A Brief Engagement
“You know that tingly little feeling you get when you like someone? That is your common sense leaving your body.”
Unknown
When I was twelve, I was enthralled with Karen, eleven, who lived around the corner. We had a somewhat tumultuous relationship. I liked her, and she didn’t like me, or vice versa, depending on what day it was.
Once in a while, we got mixed up and liked each other at the same time, for a day or two. Early in the evening on such a day, we had our first, and only, kiss. It was a painful experience, as we both had braces, but that did not keep cherubs from buzzing around my head for a few days.
While in this daze of love, I felt the need for something or other to give to Karen to signify our new state of being, so I rode my bike to The Third Eye, a hippie shop in the next town over.
Quickly spotting just such an item, I paid two dollars and twelve cents, in cash, for a “silver” friendship ring, then raced back to give it to Karen. She accepted it. There was no accompanying kiss.
I did not see her for a few days, but heard from my sister, always a good source of information, that Karen was trash-talking about me.
I walked around the corner to her house and asked for the ring back. I called my friend David and sold him the ring for two dollars, as he wanted to give it to Chris.
Such are the ways of love. I was out twelve cents, and Karen and I went off, in opposite directions, to fall in love with someone else.
-Hank
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