She said she didn`t want to go to the ballpark today,
so he went by himself and cheered for the guys while
the summer sun went down and the sky faded from blue
to purple and the floodlights came on like industrial
whitener. And his guys won and they all laughed their
winning way together across the well stomped grass to
the street.

He stood alone under the big, leaf-heavy trees in the
happy aftermath of the game, waving goodbye to disappearing
bunches of his friends. It got so quiet that all he could
hear was the crickets chirping. And then he saw her sweet,
swift form in the distance, saw her skirt-flickered knees
moving so quickly between the black tree-trunks and shadowy
bushes of the park. His eyes and then his mouth opened wide
too slow, but a sudden incoherent alarm moved his reluctant
feet.

He felt like a fool running after her so he just walked fast,
speeding up and slowing down as alternating waves of anxiety
and self-consciousness washed over him. By the time he got
through all the trees and came out onto the town`s main
thoroughfare, she was gone. Most of the traffic was headed
downtown. The shabby old neon signs throbbed away on the other
side of the bridge and were reflected shimmering on the wide,
slow-moving river.

He was feeling really idiotic by then and fervently hoped that
no one had seen him chasing after her like that. With his hands
shoved deep inside the pockets of his football jacket, he stood
and surveyed the familiar scene as another evening fell on the
town, guiltily aware that he had chores and homework to do and
ought to be going straight home. But he was unable to ignore the
hunger-pangs in his heart. He was almost scared by the ferocious
tenderness aroused by that glimpse of her in the distance, walking
away from him.

And then he saw her again, saw the characteristic tilt of her dark
head, visible suddenly among the pedestrians who were crossing
the bridge. Immediately he started to run toward her with all the
speed in his strong young legs, and very soon he was on the other
side of the river and being carried along by his own momentum
toward the artificial brightness downtown.

After that, he just wandered around for a while. His reflection in
the department store windows looked totally cool and non-challant,
he thought. When he finally found her it was mostly because she
was standing so still in the midst of all the revolving traffic
and the eager, jostling crowds and the warm whirling colours of the
night-life.

He was enormously relieved that she was safe - and alone - but the
first sight of her gave him a considerable shock. Her posture was
wistful and she was gazing dreamily into the display window of
Waller`s Jewellery Store.

He was tall for his age so she had to look up at him when he stood
beside her and said, "Hi." Her large clear eyes still sparkled with
starry visions of the future, but she was sort of embarrassed too.
He could tell. He put his long arm around her and she snuggled her
blushing face into his jacket.

Maybe his heart was beating strangely fast, but he felt perfectly
strong and confident when he said, "I`ll buy it for you some day.
I promise I will."

08/26/2018