When the drizzle we had been standing in began to turn to something more substantial, the trees that had been sheltering us began to let in some of the rain, and that was just as good a reason to end this "party" I had been having with my best friend Jeff.
We had been celebrating a couple of things, the most important as far as I was concerned being my 18th birthday. The other, more sobering event was my friend getting ready to go off to college. While I was stuck going to a local school, Jeff was headed halfway across the country, and for the first time in my memory he wouldn't be around.
A story about real people back in the early 70's. Those looking for stories about well hung studs and ravishing women will probably not like this story. Jimmy and Rose were flawed in different ways, but only in their own eyes.
***
I loved the guy like a brother, but there were times when he pissed me off, and this was one of those times. We had been drinking in the woods, pounding down quarts of Utica Club beer, a brew whose sole redeeming quality was that it was cheap, and while we drank we were rattling off local girls that we always wanted to have sex with.
The list was long, and included many girls who wouldn't even give us the time of day. Jeff, who wasn't really able to drink much before getting wasted, had brought my older sister's name up, and while I didn't care that he had the hots for her, I figured that it was safe to bring up a relative of his. Jeff's Mom.
He thought this was hilarious for some reason, and that pissed me off. Part of my anger was due to the odd way he thought of his mother a lot of the time. His father had taken off with another woman, leaving his mother with the dual role of mother and father, and while Jeff hardly even saw the guy, he never said a bad word about him, but for some reason he resented his Mom.
"If you ever saw her naked, you would never get a boner again for as long as you live," Jeff slurred, and then he proceeded to tell me about the time he saw her naked, peeking at her after she got out of the shower. "No wonder my Dad dumped her."
He then explained that his father's new woman had great tits, unlike his mother, who he claimed had little boobs that sagged like fried eggs, and then got under my skin by mentioning that his mother didn't shave her underarms.
"She's got more hair under her arms than I do," Jeff declared as he lost his balance and almost fell on his face, something I was hoping for and made no effort to stop.
"I think that's sexy," I said, "and I think your Mom is too. I would rather make love to her than anybody else we've mentioned."
"I think I'm going to be sick," Jeff said, and while I thought he was just making another commentary on my taste in women, he proved he wasn't kidding when he threw up the quart and a half of Utica Club he had consumed.
"Serves you right," I said, and while I knew I was going to miss Jeff a lot after he left town, this sure wasn't one of those times.
"When you fuck her, bring a hedge clipper with you so you can find her pussy," Jeff said to the tree that was holding him up. "Like a freaking jungle down there."
"I'll help you home," I said.
"Still got more beer, don't we?" Jeff said as he looked into the paper bag.
"There's a quart left but you threw up in the bag," I informed him.
"It's still good," Jeff said. "Not open."
"Not interested," I said as I tried to get Jeff to walk the trail out of the little patch of woods we were in and safely to his house, and while it was like trying to herd a cat, we made it.
We made a noisy entrance into the Henry's kitchen, and when Rose Henry saw Jeff's condition she rolled her eyes.
"What will he do without you, Jimmy?" Mrs. Henry asked.
"I'll help him get to bed," I said.
"Jimbo thinks you're sexy, Ma," Jeff announced while I tried to get him out of the kitchen before I killed him. "He likes your hairy armpits."
I didn't know Jeff's mother's reaction to that revelation because I was herding Jeff away from her, but I know how embarrassed I was. After Jeff told me he didn't have to go to the bathroom, I got him into his bedroom, helped him get his gross jeans off and threw him on the bed after I told him I hated his guts, only half-kidding.
I stopped in the bathroom to wash my hands, trying to summon enough courage to walk past Jeff's mother because it was one thing to have a crush on somebody, but when it gets announced that's something else all together.
The part about Jeff telling her that I liked the fact that she didn't shave her underarms didn't bother me as much, although she might wonder how I knew, since I don't remember her ever wearing anything sleeveless.
The only peeks I got were glimpses when I would look under her sleeve when she would reach up for something or run her hand through her hair, but that would really freak her out if she knew I was that weird.
This was 1973 mind you, and forty years ago it wasn't all that uncommon to see a natural woman, but it was mostly hippie girls, and Rose Henry was not a hippie. Rose was just a tiny, worn-out middle-aged woman who was alone and figured nobody ever gave her more than a passing glance, but she was wrong about that.
Taking a deep breath, I went out to the kitchen, and Rose was there, standing next to the table with her hands clutching her elbows. She looked frightened, almost like she thought I was going to attack her, and I apologized about the condition her son was in.
"How come you never get like that?" Rose asked.
"I have, once at least," I said. "Now that I'm 18 I can get my own beer, so maybe I'll get like that more often."
"Oh, that's right. It's your birthday!" Rose said, and took a step toward me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah, that was our excuse to drink tonight," I said, although for most of the summer nights we had been back in the woods drinking after work, since before today I couldn't get served at bars.
"Still, even though he's a couple of months older than you, you've always been more mature," Rose said while ruffling the back of her hair that she wore in a shag of sorts, and I made a conscious effort to not look up her short sleeve as she did.