It was the summer of 1977, the first week of July. I always spent the month of July in Old Mission, every year for as long as I lived.
The house seemed a hundred years old. I think it was built by doctors who escaped from the cities during the influenza pandemic that followed the first world war. It was dark and old.
Usually the front door is wide open and the screen door keeps the bugs out, but for some reason I remember the front door was closed. It was dark in the front hallway when I heard the knocking. I must have been on the porch or something, but I remember seeing Johnny when I opened the door.
'Finally! Someone else was in Old Mission!' I thought.
Johnny told me he brought some friends with him and he wanted me to meet them. All was right with the world. Then I was walking down the old sandy, cracked sidewalk toward his house.
He introduced me to his cousins Luke and Sally. If I can recall, I probably thought at that point that it was going to be a pretty good summer. Then, there she was, kind of hiding out behind Sally.
She had blue eyes and blonde hair and I must admit that was a major factor in my qualifications for attractiveness at the time, but when our eyes met, it was as if we communicated data from a past relationship.
We knew we belonged to each other. As if we separately held the keys to each others hearts from the beginning of time.
I wanted to spend every waking moment with her. Bridgett. I will never forget. We were naive children at the time and never engaged sexually. Even a few years later we met again, and I was still ignorant. I think of nothing else but what I could and should have done.
To this day I wait for a relationship, of any kind, with anyone.
