The Throwback

School started! I buzzed through the halls till I located the boy from the farm. Then I scoped out his locker. NOW I had him! I knew where he would be at least twice a day for my viewing enjoyment. And, NO, I had never heard of stalking - I invented it. I was only in 7th grade when this started but we were in the same building as the high school then. So I was like, almost 12 when school started.

I was ready with the first note to be dropped through the slots in his locker. I spent days writing and re-writing it. I think it said "Hello Le, I hope you remember me from the farm this summer. I want to be your friend. Val" It was the first of many. I left him birthday cards, holiday cards, notes on things I noticed him doing....any excuse for contact.

Trying to drop a note and not be seen got tricky as I got older. He knew I did it, he never caught me. I used to get a hall pass for the ladies room or library then race through the halls, stuff his note in his locker and race back to where I was supposed to be. I did this till I was around 14.

I just was stuck on this guy. He was so.....Himself! Le Wonder was a throwback. It was the mid 60's and he dressed 50's style. He was the Fonz before there was a Happy Days. His jeans were always straight leg, tight and cuffed. His t-shirt sleeves were rolled in tiny cuffs with just enough left to flip over and hold a pack of smokes. His hair was cut in a duck tail. He wore black and white high top tennis shoes and white, over the calf socks. If he wore a jacket it was unzipped. I never saw him on a motorcycle but he had the leathers!

He leaned, if he was standing still, on a wall, a locker, a fence, a desk, he was just too cool to stand. And he always had a smoke dangling from one side of his lips, even while he talked. When he got down to the butt he would flip it about a mile. I struggled for hours to learn how to flip a cigarette butt like he did. I finally got it, years later, when I became a smoker.

Working in the hay gave him a great bod to hang all this on but he was a nice guy, too. He smiled with his whole face when he smiled at you. I did lots of stupid things to get that smile aimed at me.

When I found out he went to the roller rink I broke out my new skates, The white ones I got for my 11th birthday, and started babysitting for skating money. It was only fifty cents if you had your own skates.

They had different "dances" at the rink. You know them, grand parade, couples only and others. The one I worked out for was "Ladies Choice". I became a sprinter! Le Wonder was popular and I had to be fast to land him for this skate. It was SO worth it! He was one of those people who can make you feel graceful because he leads so well. Skating with him I was Lila Lightfeet instead of Sally Stumbles and I loved it! It was the only time all week I could have his attention.

I would come flying at him from across the rink and slide to a mostly controlled stop right in front of him. He would give me that smile and I would wordlessly reach out a hand to take his while I smiled like a loon back at him. We would start out side by side and then he would give me a little twist of his wrist and he would be skating backwards with me. Then we danced, swirling in the corners and gliding along the floor. I was in young girl heaven! Whew! He was good!

One time, on my way home from school, he was leaning against the store with some friends. I know he saw me coming. He stood up, flipped away the smoke he had been nursing and said, "Excuse me guys, I gotta walk this little lady home." then turned to meet me on the side walk and took my books for me. I never said a word to him the whole block, just walked on air next to him.

One of my girlfriends in 8th grade lived right across the street from him. I never dared go to his house but it was great to hang with her and keep an eye out. Sometimes I would see him working on cars with his dad or mowing the lawn and it made my day.

Like all things of beauty my love for Le Wonder had to change. It changed when I was in 9th grade. I will remember forever how crushed I was when I saw him walking with Dumb Donna Bigboobs after school one day. I knew in that moment that is was over for me. I couldn't compete with a real girlfriend who had boobs and everything. I left him one more birthday card and he never heard from me again. It hurt to much to lose my first love for us to just be friends.

Now, I was the only one having my first love and we had really just barely been friends because of the age gap. And I had boy friends closer to my age at the same time. But none of those facts changed my feelings. I was utterly betrayed for a woman of loose morals and large body parts. I hated her. Still do, because she broke his heart later and made me mad all over again!

I moped around school like a basset hound pup with a splinter in his paw for weeks. But Le Wonder was only the first boy I fell for. I knew he could never be mine. There were lots more out there. I got over him to the point that I didn't even send him a graduation card.

I ran into him, years later, in a little party store out east of town. He was, grimy, grey and old looking and had a beard but I knew him by his body language, he was leaning on the counter as he waited to be checked out. I said hello as he was leaving and he remembered me. I got that beautiful smile to crawl out from under the mustache and beard and his eyes twinkled the same but I wouldn't have wanted to go out with the man he grew to be. He was still buzzed from the night before but buying more beer on his way out of town. He was dodging the law for some reason. How sad.

Talk about feet of clay! What a let down. He could have been a jet pilot or a fireman and instead he was an alcoholic. God bless Dumb Donna Bigboobs! I could have gone on to mate with this boy in a year or two more if she hadn't snatched him.

Not everything bad that happens to you IS bad. Wait for the surprise ending!