1970 After my senior prom
I drove south To Horseneck Beach With my date
Pattie Hopkins,
A Fontbonne Academy junior
A classmate of my sister.
I should have been with my girlfriend.
Kyla.
I had broken up with her
At Easter Mass.
I was not in the right state of mind.
But knew to stay with Kyla was to give up my life.
Pattie was pretty.
Pure.
Honey blonde
I thought she looked like Faye Dunaway.
My classmates were gathered in the dunes.
Pattie was uncomfortable with their drinking.
Mine too.
She was a good Catholic girl.
Saving herself for marriage.
I respected that wish
I held hands with a beer
Then another
Then another
She looked more and more like Faye Dunaway
Inspired by Steven McQueen in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
I partially deflated the VW's rear fires
Then sped along the beach.
Within fifteen seconds the wheels sunk into the high tide mark.
My attempts to drive the VW out of the sand.
Failure.
The waves ever closer.
Pattie looked more than worried.
I ordered her behind the wheel.
Stuck the stick in reverse
And tried to push the VW out of the sand
More failure
I shouldn't have drunk those beers with my classmates.
I spotted a tow truck
Outside a fishermen's bar
By the Gooseberry Causeway
I acted fast
I ran fast
Inside an old tar drank a 'gansett.
He offered to pull the VW free
$20
Twenty minutes later
I was driving north through the marshes
Pattie said nothing.
She weas still a good girl.
We never went out again.
Ten years ago I found the prom picture.
Still looking like Faye Dunaway.
My sister said that she had become a doctor.
And had asked about me.
Horseneck Beach
I remember the water so warm.
On my ankles trying to free the VW.
My hands on the VW
And Pattie's smile went we were hauled free.
forever teenagers.
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