HORSENECK BEACH by Peter Nolan Smith

The morning after my senior prom in 1970 I drove my date down to Horseneck Beach in my older brother's VW Beetle. The graduating class of my all-boys parochial high school were having a beer bash in the dunes. We crossed the bridge over the Westport River at noon. After parking in the lot Pattie and I strolled along the shore. Small waves rippled across the shallow sand a few sunbathers took the sun on the near empty strand. We dipped our toes in the sea. The water was cold for May, although warmer than the ocean at Old Orchard Beach in August.

"Are you going swimming?" asked Pattie.

She was wearing a white sundress from Remick's Department Store. A pink bikini was in her bag. It looked new.

"Maybe after we find my friends." I liked drinking beer, but I couldn't find any of my classmates in the dunes.

"We could cruised the beach road," suggested Pattie. "Your friends might have gone someplace more secluded."

"Okay." There wasn't a single soul in sight. My friends had to be somewhere.

We got back in the VW and drove past the tidal islands.

The sunroof was open to the salty ocean air and the junior's blondish brown air swept back from her face. Pattie was beautiful in the afternoon light and I asked, "Did anyone tell you that you look like Faye Dunaway?"

"You're joking?" Patti had accepted my invitation to the prom after I had broken up with my high school sweetheart.

"No." I had no idea where Kyla was today.

"You're not her age, but I saw her on YOU BET YOUR LIFE WHEN SHE WAS 17."

"And I look like her?"

"If you were a blonde, yes."

"I loved THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR." The diamond heist movie had been set in Boston.

"Me too, especially the dune buggy scene, where Steve McQueen blasts over the beach. You know that buggy was just a modified VW?"

"No, I didn't know that."

"I bet if I let out some of the air from the tires, we could ride on the beach." I pulled to the side of the road by a bar. Pick-up trucks crowded the parking lot. None of the cars belonged to my friends. TO CONTINUE READING HORSENECK BEACH AND OTHER STORIES FOR $1.99, PLEASE PURCHASE PROM NIGHT ON KINDLE BY GOING TO THE FOLLOWING URL http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KEI3M94