1963 Chapter 1

Teri meets Robbie

It was 1963 and my mother and I had recently moved to a new town, after her split with my father. I was a very naïve sixteen-year-old and I was not impressed with having to leave my lifelong friends, or with starting a new life in a new town full of strangers, but I was happy to be rid of my father. Our home was not a happy place before we moved, especially since my sister moved to Japan to teach English last year. There were just the two of us now, Mom and daughter against the world.

We came to this town because Sheila, a friend of Mom's since her high school days, lived here with her husband Ken and their three kids. Sheila had managed to get my mom a job at the advertising agency where she worked.

Ken and Sheila's kids were Sally, who was 7, Ben 11, who was away at band camp when we arrived, and Robbie who was 15. My mom hoped that Robbie could help me meet new friends.

On the day of the awakening that I'm about to tell you about, I hadn't yet met the boys, but I had been introduced to Sheila, Ken, and Sally a few days earlier when they dropped over to our new apartment with 'welcome to the neighborhood' gifts.

Sheila and Ken brought over a bottle of wine for Mom, which they all promptly drank, and Sally brought me a plastic bag with water and a goldfish that she had netted from her family's fish tank. We found a big flower vase, poured the water and fish into it, and took it to my room. Sally and I became instant friends. She only had brothers and I think she liked having an older girl to talk to.

It was a surprise to me how that fish became my buddy over the next few months. I called her Charlie. I always liked it when girls had boy's names, although I had no idea whether Charlie was a boy or a girl, so it kind of fit.

One day after school I went to the agency where Mom and Sheila worked to ask if I could borrow mom's car for a couple of hours until she got off work. I'd had my driver's license for all of two weeks and loved the freedom of being able to use her car to explore the new surroundings.

When I arrived, Sheila was talking to Ken on the phone. Ken sold real estate which usually allowed him the flexibility to pick up the kids after school or to get them to other events when necessary. Today he had gotten his truck stuck on a job site where a new house was being built, and he was waiting for a tow truck. He was calling to see if Sheila could pick up Sally from after-school care, and Robbie from swimming lessons. As it turned out, both Sheila and Mom were on their way to a meeting with a client, so the job fell to me.

Robbie could have taken a bus, but I liked driving, and I decided it would be a good chance to meet him without our parents around to make us feel awkward, and Sally would be there as my buffer. Sheila called the after-school care lady and told her I was coming to get Sally.

I thought Sheila was trying to set me up with Robbie or something when she gave me the directions to the pool and then gave me a wink.

Sally's daycare was only a block away from the ad agency and Robbie was having his lesson across town at the YMCA, where we arrived a few minutes before the lesson was due to end.

Sally had been to the pool a couple of times before, so as we entered the building, she ran ahead through the changing room door, leading the way to the pool. As it was a men's club, there were no changing rooms for women, and the only other door I could see that might lead to the pool was locked. There were double doors on the other side of the foyer, but they led to what seemed to be a darkened gymnasium. The reception desk was abandoned.

I tried to call Sally back but she was already gone.

I was perplexed. What was I supposed to do, go into a men's changeroom?

Just then a young boy came out the same door that Sally had entered.

"Is there a little girl in there?" I asked