Everybody has a story. This is Bill's.
***
Every year when June 28th comes around that date brings back memories of what happened on that date back in 1971. Almost all of those memories are great but there's one thing that occurred on that day that isn't. It's the worst memory I have in my entire life, and it was so bad that it almost made me regret everything that came before it.
I lost my best friend that day. Kenny Praga was like a brother to me, a kid I grew up with and with whom I shared so many laughs and tears that I could never count them, but it all came crashing down that day in June and although we eventually resumed speaking to each other it was never the same.
I understand that and while I'd like to think that if the situation was reversed I would have not only forgiven Kenny but actually been happy for him, but that's easy for me to say because I wasn't the one that saw what he saw.
That day I had gone over to Kenny's house around 10 in the morning, prepared for a fun day we had planned to celebrate our recent graduation from high school. The plan was that we were going to spend the day hiking and swimming at nearby Thatcher Park, with the prospect of meeting girls as always on our minds.
When I left my house, I was just locking the door behind me when the phone rang. I hesitated as I turned the key, torn between going back in to answer it or not, but I decided against it, figuring it was somebody selling something. If I did go back in none of what happened afterwards would have occurred.
As it turned out the call was from my friend Kenny, who was calling to tell me that he got called in to work at the local McDonald's where he had just started. While he didn't want to go in, it was going to be a whole day's work and since he was in need of money for books for college, that along with having just started and not wanting to lose the job had him calling me to bail out on our day.
I learned all this from Kenny's mother after I got to his house, and while I was pissed I understood, and when Kenny's Mom invited me in I took her up on it mostly because I had nothing else to do, but my having the hots for Kenny's mother had something to do with going inside.
Mrs. Praga was a really nice woman who I had always gotten along with, and after Kenny's father took off on the two of them, I really felt sorry for the lady. I guess that his father fell for somebody younger and prettier, but I didn't understand that at all.
Mrs. Praga might not have been a raving beauty but I thought she was attractive in a natural way. She was about 5'5" with jet black hair and while she might have been carrying 20 extra pounds or so since her husband left her, a lot of that had gone to her boobs which was alright by me.
I would have liked it better if she dressed a little more provocatively on occasion so I could have seen more of her, but she was a Mom around 50 after all, so I just used my imagination as to what she looked like under her modest clothing.
Inside the house we sat at the kitchen table and chatted, mostly about my college plans, while I tried not to stare at her breasts which looked great even in the loose fitting short sleeved blouse she wore.
One thing the blouse did was permit me to peek up Mrs. Praga's loose fitting sleeve when she would animatedly raise her arms as she talked, and although I could never get a really good look I could see enough to tell that she had hair under her arms.
Mrs. Praga not shaving was something I noticed after her husband left her, but since she never wore sleeveless clothing I never got the look I wanted. You see, my first girlfriend had hair under her arms that her mother forbid her to shave for fear it would grow in heavier, and while I never thought of women with hair under their arms before that I kind of liked it. In that era it wasn't all that unusual to see a woman unshaven so it wasn't the rarity it is today.
I remember mentioning his mother's armpits to Kenny one day and he looked shocked and asked how I knew. After I told him about my habit of peeking up sleeves he seemed relieved but said it embarrassed him and didn't want me to tell any of the guys, which I had no intention of doing.
"Sometimes she's outside gardening and she wears this tank top," Kenny confided. "I always pray nobody comes by here to see her like that."
I told him he was crazy and reminded him that several pseudo hippie girls at school didn't shave their pits and one of them was a girl Kenny had unsuccessfully asked out once, but he said it was different because this was his mother, who should act more ladylike and look feminine. All I could do was shake my head and change the subject, but I confess to popping by unannounced a lot after that in hopes of catching Mrs. Praga in that tank-top. No such luck however.
So I enjoyed talking to Kenny's mother that morning, sipping an iced tea and mentally undressing her, when all of a sudden she excuses herself. When she comes back she's holding a joint, the last thing I was expecting to see.
"I found this in Kenny's room," Mrs. Praga announced. "I wasn't snooping and if he kept his room clean I wouldn't even go in there at all, but anyway... you two smoke this stuff Billy?"
"I - er - uh - well - uh," I babbled, finally shrugging and admitting, "a couple times."
"I bet."
"No really," I insisted, and that was the truth because Kenny and I were not all that hip.
"Want to smoke this with me?" Mrs. Praga asked, almost knocking me off the chair. "I'm curious. Just don't tell Kenny."
"He'll notice it's gone," I reminded her, but she correctly said that he would never have the nerve to ask her anything about it and would figure it misplaced it.
"Okay," I agreed, because this was certainly not something I would ever forget, smoking a joint with the woman I had a major crush on.
"Tell me what to do," Mrs. Praga said, and after I gave her a couple of tips she changed seats to be next to me because the passing across the table was a reach.
Being this close to Kenny's mother only made my head spin more because she smelled so nice and the occasional contact of our hands and knees made my dick hard.
As the joint shrunk Mrs. Praga got a little giggly and our passing got a little sloppy, and I loved her laugh because in recent years she hadn't laughed as much as she used to.
"What's so funny?" I asked when we neared the end of the joint.
"Everything," Mrs. Praga laughed and then said, "the hair on your legs tickles when we bump under the table."
"Sorry," I lied.
"Don't be," I was told. "That's another thing about you that my Kenny is jealous of."
"What?"
"Kenny. You know you're like his hero," Mrs. Praga told me, and while I knew we got along great I thought of myself more like his brother than an idol, something that made me uncomfortable for whatever reason. "He talks about you a lot, just between you and me Billy."