A Summer Kiss

  A Summer Kiss   

This was supposedly the summer that it was going to happen. Danny Murtag was going to not only kiss Karen Stephens, but they were going to have a high-in-the-pie-sky summer love that they would tell their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

They met when they were twelve and it wasn’t exactly the greatest encounter. It was summertime and Miss Karen was collecting shells on the deserted beach. She made necklaces and bracelets with them sometimes giving them to friends or family and sometimes selling them.

Of course, Zeke the wonder dog was accompanying her. The ever faithful dog was a hefty one-hundred and fifty pounds, a mixed breed with a little bit of everything. He had a low mean growl and was ever protective of his Girl.  

As soon as Danny stepped on the beach, Zeke came running. The boy was a beachcomber and always brought along a stick to be ready for anything. When the large, snarling dog came running at him he held out the weapons. This prompted Karen to also fly down the beach and the shells she had so painfully collected spilled in every which direction.

“What do you think you are doing to my dog?”

Danny and Zeke danced around and luckily the boy had his trusted stick.

“You’re dog attacked me. He’s a menace.”

“You’re a menace.”

“You don’t even know what that word means. You’re too little.”

“You don’t even know what that word means. You’re too stupid.”

“The next time your dog comes at me, I am going to smack it one upside the head with my stick.”

“You smack my dog upside the head with that stick and I am going to shove it up your butt so far that it will bust through the roof of your empty head.”

“Cone on, Zeke, let’s go. The air here is very polluted.”

She walked away with her ever faithful companion.

“Hey, you forgot your shells.”

She din’t even turn around but causally flipped him the bird over her tanned shoulder.

“You call that a middle finger?”

There was no rebuttal.

It was a few days later and Danny was walking through Whitecap Beach when he heard something behind him. The boy turned around slowly and it was Zeke. He growled.  

“Hi, boy, where’s your little princess?”

There was no response.

“You don’t like my stick, do you Zeke?”

The dog growled softly.

“Okay, if you promise to play nice, I’ll just chuck it away.”

And he did and the dog advanced slowly. He sniffed the boy for a long minute and stopped growling.  

“Cool.”

He petted the dog and scratched under his chin. Soon, they were walking down the beach together. Then they called him and he darted off.

Danny walked back and fetched the stick.

This process was repeated a few times. The boy and dog started to hang together and play. It was fun. They made friends.

So the next time that Karen was there with her protector, Zeke came running. But, this time he wasn’t there to attack Danny, he wanted to play and roughhouse. 

The boy obliged and the two danced around goofing off like they had done a dozen times when she wasn’t around.

Karen came running and she was very angry.

“What do you think you are doing?”

He stopped and looked at her curiously. The dog gave her the same stare.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I am goofing off with my buddy, Zeke.”

They returned to their game of run and chase.

“Stop it right now!”

But they didn’t.

“Zeke, I command you to stop right now.”

The dog stopped because she was screaming.

Danny chuckled.

“Do you think this is funny?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Zeke come here I command you.”

Danny burst out laughing. For some reason the phrase ‘I command you’ broke him up.

“What is so funny? You know there is something really strange about you.”

“Zeke, you had better go boy because she commanded you.”

He burst into another round of hysterics.

Eventually, the poor confused dog out of loyalty walked over to her slowly.  

Danny stopped laughing and looked into her hate, congested face.

“Come here, Zeke, come here boy.” He clapped his hands and the dog joyfully came running over and the two started dancing around again.

“I told you to stop that!”

But they didn’t stop.

“Zeke, I command you to come here right now.” She shrieked.  

He went over and she grabbed the dog by the collar and took off.

“I think, I really pissed her off this time.”

From this point on, every time they met by chance (there were maybe half a dozen encounters the rest of the summer), she scowled at him. The early morning rendezvous with Zeke continued and they were joyous occasions.

The following summer, they were thirteen. The first spring that he walked down Whitecap Beach Zeke was there and they had a great reunion. Karen watched from down the beach and didn’t even flinch.

He walked on and the dog patrolled the right side.

“Hey, how was your winter?”

It was a fair question. Danny’s parents owned a summer cottage on White Coast Beach, while Karen lived with her father, two sisters and two uncles and was a permanent resident of Lake Erie Drive that was immediately before Whitecap Beach.

She looked up at him and just rolled her eyes. The girl walked away. Eventually Zeke followed her.

Every encounter that summer, she just ignored him. Over the winter, she had changed adding a couple of inches and a little bit of weight. The girl wasn’t such a little muffin and was slowly turning into a woman.

On their last encounter, he smiled her way and she shook her head.

“What are you smiling at?”

“Why are you so miserable?”

“You don’t belong on this beach. You’re trespassing.”

“Do you own it?”

“If I did, I would kick you off permanently.”

“Well, you don’t.”

“Oh, and if you’re looking for this then I found it.”

She held up a brand new fishing lure. Danny walked the beach for whatever he could find, but fishing lures were at the top of the list.

“I already have three like that.”

“You’re such a liar.”

From that day on, she started to walk the beach like he did and collected fishing lures. And every time that she collected one, the girl would wave it in his face.

“Ha ha, look what I found.”

“Yeah, big deal.”

The following summer they were fourteen.

One early spring day, he was walking down the beach and she called him out.

“Hey, Danny, how are you?”

He stopped. Two years before she was a very cute kid, but over the winter she had blossomed. The female had entered into very early womanhood.

She caught up to him.

“Hey, how was your winter?”

“It was okay. How was your winter?”

“It was brutal. We had lot of days off school because of all the snow.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah. You heading down the beach? I’ll walk with you.”

“Okay.”

So they walked together and talked.

She wasn’t annoying. She was nice. They laughed and giggled all the way there and back.

“Hey, Danny, can I say something to you?”

“Sure.”

“I know that we have had rough patches in the past, but do you think we can be friends? Over the winter, I thought it was silly to be feuding.”

“I guess so.”

“You can goof off with Zeke anytime you want to. He loves you. And, if I find a fishing lure, you can have it. Is that okay?”

“It sure is.”

“I hope that we can be friends. I just want to be friends and not boyfriend/girlfriend. Do you understand?”

“I do.”

And they became friends. He helped her collect shells and make necklaces and bracelets. It was the least he could do since she gave him a bunch of fishing lures.  

Karen was very artistic. She played guitar and wrote songs and poetry. She liked to look at the stars in the summer night sky. They had a great time on meteor night.

On stormy mornings, they sat on the beach and watched the waves roll in. Zeke was always between them.

“I love stormy days.”

“So do I.”

“You love them because you can find more fishing lures.”

He laughed.

“Guilty as charged.”

“What are you going to do with all of those lures?”

“I don’t really know right now.”

“My dad says that you should build up a huge collection and then sell them.”

“Maybe. I don’t have any plans for them because I am not done collecting.”

“Makes sense.”

He nodded his head.

“My dad asked me if we were boyfriend and girlfriend yet and I said no we are just friends.”

“I know my mom keeps asking me the same thing.”

“I like things the way are right now.”

“Yeah, me too.”

But it was a lie. He had fallen in love with this very beautiful, talented, warm and funny girl. He wanted her to be his girlfriend. He wanted to hold her hand and kiss her and rub her shoulders.  

But he had agreed to be just friends.

The summer drifted by like the white clouds on a warm, lazy day.

When they weren’t collecting shells or walking the beach, they went fishing and she always caught more fish than he did. He took it in stride.

It was Labour Day weekend and Danny and the family were going back home for the winter.  

He had only a few minutes to tell him how he felt.

“So, we had a great summer together.”

“Good friends always do.”

“For sure.”

“I can’t wait until next summer.”

“Yeah, I have to go.”

“Okay. Hey, before you leave there is something I have to say.”

“Sure what is it?”

He was hoping it was an admission to liking him.

“Thanks for the fun summer.”

He left.

All winter long, Danny could only think of one thing: he was going to ask Karen to be his girlfriend.

He thought about it; he wrote about it; and, he dreamt about it.

The days rolled on and the fall settled in. It was cold and rainy for the most part and every day he wondered how Karen was managing. Then the winter arrived with a vengeance. It was four long months before spring appeared.

The first weekend at the cottage was one to clean and set things up. He got a break and ran to her place.

When he got there was a huge sign on the door that read: QUARANTINE  

There was a smaller envelope with his name on it. He snatched it and then left.

He sat in the crux of his favourite tree. It was there that she usually brought her acoustic guitar and sang for him or read the new poem that she had written.

He opened the envelope slowly and then closed his eyes for a second.

Then he started to read the letter slowly.

“Hi, Danny, 

I hope your winter wasn’t too harsh. Ours was fine until about the end of February. I wanted to write to tell you but we have been very busy. Every day, everything has to be sanitized. 

First my uncle was very, very sick and almost died. Then my other uncle got very sick. He recovered. Then my oldest sister and father got sick with this mysterious fever. The last has been the youngest one.

I had been free and clear while everyone was ill and couldn’t figure it out. Why was I spared? The doctors can’t figure it out. Well, the world came crashing down last week when the symptoms started.

I am afraid that it is going to be a very sad summer. No poetry or songs (I am too weak to sing or write) and no looking for fishing lures. No more Zeke because he is housebound. We let him out a few times a day, but he is tied up. The health officials aren’t sure wether he is carrying the fever or not.

Anyway, I thought I would write you when I had the strength and tell you what was going on. I am hoping by the end of the summer that everything will work out.

Bye,

Karen, your beach combing buddy.

He almost threw the letter in the lake.

The summer rolled out like a long, boring rainy Sunday afternoon when there was nothing to do that was interesting enough and there was that feeling of listlessness. He walked by her place every day hoping that the quarantine sign would be down.

But it stayed all of July and into August.

It was Labour Day weekend and he had not seen her once. There had been no letters or even a sign that she was still alive.

On the day that he had to go back home for the winter, he was walking down Whitecap Beach and then all of a sudden there was a fishing lure in front of him. He reached down to pick it up and it was pulled away from him.

It seemed very strange.

He bent down to pick it up again and just as he was ready to reach for it, the lure was pulled away. He looked up and saw her.

That smile with those sparkling eyes and the beauty of her bare shoulders was almost too much. Those gorgeous legs weren’t summer tanned, but lily white. It didn’t matter.

“Hello, stranger.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I got a clean bill of health.”

“That’s great.”

“It is. Why do you look so sad?”

“Because summer is over and we didn’t do anything.”

“That’s true.”

“And now I have to go home for the winter.”

She approached him.

“Okay, we can do something right now.”

“What’s that?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. At first, he was taken aback and then he kissed her back. There are no words in any language ever invented that could describe the feelings of that first kiss.

They pulled back.

“Do you want to-

“Of course, I want to be your girlfriend.”

“You do?”

“Yes, silly, I do. I will write you every day this winter.”

“I will write you back. I have to go.”

They kissed again and then he left.

And this was the story of how they met and told their children and grandchildren.