Summer of Love
She was thirteen and beautiful. I was thirteen and
streetwise. My four sisters, three older and one younger than me, called me
forward, precocious, a pain, the dumb kid and other random unflattering names.
It was the summer of 1967. Saturday late morning and I was standing on the
grass verge in front of our house watching the new neighbours moving in. She
saw me and immediately crossed the road, right into my space.
"Hi I'm Sylvia." she said. "But I don't like it so you can call
me Babe. Wotcha name?"
She stood in front of me, like I said right in my space, her thumbs hooked in
the side pockets of her bell bottom jeans. This already told me she was
something else ‘cos all the other girls I knew would
immediately have folded their arms over their bee sting tits the moment they
came face to face with a guy. Babe was confident enough to allow her little
rose buds to face me with only a white tee shirt with PEACE emblazoned on it
separating us, so to speak.
"Jim." I said folding my arms, then immediately unfolding them. I
didn't have any tits to worry about.
Babe shook her head. "No I don’t like Jim." She looked me
up and down.
"Why not?"
She raised her hands to the stars and stripes bandana she wore. Fussing with it in a feminine way. She had the biggest
brownest eyes I'd ever seen.
"It sounds too much like Sylvia. Too conventional.
Whatcha
surname?"
"Jones."
"Coohil. I'm gonna call you Jones
then. Okay?"
I shrugged. "Okay."
"So Jones," Babe said hooking her thumbs in the back pockets of her
jeans this time, "wanna come around to my house
and listen to records? I've got Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding
Company, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and also Scott
McKenzie."
"Sure," I said, "but I gotta go have
lunch first."
About two o'clock I rang the doorbell and an adult carbon copy of Babe opened
the door. She wore the same bandana, the same bell bottoms and she had the same
eyes. Except the rose buds weren't rose buds but flowers
in full bloom.
"Hi. You must be Jones." She smiled. "Come in.” She held the
door open for me. "I'm Babe's mom but you can call me Lisa."
I think my balls musta dropped then because it was
the first time in my life that and adult had told me to call them by their
first name. If I hadn't met and fell in love with Babe first then Lisa would
definitely have been my second choice ... honestly.
"Excuse the mess." she said closing the door. "Babe's is in the
kitchen. Thru there."
She was sitting on the kitchen table, her legs swinging back and forth while
she chomped on a hamburger. Her face lit up when she saw me and her smile. Her smile. Jeez what a charmer and those eyes.
"Hi." Babe said brushing a crumb of roll off her cheek.
"Hi." I said.
So we went to her bedroom which was a first for me. I mean going into a girl's
bedroom and being alone with her there and with the door closed. It was all so
cool and when her mom, I mean Lisa, brought us some
Coke, she even knocked before she opened the door.
We spent the whole of that afternoon in her room talking, laughing, playing
records. eating, drinking and for about half an hour
Lisa even joined us and we were like three buddies. only one was a mom.
Babe told me everything . that
Lisa was a hippie . that her father lived in like
another galaxy he was that far away. By the time I left because I had to go
home for supper . Babe and I were so close and I'd
never in my life ever met anyone like her.
So we spent the summer vacation like joined at the hip .
where ever Babe went Jones went and where ever Jones
went Babe went. Except once every week when she and Lisa disappeared for the
whole day. When they got back home Babe was always very tired and she had black
rings under her brownest eyes and she slept a lot the rest of the day and
night.
At these times Lisa always looked sad and I couldn't figure out why. Once I
asked her and she just gave me a hug and when I looked
at her she was wiping tears off her cheeks. Babe just gave me the look when I
asked her about it. The look was something she did with her eyes
. and when you looked into those dark pools you
just forgot what you'd wanted to know in the first place.
After four weeks when there were only two weeks of holiday left, Babe said we
had to start going steady. She was like that . always taking charge and making decisions for both of us. I
didn't mind cos she was the coolest chick in the
street and she wanted to go steady with me. What can I say?
I remember the time so clearly. It was a Saturday night and Lisa asked me if
I'd spend the evening with Babe because she had a date with some or other
random guy in the neighbourhood. Babe and I were alone for the very first time
ever.
Babe had a Philips reel to reel tape recorder and she's taped all her favourite
songs on it. She said she could turn it on and play four hours of cool songs
without ever getting up to change a record. We sat on the couch in her
lounge holding hands while we listened to the reel to reel .
"Come on you people . shine
on your brother . everybody get together try to love
one another right now."
Babe looked into my eyes and her small warm hand squeezed mine so that I knew
what I had to do next. I put my arms around her and drew her against me, at the
same time our lips met . awkwardly
at first . then as we figured out where our noses had
to be and what we were supposed to do with out tongues. Jeez who am I trying to
fool?
Babe taught me how to kiss and when I asked her how she knew when to open her
mouth and how not to knock her teeth against mine . she said: "Girls of thirteen know these things
Jones." I was so happy and I think Babe was too.
Later when we were lying down on the couch and the Floor Elevators
. Country Joe and the Fish, Cream, Donovan, Mamas and the Papas, Byrds, and Jefferson Airplane were playing
. neither of us heard them. Our lips were
touching and she was fast asleep and me . well I was just holding her and looking at her and loving
her so much.
I'd always wondered why she never took off the bandana and I'd never seen her
hair ever. Didn't know if it was black, blonde or red but my money was on red
because her face was always that pale. Without thinking I put my hand up to the
stars and stripes and was about to push it up so I could get a look when Babe
opened her eyes and gave me "the look".
I immediately dropped my hand and as her eyes closed .
I swear she smiled in her sleep.
When Lisa came home she woke us and her cheeks were wet again and I wasn't sure
if it was us or something else that had happened to make her cry.
I think it was the last weekend of the summer vacation .
Saturday again. Babe and I had made plans to go to the
movies in the morning. Nine thirty I knocked on her door .
no answer . ten thirty . eleven thirty . twelve I gave up.
Nothing the whole afternoon so I sat at our livingroom
window waiting for a light to be switched on in Babe's place. Eight o'clock
when I saw the light and Lisa answered my knock.
"Oh Jesus Jones honey. " When she saw me at the front door. "She's dead . Babe is dead sweetheart."
Apparently she'd had leukemia for a long time Lisa said . and it had just got worse
and worse. Terminal they called it . like terminal equals "you're gonna
die soon Babe".
Lisa hugged me and cried and I cursed God for letting Babe die and she phoned
my mother who fetched me and even my sisters didn't say anything which was a
very rare thing in their lives.
The day of the funeral Lisa asked me if I'd like to look at Babe in her coffin
and I said "fuck yes" and no I didn't . in my mind yes but to Lisa I said: "Yes please"
without thinking.
Mom said are you sure and I said "fuck yes" again only in my mind and mom hugged me.
It was a white coffin and Babe was so beautiful . like the first day I saw her only much whiter . her bald head was covered in a wreath of beautiful flowers
so that you couldn't see she had no hair from the fucking radiation . and I cried.
After the service Lisa gave me a seven single which I stuck in the front of my
pants. I didn't know what else to do with it cos it
was too big for my pockets. She said Babe had made her promise to give it to
me.
That night in my room I looked at the record again. Babe had taken
the label off both sides so that I had no idea what the song
was nor the singer. I put it on my record player and lay down on my bed.
I never cried so much before in my life . even when my gran died. Oh Babe . I love you so much .
"If you're going to
Jones Jones
Your comments will be appreciated.
Please take a few moments to submit them here
Please use
the back-button on your browser to return to the submissions page, or click Home
|
Name |
Comment |
Date |
|
Mandy |
A beautiful story. I could feel
the electricity of young love. And the end made me cry. I will go looking for
the |
2007-09-30 |