I peeked out the window of the door and saw the smiling face of little Julie Anderson, the neighbor girl who lived down the road a piece. She was wearing her scout uniform, and judging by the time of year and the things she was carrying, I knew what the visit was about.
"Hi Julie!" I said as I opened the door. "Cookie time again I'll bet."
"You're right Mr. Hall!" Julie said, giving me a big smile that revealed a set of braces that matched her bright red hair. "Hope you still have a sweet tooth."
"I sure do," I said. "Come on in out of the chill."
I stepped aside and let little Julie in, and as she entered the house I noticed that little Julie wasn't so little anymore. Although she was still as thin as ever she had gotten taller, and was only more a few inches shorter than my 5'9".
I put my arm around Julie in my usual grandfatherly way and escorted her into the kitchen, pulling out a chair and getting her to sit down.
"How about a drink?" I said. "Whiskey? Beer? Ice tea?"
Julie giggled and said she would like a glass of ice tea, so I fetched the pitcher out of the fridge and poured her a tall one before easing down into the chair across the table from her.
I had been buying cookies from the scouts since - heck - since back when Grace was alive - and had a particular preference for those thin mints. These days though, being alone like I had been since Grace passed, I welcomed the company more than the cookies, and ever though the girls probably dreaded having to sit and chat with an old fool like yours truly, I usually bought enough to make it worth their while.
"So Julie," I said as I watched her lift the glass to her lips. "How come you're all alone this year? You always come around with - what's her name - the Evans girl and the other one."
"They quit scouts," Julie said. "They think it's corny. I guess it is but, oh well. Nothing else for me to do."
"Well, I think it's a fun thing to be a part of. If you weren't still in it, were would I get my cookies from?" I told Julie, who did this cute little twitching of her pug nose when she giggled.
"Besides, don't tell anybody but you were always my favorite anyway," I said as I reached over and patted her arm, which seemed to have become even more covered with freckles than ever, and the feel of the long pale down that graced her forearm made me shiver in addition to making me feel guilty.
"So, you're probably going to be entering high school pretty soon, aren't you Julie?" I said.
"College you mean?" Julie asked as she looked at me as if I was senile. "I'm graduating high school soon."
"College? I said. "How old are you?"
"Eighteen," Julie said, and as I tried to figure out where the world the time had gone my eyes strayed to Julie's chest, and the tiny swells beneath the sash of her uniform shirt.
"I know I don't look it," Julie said apologetically as she seemed to notice where my eyes went.
"Getting old will happen to you someday, if you live long enough," I told Julie with a grin. "The years go by so fast when you get older. Grace - it seems like last year that she passed away instead of four years ago."
"Five years," Julie said, correcting me, and as I did the math and concluded she was right I shook my head.
"See what I mean?" I said, taking my glasses off and wiping my eyes with my sleeve, getting emotional over Grace as well as loathing the memory lapses that reflected my advancing age. "Oh well. You're only 64 once."
"You don't look 64," Julie said.
"Does that mean I look younger or older?" I kidded.
"Younger silly," Julie said. "My grandfather is 65 and he looks way older than you."
"Poor guy."
"I'm serious," Julie said, her braces gleaming and her freckles glowing on her cheeks. "You always reminded me of the angel in the movie It's A Wonderful Life."
"Clarence?" I said, returning her smile. "Okay. I guess it could be worse. So why am I babbling about me falling apart with a pretty young woman in front of me. The prom must be coming up soon."
"Next month," Julie said without smiling.
"Aren't you going?"
"No," Julie said. "It's - you know, it's kind of expensive. The dress and all."
I was going to offer to buy her a dress. It's only money, and I have a little, but as I looked at her I suspected that the reason she wasn't going wasn't because of the lack of money.
Despite my fondness for Julie, I guess if I looked beyond my tunnel vision, maybe the truth was that Julie wasn't all that attractive. I mean, I thought she was adorable, but I guess you could say that she wasn't what you would call well developed, and maybe the plethora of freckles that seemed to cover all of the pale skin visible to me wasn't every one's cup of tea either. Grace had a lot of freckles, which might have been why I was partial to them.
"Well, I didn't go to any of my proms either," I confessed. "Although if I was in your class this year I would have made an exception to that."
This got Julie laughing again, and the sound of her giggling was infectious. Julie ended up spending the next two hours sitting at my table, telling me about video games, Twilight books, a guy called Justin Beeper or something and a whole lot of other people that I knew nothing about.
She managed to sell me cookies too. Ten boxes of them, and when she asked me what I was going to do with all of them, I told her.
"Eat them, what do you think?" I said. "Maybe if you have time you could come back and help me eat them. You like the thin mints?"
"They're okay, but I like the coconut ones better," Julie confessed.
"In that case, add a box of them to my order," I said, and when Julie thought I was kidding I made it 2 boxes and had her write it down on the form. "That way you have to come back after you deliver them and help me eat them."