The Storms Of August

Chapter Six: It's Me Out On The Prowl

My reintroduction to reality after a dreamless afternoon nap that Friday was something straight out of Alice In Wonderland. I fell into a seemingly endless black hole in the ground, tumbling through the Earth while I did summersaults in terror. Then, just when I could see a dim light at the bottom I was up in a cold sweat and gasping state. The falling sun was being interrupted my the trees as they brushed out their leaves to the Fall breeze outside. Over the course of the day, the light shifted to a dull yellow and the few clouds that were in the sky dispersed everywhere. According to the boys, if you subtract the chill in the air from the fading season the conditions are perfect for a ball game. However, the temperature is more of a fan issue than a player issue.

I alerted my mother of my plans to go to the game with a friend and spend the night at her house on Wednesday, and almost immediately she was off; a pinball freshly launched off a spring and rolling off any obstacles to reach her goal. All that mattered to her was that I was going out to a school event for the first time since fourth grade and that event was run by jacked and idiotic testosterone. I tried as hard as I could to shake any comments about a new boyfriend out of the question, but she was the sword in the rock and no person or thing could pull her out of it. I would not dare mention the redolent smell of trucker and the sweet taste of honey on my tongue. She was too pure in my heart at the time to be ruined by prejudice and cautionary warnings I found unnecessary. In about twenty four hours I would laugh at anyone that dared to call that girl even remotely clean. Demi never made herself look like a preacher's daughter, but up until then she was pretty damn close in my point of view. Nobody is perfect, and even though I told myself that all the time I still held a paper mache halo over her head and called her an angel.

A gentle knock of small knuckles on wood sounded from behind my door before it opened just a crack. One curious green eye peered in from the hallway before the door burst open. My mother was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she did he excited walk and stopped before me. "What?" I asked. The woman of her early forties had her hands covering her mouth to try and contain whatever news she had behind lips that were bursting at the seam.

"There's a boy outside!" she exclaimed. The words fell out of her mouth and onto my lap like a cup of hot coffee. However, my mother was unaware of this and continued as she took me by the wrist and dragged me out of my room, down a flight of stars, and to the glass pane door that is hinged before the heavy wooden one. I was hoping my knight would come on a skateboard in a leather jacket with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she told me about herself under the stars and the belief that the night was clouding everything but what she wrote in the night sky. I thought she'd wait until the sun went down to lurk in the shadows and onto my roof to take me away. But no, instead I watched an unidentifiable figure looking down in his car as he messed with something inside. I didn't know who I expected, because the only Prince Charming I could imagine taking me away in their chariot was no where to be found. A slim hand pressed against my back and would have willingly shoved my ass through the glass pane had I not gotten a finger on the handle. As I stepped onto the porch, the boy was getting out of his dirty white, low riding ford focus to pop the hood while he muttered to himself. The boy was of average height and ported muscles under a blue workout tank top and lose gray sweatpants. His hair was covered by a black baseball cap, but the fresh scruff around the jawline was enough to put a name to his face. I slowly made my way over to Joe, who was now quietly threatening his junker car with a multitude of profanities at the engine as he picked at something under the hood."Were you planning on seeing him today, sweetheart? We're all going to be dead and gone by the time you get there," my mother said in a mock concern. I chose to ignore her and quickened my pace. I only looked back to my security once, but she was not looking back at me. Instead, she was raking her small eyes along the teenaged boys toned skin, "Oh my, what a boy he is," she commented to herself, "nice ass too".