I first spotted her while splashing around with friends in the large Elks Club swimming pool. I still see her strikingly pretty face and that bright pink one-piece bathing suit with the skirt. She is chatting with friends, waist-deep in the water. A good swimmer, already with a clutch of ribbons in my drawer from
swim races against other area teams, I dive into the water and swim under it, scraping the bottom of the pool. I take a snaking route and soon go right past her legs, perhaps barely brushing them with my own.  I don’t dare surface. Holding that long breath, I swim on, still snaking around the expanse of the pool bottom, until I’ve passed many other pairs of legs. I come up for air only after I am safely shrouded by the other kids’ torsos between me and her.
I am 13 years old, and I am terribly girl-shy. It is the summer before I begin high school, and God Forbid that I should speak with her. Continue reading “Adieu, My First Kiss”
