As is often said, the following is based on real events, with real people, in the place described. It just didn't happen exactly this way. Enjoy. Jb7
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It was late summer of 1960, JFK was well on his way to becoming the first Catholic President; I was just out of my last summer school class and finally, a college graduate, on my way to Rochester in upstate NY, one of the few cities in the state with a healthy economy, or at least a healthy job market.
Some how, some one had fucked up my college record so that at the end of the regular school year, I showed up an hour short in my General Education requirements, and needed an extra hour of Physics. For some freaking reason, the only summer course in Physics being offered that year was, and I quote, "An in-depth review of the properties, applications, and manipulation of ultra low level atmospheric phenomena."
For those of you who, like me, have no inkling of what the hell that meant, it was a class about the production and use of vacuum technology in industry. No, not vacuum cleaners like the Hoovers. Can't tell you how many friggin' people asked me that. Vacuum technology, like how to survive in space, or produce really pure materials, and, god forbid, instant coffee and tea.
The course was actually fun, and it led to a really cool job in Rochester, working for an industrial engineering research firm, which would contract with companies all over the world to solve their engineering problems. I was only a junior technician, so didn't get to do any traveling, but I got to meet a hell of a lot of very interesting people, including the ex-husband of the lady this is all about.
After a couple of years of banging around Rochester (yeah, that kind, too), I found a studio apartment in the Park Avenue area of the city. The ParkAve area was about a mile square, just south and east of downtown, and inhabited mostly by twenty-somethings, artists, older liberals, and others attracted by its reputation for supporting a quasi-bohemian life style.
The building I moved into had eight studio apartments, and two shared bathrooms, on two floors. On the first floor were two guys and two young women, all between 21 and 29; the second floor, my floor, had a nurse, an ad agency intern, and a college instructor, all women, 22 to 53. The nurse and the intern were both in their twenties. And me, Mark McPherson.
I didn't meet Kay, the college teacher, for a few weeks after I moved in. I had to be up early to catch the bus to work, and she taught mostly late afternoon and early evening classes. And weekends, like any 25-year old, I was out 'bangin' around.
But, that Saturday afternoon, I was in my apartment, reading a Leon Uris novel, my door was open, and the radio was broadcasting another Cubbies' loss.
I was dimly aware of the sound of high heels coming down the hallway when they stopped, right at my door. I sort of glanced up, went back to my book and did a classic double take. In my door way...If simple words could have described Kay, we'd have had world peace 50 years ago. I can honestly say she was not beautiful. I'm not even sure she could be called pretty. I will give you attractive, she was definitely attractive. And when she smiled, it is said the sun hid his face for shame. At my double take, she laughed, and all the nightingales in that London square retired.
I know, I'm not making any sense. When I heard there was a 50-year old female college professor in the apartment next to me, I imagined some dried up old spinster, not a contestant for the Senior Penthouse Pet of the Year. And that is not a fair picture either; she was not overly huge or out of proportion anywhere. In fact, later, when we were better acquainted, she actually complained because she thought her bust was too small, or so she had been told. She was just very nicely put together, very nicely.
Back to the story, if you're still with me. She introduced herself, laughing at my inability to string two words together, including my own name. As she turned to leave, she thanked me for the compliment and invited me to stop by for a drink when I regained my voice. I glanced at the clock, saw that it wasn't quite three. I didn't have anywhere to be before nine, so I got a drink of water to put my throat back in action and went to meet my neighbor.
I think a bit of geography, house style, may be necessary here. Sally and Carole, the intern and the nurse, respectively, occupied the two apartments across the front of the house on our floor. The stairway came up in the middle of the right hand side of the second floor, looking front to back.
Right next to the stairs was my apartment, across the hall was the shared bath, and across the back of the house was Kay's apartment and the rear stairs. Kay's doorway opened directly into the hall, with the rear stairs immediately to the left of her door. From my door to hers, maybe five steps.
When I knocked on the closed door, she answered, "Mark? Come on in." That's when I learned she had no modesty, or if she did, it sure as hell was selective. I walked in, and there she was, in pink nylon panties and bra, digging in her dresser looking for something to put on. I must have yelped or something when I turned around. She turned to look and saw me with my back turned and I swear my ears must have been flame red with embarrassment. She laughed again (god, that laugh, have I told you about her laugh?) and said, "I wouldn't have thought the sight of a woman in her undies would upset you with all the thumping and banging I hear next door."
"It was such a sexy sight it caused an immediate, uh, mm, biologic reaction," I replied, or some such shit. But I did confess that the sight of her in her 'undies' pretty much had given me the king of boners.
"What, this old body turned you on? A young stud like you."
I sort of half turned to look at her, still majorly uncovered. "If that's an old decrepit body, lady, when you were my age, you must have been a fucking goddess! Excuse my french, please, but...wow!"
"I think that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me this year." She lifted her arms and slid a long dark blue tee shirt over them and onto her body, covering up everything from knee to shoulder, but not before I saw the shadow of her nipples and snatch through the semi sheer fabric. "Coffee, tea, wine, beer, soda or..." and she smiled that damn come hither smile I was going to fantasize over for the next five years.
"You're teasin', right. Please tell me you're teasin' or I'm gonna melt and die right here on your floor."
"Aw, c'mon, Mark, you're a big boy. You can take a little, uh, flirting, can't you. But you got to give me something back. Otherwise it's torture, and that's no fun. At least not for me, I'm not sure how you like it, yet. Besides, I can't put me on the menu. I'm taken."
"Damn," I said, "there goes a whole afternoon's hopes and dreams."