Torc and Natasha first met when they were eight years old. This was the first year of going to summer camp for both of them. Torc had been angling for his parents to let him go to "stay-away camp," as he called it, for the better part of a year. Natasha was going reluctantly; she didn't know what this was, or what to expect. By the end of the three weeks, she didn't want to leave. Camping, staying in the bunkhouses, cooking, hiking, climbing, learning to tie ropes and make crafts out of things she found in the woods . . . she was enchanted.
Natasha loved making friends. She wasn't the most gregarious at school and largely kept to herself. But at camp, she was elated to hang out with all the girls in her dorm, and when she picked flowers in the forest, she made sure to count out one for each girl, to make sure no one was left out. She talked and laughed the day away, and chatted with any boy or girl who wandered within earshot. She made cards for each one of them that said "Happy camp day" because there wasn't anything in particular to celebrate. And she got excited to hear all of the other kids talk about their birthdays and the fun things they did throughout the year.
She spent the most time with Torc, though. The little blond-headed girl, when she wasn't busy with something else, would follow the little blond-headed boy around, asking him questions. Torc, for his part, would explain things to her as an authority. Although it was his first time at camp, he would "teach" her everything he knew, and several things he didn't. From the first time she showed an interest in what he had to say, he seemed to always have something to say.
She also didn't make fun of his name. To Natasha, it was just a name. She liked how it sounded and it didn't seem funny at all. The kids at school, with that particular careless cruelty of young children, had begun to call him "Dork." Making fun of his weird name led them to find other "weird" things about him, and occasionally left him feeling ostracized and strange. He liked the girl that asked him questions and listened to him and treated him normal.
A lot of the other kids grew tired of the novelty of being at camp after a week or two. Not Torc and Natasha, however. They had fun every day, and when their parents came to pick them up on the last day they were both sad to leave. They both talked about it for weeks on end after they got home.
Of course, being kids, their attention span wandered throughout the year. Natasha gave a report on what she did over the summer; Torc recounted his exploits to his friends. But by Christmas, all thought of summer camp had evaporated and their families never gave it a second thought.
When school let out the following year, the issue of summer camp came up again. Torc asked his parents if he could go, and they readily agreed. Natasha's parents hadn't heard a peep about camp in months, and thought she wouldn't want to go again. But when they mentioned it, she smiled thoughtfully and said, "Will Torc be there?"
Of course, the families didn't know each other, and they couldn't guarantee the presence of the boy. Natasha would have gone in any case. She was fascinated by animals now, and wanted to learn all the different bugs and birds she saw and heard in the forest. Torc was glad to share his expertise with her, even if his information was occasionally faulty. And that's how they spent their second summer camp together. They loved hanging out with the other kids as well, and Natasha was blossoming into a social butterfly of sorts. Torc had been developing a more solitary personality; When other kids zigged, he seemed to want to zag. But he was friendly and liked being at camp, getting along with everyone.
When he got home from camp that summer, Torc had endless stories about all the things they did. His parents were happy to see him so engaged. When Natasha got home, she matter-of-factly told her parents that she was going to marry Torc, although he would have been surprised to hear it.
Life moved along, though, and those small private connections people make are sometimes destined only to last for the three weeks of camp. The following year, Torc's parents were getting divorced and summer camp wasn't in the cards. Natasha attended camp and was rather disappointed not to find Torc there. She had a good time, but upon returning home didn't seem to regale her family with the same enthusiasm as she had in years past. The year after that, her parents determined that she was too old for a co-ed camp anymore.
*****
And so their very brief friendship might have ended, dissipated by the winds of circumstance. But their families both lived in outlying areas of the same moderately-sized city, and there were other opportunities for them to meet. In Junior High, Torc played the trombone in pep band. He began to enjoy making a spectacle of himself, running up and down the bleachers encouraging the other spectators, and making up humorous chants. He remained a skinny nerd all throughout his school years, but didn't seem capable of making enemies. He never quite fit in with any clique, and yet found something in common with everyone.
At a school basketball game, in between shouting and playing cheerful tunes with the band, Torc had gone down to the concession stand to get a soda. Walking back, he spotted a group of girls his age, wearing the opposing team's colors. He wasn't much for walking up and talking to girls out of the blue. But he recognized straight away that long, straight blonde hair with the bangs, just the way she wore it several years ago. "Tasha?" he said.
His own hair had shaded toward brown as he grew, and resisted all attempts to style it. It was a medium-length unkempt tangle, but she recognized his face beneath that mop. "Torc!" she cried, excited. Though they'd never hugged before, she threw her arms around him from the side, in a quick, casual greeting.
Largely due to her experience at camp, Natasha had grown from a shy and reserved girl to a very friendly and outgoing one. She wanted to be friends with everyone and didn't shy away from physical contact. Torc, on the other hand, had never hugged a girl outside his family before. He found he quite liked it. If, over the course of the next year, he began to develop into someone who showed affection this way-hugging his friends, putting his arm around their shoulders as they walked around or goofed off-it might have been traced back to this first hug.
They didn't have much time to chat that day. She told him about showing up at camp that one year, and being disappointed not to see him. He told her about his parents' divorce, by way of explanation, and she said, "Oh, that's so sad," and touched him on the arm.
But he had to get back to his trombone before his friends stuffed french fries down the mouthpiece, so they didn't get much chance to talk beyond that. Their schools played each other several times a year, at basketball and football. Natasha only made it to a few of the games, but when she did they would make sure to say hi to each other. Torc didn't know it, and he wouldn't have known what to do with this information if he did, but several of the girls in pep band were jealous of the attention he gave this gangly little blonde from the other school.
When they'd moved on to high school, they still attended different schools. They hung out together for several months, that first year of high school. Natasha had a boyfriend now, Ben, who Torc really liked. Natasha was starting to hang out with the popular crowd, but far from being a jock or a bully, Ben was kind of a geek. He had a bizarre sense of humor and unusual interests. This was really as close as Tash and Torc had ever been, though he was more Ben's friend than hers. If Torc every once in a while felt a little jealous of Ben, it was only natural. He'd never had a girlfriend, after all, and Natasha was very pretty.
Torc didn't have his first real crush until Lizzie, the following year. She was an Asian girl who he had several classes with and who was also on the Knowledge Bowl team with him. They dated for most of the school year. Natasha was a cheerleader now, so Torc still saw her at football games, but they didn't see each other outside of that. The last two years of high school they'd each gone their different ways and lost track of each other.
They both got accepted to different colleges, and there again it might have ended. Two people enjoying a casual friendship for a few years and moving on. But chance would throw them in each other's path one more time, years later.
*****
