as hell is hot, he's going to sink into another of his funks after this." I lost the rest of what was said in the crowd noise.

I guess this is where I should tell my tale of why there is so much drama in my life. To explain everything I have to go back some years from the time of that wedding to describe everything.

2) We Meet and Discover "Magic".

This journey started just as the sixties got rolling. I was a couple of weeks shy of sixteen, and ready to jump into high school and enjoy the experience. My uncle had offered me a summer job on his farm. I had helped out there before on weekends and during harvest and such, but this was for the whole summer. The big thing for me was the job paid a good wage so I would have some spending cash when I went back to school. The work was hard, but I always enjoyed working with my body by pitching hay bales and milking cows.

I had been there a few days when after chores my cousin and I took a couple of horses out for a ride to just relax. We rode for about four miles at a nice walk which ended at the local store/gas station beside the highway a half mile from home.

Country stores back then were the neighbourhood meeting place, and this one was no different. Over the previous years visiting on the farm, I had been at the store numerous times and was known. I also knew most of the people that stopped in. My cousin and I spent an hour there catching up on the gossip and bull shit before we decided to head for home.

As we exited the store we noticed two girls get out of a car that had stopped on the highway. My cousin recognized them as two girls that went to the same school he did. That's when I was introduced to Allison and her friend Sarah. When he asked where they had been they told him they had been at the fair in the city and had hitchhiked home.

You have to remember this was back in the sixties when there weren't too many weirdoes' out there and people were more sociable. For that reason hitchhiking was done quite a bit. We chatted for a while and after a bit they told us they had to get home.

My cousin and I helped the girls get up behind us on the horses so we could give them a ride home. They lived in the acreage development that looped around behind the store for a mile or so. Allison seemed to have a sense of humour because she jokingly was commenting, "Guys usually pick up girls in cars and being picked up by a guy on horseback would be something the grandkids wouldn't believe." There was also something said about a knight in shining armour on a white charger which was followed by some giggles. All I was conscious of, was she had her arms around me and was holding me tighter than what seemed necessary to stay on the horse. I admit those arms around me felt pretty fine. As we rode we talked a bit and I was enjoying her company. There was something about her that intrigued me.

Allison's friend, Sarah was dropped off first, and two houses later I dropped off Allison. I got off the horse to help her down, and then we just started talking. It just seemed like the natural thing to do. I was so wrapped up in talking with her I vaguely remember my cousin saying "I know when I'm a third wheel. I'll meet you back at the farm."

Allison's mom, who I found out later was named Nancy, had been periodically looking out the window at us. We had been holding hands ever since I helped her off the horse. I guess just being with her made me want to not give up that hand, and she felt the same way. We were also standing pretty close as we talked and joked back and forth. After midnight Allison's mom interrupted us by asking when Allison was coming in. We noticed it was very dark out and we chuckled. We realized that we had been talking for three and a half hours. No wonder the horse was getting fidgety. Before she went in we told each other we had a fun time, even if it was a weird way to meet someone, and I made sure I got her phone number because I wanted to see her again.

I guess Allison got the third degree from her mom after she went in the house. She wanted to know what was going on. I couldn't blame her. After all, she was a mother looking out for her daughter. Seeing Allison standing close to a strange guy, holding hands with him, with the two of us acting like love sick puppies had her wondering. But the topper for her was that strange guy with her daughter was holding the reins of a horse as we talked. It must have looked pretty weird.

Let me tell you after that night I sure got a bucket of grief from my cousin. For days on end all I heard was. "Hey guy, are you getting your stallion out tonight and heading out to rescue your damsel in distress. Make sure she drops her long blond locks out the window of the stone turret so you have something to climb." Those were a few comments I had to put up with.

Smart ass!

Back then I couldn't afford a car or the insurance for it, but had been working on this Honda 125 motorbike which was within my budget. At that point in time the Japanese bikes had just started to be sold in this part of the world and this was one of the smaller ones available. This particular bike had been owned by a neighbour that had no experience on a bike. The no experience was too my benefit as he promptly ran it into a wall damaging the front end a bit. Nothing major, but things had to be adjusted. He was so afraid of it after hitting that wall; he gave it to me, just to get it out of his sight.

I was happy for the gift because it meant I now had wheels, and as soon as I got things fixed I would be mobile. It was perfect for me to run around with. The only problem with the Honda was it was underpowered with two people on it, so it was to slow for the highway. One person on it wasn't bad, so with just me on the bike I could almost reach the speed limit on the highway. But it restricted my movements a bit for dating and such.

That Honda was sitting in the yard at my uncles, and when I had time I worked on it. I had phoned Allison a couple of times after the chores had been done and we talked a fair bit. Three days after I had met Allison I had managed to get the headlight mounted and adjusted on the bike. That was the last thing to make it road worthy. I just had to test it out, so I drove it over to her place. Allison's mother, Nancy answered the door and called for her. She had a smile on her face as she added a bit of a barb, "Roy Rodgers is here and he has upgraded his horse power." Jesus another smart ass!

We went to the store for a pop. With the bike not safe for two on the highway, the store was a good place to go. We then spent a fair number of hours talking at the picnic table in her backyard where we innocently kissed a few times. That did it for me, I was smitten with her and she seemed to be also infatuated with me. The saying "we had connected" would be a sincere understatement. Thus started our relationship.

I'm sure we spent every minute we could together after that and I never went home the rest of the summer. That would have taken time that I could be spending with her. The only way my parents saw me was if they visited the farm or tracked me down at Allie's place. To me she was "Allie," but to everyone else, she insisted she had to be called Allison.

Everyone we knew couldn't help but notice the connection we were forming and everyone had their opinion about us. Friends, family, you name it, used to tease us to no end about puppy love. Yeah, we were young, but without doubt there was a rapport there that couldn't be denied. We would be the first ones to admit we were young and inexperienced in matters of the heart, but we knew we had something special, and over time everyone saw we were right.

The summer for us was like those wannabe romance novelists always tried to write about. We seemed like we were joined at the hip whenever we were together, and we could spend hours on end just talking about anything that came to mind. We would tell each other everything about our lives and what we wanted for the future. Hopes, dreams, ambitions, past mistakes, number of kids we wanted, you name it, we talked about it all.

We may have been young, but we both had our sights on the future, and being together in that future was at the top of the list. That was pretty ambitious for a couple of sixteen year olds. Both our parents were sceptical about our dreams. After all, we were inexperienced where it came to matters of the heart, and they figured the young love between us would be fleeting and things would change over time. They all seemed to take a "wait and see" attitude.

As our bond grew stronger over the summer, we noticed something weird. We found we were like those twins you hear about where one would feel the pain of the other. It started out with little things like me feeling her pain as she stubbed a toe or if I bumped into a counter she felt it. We whimsically called what we felt, our "magic". Our parents didn't believe us when we told them about our "magic," so they tested it out by poking me with a pin while Allison was in another room. She could feel every poke and prod in the exact spot it happened with me.

By the end of summer the two of us were beginning to feel the emotions of the other person as well. Let me tell you it was really weird discussing something and feeling her reaction to what I said. That was bad enough, but making out with her, or her me, and being able to feel the emotions of what we were doing to each other was really weird. Eerie doesn't begin to describe things, but after we got used to that, it was nice to be able to touch her or kiss her and know if she liked it or not. No guessing or having to ask if what you were doing was good or not, you could sense it. With the "magic" we couldn't help but be bound together so tightly that we were truly one.

With the feelings we had towards each other, and knowing how the other one felt about it, we were as committed to each other as we could be. I even asked her to go steady with me and she agreed.

In the fall when we had to go back to school, her parents had accepted that I was going to be around their daughter so they had accepted me in their home. Also my parents had met her and thought she was pretty nice. They thought so much of her, she quickly became a de facto member of my family and in their minds she was adopted to be the daughter they never had.

Being back in school, I set up a sort of schedule so I could see Allison. Fridays after school, weather permitting, I would hop on the bike and motor out to visit her. I would stay until late, then make my way to my uncles and spend the night in the barn. The barn was warm and the hay made a nice bed. In the mornings I would help them with chores like cleaning the barns, feeding the animals, etc too pay for the breakfast they supplied, and then about noon, head back to Allison's for the day. I did the same routine Saturday night and then Sunday evening I would head home. The rest of the week the two of us had to settle for phone conversations.

Like all youngsters, we explored each other's bodies, but we were careful not to go too far. The two of us had seriously discussed this exploring of each other. While it felt good and was exciting exploring each other, Allison wanted to wait until she was out of school and had her eighteenth birthday before we put our lives in jeopardy by doing something stupid that could cause an OOPS. I could understand that because a couple of kids in our school had their lives ruined by not being able to hold back and their lives had gone from carefree to worried about the future.

When winter arrived that meant there was no way I could get to Allison's house on my bike because of the snow on the roads. So most days that I wanted to see her, I would hitchhike. On really inclement days for the trip home, my dad would pick me up, or Allison's dad would take me home. There wasn't much that kept the two of us apart.

Our parents all knew about our thoughts on holding off on sex and after a few talks with them, they knew we were adult enough to be trusted. They showed how much they trusted us by surprising us with a real special treat just after Christmas. We were allowed to stay at each others houses over the weekends or holidays in the spare rooms at each house. That way everyone got to know everyone else better and we soon felt like we were a family that way. Another plus was it gave the two family's time to bond with us youngsters. It also saved on me sleeping in my uncle's barn, and the late night trips to get me home etc. I'm sure our dad's liked that.

After that I don't know how many times Allison and I were woken up in the morning by parents making noise in the kitchen. The two of us would be cuddled up on the sofa watching a show on the television, usually that Jack Paar show or a late movie, and fall asleep there. At least I got to see the morning Allison, and in my mind she wasn't that bad looking. As a plus with us staying at each others place we could date or go to parties with friends without to many complicated arrangements having to be made.

Allison met all my friends and I met hers and we had a lot of fun with them. Those friends saw how connected we were, and being young teased us to no end. When Abby, a friend asked me how Allison had captured my heart, I replied that Allison secretly was a witch and had cast an unbreakable spell on me to make me spellbound to her. I finished by telling her that was the reason we had our "magic." That's when our friends started saying the two of us were mind mates. Whatever that is supposed to mean?

I had one friend by the name of Shane, who had this old Volkswagen beetle he drove. There were a cold couple of weeks just after Christmas and because of the parent's schedules, I couldn't get out to visit Allison and I was missing being with her. Talking on the phone was ok, but talking in person, holding hands or touching each other would make things so much better. Shane offered to drive me in his car to visit her for the price of a coffee.