*Note - This is a work of fiction.
In the summer of 1973 I was 18 and I had no girlfriend. I had a good job making $6.00 an hour, 40 hours a week and had my own apartment. I had graduated that spring and had broken up with a girl that I had dated from my junior thru senior year. Although it had been a very satisfyingly sexual relationship, all we seemed to do to was argue. I had trouble finding a date for a few weeks.
One day I bumped into my friend Tom. He invited me to a party at his parents’ house on the 4th of July. He told me that there would be minors there so don’t bring any beer. Bring potato salad and fireworks instead. “Oh, great.” I thought.
I went around 7:30 after work (yes, I had to work the 4th but it was double time so why not?) and the party was in full swing. There were a lot of people I knew as well as some I did not. He told me that the new faces were some cousins of his that were visiting. These were the minors he had warned me about. They looked anywhere from 12 to 16 years old.
After talking to a few friends I decided to go over to the food table to sample the food brought by the other guests. Tom came over and said, “Looks like you’ve got an admirer already.”
“What, one of the kiddies have a crush on me?” I joked.
He saw the look on my face and pointed me into the direction of a very mature looking girl for 12 to 16 years old. Again I had that look on my face and said, “Look, man, she turned 18 in January. She’s three months older than you!” That got my attention.
Again I started to move around the people there (it was crowded since the food was in the basement and thank goodness it was air-conditioned). I tried to keep my eye on where she was but I lost her after a few minutes. I started to work my way back to Tom when I felt a tug at the back of my shirt.
I turned around and there she was. She was my height (5’10”) about 140lbs., long light brown hair that went down to her waist, a big smile and the bluest eyes I had ever seen. They were the type of clear deep blue eyes that you find yourself falling into. She reminded me of Judy Collins, the singer.
“Hi, I’m Helene.”
“I’m John. Nice to meet you.” I said trying not to stare into her eyes.
“Do you live around here? I don’t remember seeing you before.” I asked still not staring.
“No, I live over in Bristol.” She explained. (Bristol had it’s own school district and was about 15 miles away.)
We talked for a while. Tom walked by at some point and gave me thumbs up but with a question mark on his face. I returned the thumbs up and he grinned and walked away. The rest of the party we hung together and I have to tell you she was a fun girl. She was smart, a great conversationalist and a great kisser. Soon it was dark and time for the fireworks. Tom asked me and a few other older kids to watch the little ones while the fireworks were lit up. No one wanted to spend the rest of the evening at the emergency room so it was no problem.
After 30 minutes of explosions and 30 minutes more for the ringing in my ears to stop, I found myself talking to Helene out front by the cars. Her parents were getting ready to leave. We exchanged phone numbers and were giggling like little kids.
Then her expression changed. She gave me a very serious look and said, “I like you. I can tell that you’re a fun guy and Tom tells me you don’t have a girlfriend. I can tell you’re not a jerk because you haven’t asked me to come back to your place to check out your “stamp collection” or whatever. So I’m going to just come out and say it. I would really like to spend the rest of the summer hanging with you until I leave for college in August.”
I could almost feel one of my eyebrows going up like Mr. Spock and uttering, “Fascinating.”
“I also want to tell you that I am a true virgin.” (That eyebrow started coming down). “I intend to stay that way until I am married. (That eyebrow came the rest of the way down) We can have a lot of fun doing things together and I have a job too so I’m willing to pay my fair share of movies and meals. I would really like to see you as much as possible for the rest of the summer.” She stood there waiting for me to answer.
I wasn’t really ready for that revelation, so I just stood there looking into those eyes. Somewhere in the back of my mind I heard a clock ticking like if I didn’t answer soon, the buzzer would go off and I would lose. So I said, “OK. Why not.”
So, for the rest of the summer, if I wasn’t working we were together. At all times I was a gentleman. I honored her wishes. I also found myself getting a little more emotionally involved than I wanted to.
At the end of August I had taken her shopping for her college gear and was walking her to her front door. She opened the door but waived me off from entering. She closed the screen door tight between us and just stared at me. It took me a second and then realized what was going on.
“What? This is goodbye? This is the way you want to do it?” She just stared back at me. “Wow, Helene, I can’t believe this. No kiss? Hug? Just goodbye? Wow. This is cold.” I turned around from the door and headed back to my car. Before I opened the door I looked back and her door was closed shut. I got into my car and went back to my apartment. I thought over our first meeting and she had been true to her word just as I had. My mistake was that I had allowed myself to get all emotional instead of just having a great summer.
I received many letters from her telling me all about her school experiences but never a mention that she missed me or that she wanted to get together after the semester.
On Christmas day, I got a knock on my door. I opened it and there stood Helene and her next-door neighbor Gracie. I didn’t know what to say. I was shocked that she even was standing there. Gracie went “Merry Christmas!” and planted a big fat sloppy kiss on my cheek (I found out later that she had had a crush on me since the first time we had met). Helene held her arms out to do the same and I recoiled back into the doorway.
“What’s wrong? Did I gain weight, or get ugly?” she said pouting.
“What’s going on? Why are you here?” I finally managed to say.
“I’m home, Gracie has her mothers’ car and Merry Christmas!” she said as she tried to hug me again.
“Wait a minute!” I said as Gracie shot past me into my living room and yelled back, “Where’s the tree?”
“I didn’t really expect anybody coming here over the holiday. Putting up a tree is a lot of fuss for one person.” I explained.
I turned back to Helene and asked, “I thought you made it clear that it was just a summer thing.”