So Many Agoes

Chapter 12

Late April, 1968

Melting snow meant wet jean cuffs, socks that mushed in our shoes and of course, Spring. The rest of the school year flew by and as we approached May, our anticipation of being full blown adults was growing each day. With Emilienne's birthday being April 2nd, we were both 18 and so close to freedom that we could almost taste it.

One particular Friday, we met up at the town library which was also our school's library to open our college letters. They had come in just an hour before school was out. Emilienne and I rushed to get our letters and decided to meet up at the library with our friends to open them together.

Emilienne and I were the first to arrive, and we were bouncing off of the walls with so much excitement that the five minutes it took for the rest of the gang to arrive felt like eternity.

The first was Francis Jr and Sherry Russell who, if we remember, was supposed to be my girlfriend before I met Emilienne. After Gregory's court case, Sherry began questioning the way her parents had raised her. Eventually she came to the realization that she didn't want to be like them and gave a heartfelt apology to Emilienne and ever since had been on a soul-searching journey to be a better person. During this time, she ended up taking a liking to Francis and traded her popularity card for an innocent budding relationship with Francis.

The next two were Eddie and Jill who had begun going steady back in December, but kept it secret until March because Jill was afraid her parents would be angry with her for not falling in love with a future medic. However, they were fine and made a very sweet, and annoyingly sappy couple. The last to arrive was Roger who had kept to himself quite a bit since Gregory's trial but decided to stay away from his old buddies who seemed to influence him into poor behavior.

The seven of us sat down around a large table, each of us clutching letters in our hands. We counted down to one, before tearing into our envelopes. A resounding "Yes!" came from at least five of us, while two of us sat in confusion as they read their rejection letters.

Emilienne and I were both accepted into colleges in New York City; different schools, but still in New York, and not far from each other. Both Francis and Sherry were accepted into schools in Virginia, Eddie got into his school in Boston; sadly Jill and Roger weren't accepted to their schools which were in Boston and Washington DC respectively. They congratulated us though as they had applied to other colleges that weren't their first choices, but were still accepted to attend.

Emilienne and I went back to my pad extremely happy. We strutted in, holding our acceptance letters and proudly showed them off to my mother who took work off just for the momentous occasion.

We were lighting up the room with our beaming smiles.  My mother hugged the both of us barely able to contain her excitement; her son was graduating with his girlfriend in a month and eight days and going off to New York University in two months. This was our time.

Emilienne stayed over for dinner that night as we discussed our future plans. We weren't expecting my mother to ask history's most embarrassing question as she cleared the table,

"What are your future plans?"

"Ma, what do you mean? We just talked about our futures for an hour,"

"I meant as a couple. Do I see a wedding in the future or should I stop saving money to help with the cost?"

Emilienne and I looked at each other, shocked

"W-well, we hadn't really thought about it yet"

"Well, you should. The two of you are going off to a big romantic city together that is extremely different from here. I don't want you two coming back to visit with a child before you're married."

The two of us visibly cringed, the ultimate embarrassment bestowed upon us. We were quick to leave the room afterwards and I could hear my father scolding my mother for being so upfront about the subject.

We sat in my car at the park with the top down. Alexander park was the highest point in town and the only place a guy could watch the sunset with his girlfriend. We sat in silence for a while before Emilienne addressed the inevitable,

"Do you think we'll get married?"

"I don't know, I guess I never thought about it"

"Well do you?"

I stopped to think about it. We'd been together for over a year at that point and we'd had to face a few very difficult hitches in the relationships, and somehow we came out of them stronger than before as people and stronger as a couple

"Why I suppose so. I can't imagine why not, we've been together for over a year and I don't know about you but I can proudly say I'm whipped"

Emilienne laughed her beautiful laugh and looked at me with a loving smile, one that I will never forget. It was almost a profession of absolute love without saying a word.

"Well, I guess I can say the same about you,"

I kissed her on the temple and studied her face while she stared at the sunset. Keeping her eyes on the view she sighed heavily,

"Are you nervous to go to college?"

"Why of course, we won't be going to the same school anymore, heck, we'll be going to schools bigger than all of Milcreek. But I'm excited. We get to be on our own, experience life for ourselves."

"And what happens if life isn't as good as we think it is,"

"What do you mean?"

"Because of where I grew up, it never even occurred to me that I could lead a comfortable lifestyle. I never even thought about my future. I just thought I'd figure it out when I got there; I half expected to end up like my mom, cooking and cleaning all day, not that I ever wanted to, but opportunity just seemed scarce."

"Except you're going to college, and you have a good future in front of you"

She leaned back and put her feet on the dashboard, clearly deep in thought. She looked back towards the now very bright sunset that illuminated her face, causing a warm glow to radiate her skin,

"You really think we'll get married?"

"I don't doubt it,"

She smiled and leaned against my chest, while I wrapped my arm around her and looked back at the sunset. A very sweet contentedness settled over us and we prayed that it would stay through everything we were to go through, good or bad, happy or sad, well or ill.