Ah fall! The leaves begin to turn, the weather begins to cool down...and here in southern California, the whole damn place seems to catch on fire! It happens every year! The sky is covered with thick brown smoke and you hear fire trucks screaming by all day long.
For me, a junior high school teacher, it also meant the start of a new semester and a whole batch of new students to educate. I took my job seriously and put in all those extra hours that are necessary to really do a decent job of teaching. I loved the kids too. Every year there would be the usual goof offs, smart alecks, brown nosers and delinquents. But there were also always a few special kids that I really enjoyed teaching. Sometimes, I got to keep in touch with them after graduation.
There was one special boy I'll never forget. No, not a student as it turned out but unforgettable just the same. We lived in a semi remote neighborhood overlooking the San Fernando Valley and carpooling was just something everyone up there did. We all took turns and sometimes you had to deliver a student to a different school than the one your kids attended. That's how I met Tommy.
My son Justin told me of a new family that lived just across Topanga from us. They'd recently moved to Los Angeles from Louisiana and my son described them as "A bunch of out of it hicks." I believe the term today would be "Nerds" but I scolded my son for his insensitive comment.
"They dress all hokey!" He insisted. "I heard the son wears brown shoes!"
"Justin don't crucify him just because he comes from the South!" I quickly shot back. "Remember, your mother came here from Texas. Same general neighborhood you know." My son just rolled his eyes and didn't respond. He was mortified the next day when he found out I'd sought out the new family and invited them to join the carpool.
"Ma! The fellas will be all over me!" He wailed. Honestly! children can be so cruel. Justin had little to say about this matter, however and we began to pick up Tommy and his sister Juliet every other morning. Tommy was a quiet lad and attended Taft high so I had to deliver him to school after the others had left the car. I attempted several times to strike up a conversation with the boy but he was clearly feeling like a fish out of water in California and was uncomfortable trying to talk to me about it.
"It's just...real different here" was about all I could get out of him. I remembered what it was like when I moved from Houston and how unfriendly the children here seemed back then. I made no further effort to pressure Tommy into conversation knowing that he would eventually make friends here. I urged him to give it time.
The school year passed slowly and Tommy was fortunate enough to go back to Louisiana for a visit over Christmas vacation. I knew he was eagerly looking forward to the trip and I asked him about it when school resumed in January.
"It was fun, yeah." He told me. "Got to see all my old friends again. They's all askin' me about those California girls and was it really sunny and warm all winter?" He smiled.
"Do you have a girlfriend back in Lake Charles?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Oh...I don't guess I do. There's one girl I was always kinda sweet on..." Tommy looked out the window as we approached Taft. "She said she missed me and stuff."
"Well, it sounds like maybe she would like to be your girlfriend Tommy." I told him, happy that he was finally opening up even if just a little.
"I think maybe I goofed it up though Mrs. Brockman." He replied looking up at me. It was rare for Tommy to even make eye contact, he seemed so painfully shy. We'd arrived at the high school and he just said "Bye" and jumped out of the car as usual.
Justin refused to make any attempt to make friends with Tommy even though they both played baseball and were not that far apart in age. He considered Louisiana to be just west of Mars and anyone from there didn't deserve to be considered "One Of the Guys." So Tommy and I usually waited until the car was empty before chatting. It wasn't easy to get Tommy to speak so I usually would rattle on about events in my life and hoped Tommy would respond. Eventually, he did from time to time.
By June of course, the weather was heating up and school was finally winding down. Tommy and I had our own little talks every morning en route to school and I came to understand that I was virtually the only friend he had. The last week of school I decided to invite him to our home to swim over the summer. His face brightened when I mentioned it to him and he said he'd ask his Mom if it would be okay.
Of course Justin was aghast when he found out. "You invited that fink over to swim Mom?" He was ready to launch into another of his tirades when I interrupted him.
"Listen Justin, he won't get cooties in the pool and it's my house too you know. I can invite anyone I want over to swim and you don't have to make friends or even be here for all I care." That was fine with him.
I got a call from Tommy's mother thanking me for the invitation and she said she hoped her son wouldn't be intruding. I assured her that he was perfectly welcome and hardly anyone used the pool during the week anyway. My husband and I were actually nudists and were rarely home on weekends when we usually went to the camp down in the canyon. I didn't mention that to Tommy's mother for obvious reasons.
So I wasn't surprised when I began to get occasional calls from the lonely young man and he would show up all ready to dive in the pool. I have a long standing policy of now allowing anyone to swim alone for safety reasons so I usually hung out on the patio with Tommy while he frolicked in the water. I'd fix a pitcher of lemonade for us and we'd sit under the umbrella and chat afterwards.
I began to ask Tommy about his troubles adjusting to life here in California and it took a bit of doing but eventually he began to open up, talking about how much he missed things in Lake Charles.
"We used to go roller skating on Saturday nights back home." He told me. "Everyone did it. They played our favorite songs on the speakers and we'd all promenade around the rink...you know...couples! It was fun! Here? You mention roller skating and they think you're nuts!"
"Well here people do things like go surfing Tommy." I told him. "Have you ever thought about giving something like that a try?"
"Gee, it does look like it would be kinda fun Mrs. Brockman." He smiled. "I might like to give it a go some day. Don't have no surfboard though."
"Well Justin and Louise share one and I'm sure they'd be glad to loan it to you for the day." Tommy's eyes brightened when I said it. I didn't bother mentioning that Justin would never consent to loaning his beloved board to Tommy but I figured I could cross that bridge when I came to it.
"Really? That would be swell Mrs. Brockman!" He warmly replied. "It's so...so nice of you to, you know, give me a chance at something." I could see Tommy's eyes begin to cloud up with tears. It had been so difficult for him to adjust here that the slightest offer of friendship brought an emotional response.
It seemed that small exchange between us served to loosen little Tommy up quite a bit. We began to chat every day when he visited our home to use the pool. One day, he asked me why I never swam and I couldn't honestly think of an answer. I went inside and changed into my bathing suit and joined him. I hadn't bought a bathing suit in years and was relieved to find that my old black one piece suit still fit me pretty well. I was 36 years old back then but worked hard to maintain my figure. Visiting a nudist camp on the weekends was like a double edge sword: Nobody really cared what your body looked like, but still...you were naked and everything showed!
I usually applied some sun tan lotion to Tommy's southern white skin and, when I began to swim with him, he would return the favor. No funny business or anything but, well, it did take our relationship to a slightly more intimate level. I finally asked him one day about his friends back in Louisiana and, more to the point, that one girl he'd said was "Kinda sweet on him."
"Aw gee Mrs. Brockman," He turned his head in embarrassment. "Oh I messed it up so bad. I just don't know what I'm doing with the girls. Now I'm out here and the girls just laugh at me." He shook his head as if in thought. "Yeah, I really messed that up good."
I waited a few moments before pressing on. "Maybe it's not as bad as you think Tommy." I offered. "Sometimes girls act a certain way to provoke a reaction from a boy. Maybe she just..."
"Nah...nah, I really goofed up Mrs. Brockman." He interrupted shaking his head again. "I was so much looking forward to seein' Lucinda... actually everone calls her Cindy, and she seemed glad to see me too. I was stayin' right across the way from her folks house with my buddy Kenny and I got t'see her just about every day. One day, when her folks weren't around, she invited me into her kitchen for a soda. We was talkin' and...and then she got right up next to me! Her pretty face was almost touchin' mine and, next thing I knew, we was kissin'! She stuck her tongue into my mouth and I got all excited and was doin' it back to her and stuff. Her...uh, well, her tits was pokin' me in the chest and my pecker got all hard and I was worried that she could feel it!"