Audrey

                              AUDREY

           This piece of work is coming alive because I recently told a young woman that she should write something every day. So that is what I am doing. Now I will get back to my original subject. When I was in High School my uncle Paul suggested that I take up German. His reason is that I was thinking of going into being an engineer. I never did that but a lot of my work is sculpture which runs in that vein.

           Now when I signed up for German I must have been the only kid in the class who didn’t speak the language at home. Instead of being like German one, this felt more like German six, I forget the teachers name but I do remember that she was a thin woman with brown hair and she also taught English. When we got into our seats I noticed this girl sitting behind my left side and she was a total knockout. This was Audrey. To this day I will occasionally mention her to someone. She had dark brown hair, glasses and her family came from Austria. From day one she was my Kryptonite. I soon got into the habit of walking her home because I had to go past her house on the way to my place. At the time she lived in a stone home in Cliffside Park, and I lived at the bottom of a cemetery in Fairview. I would carry her books at times and we always had nice talks. The problem here is that I fell madly in love with her and this stuck with me until our 50^th HS reunion. Janice knew about Audrey since I mentioned her to my wife a bunch of times. This girl also was one of the kids who wanted to be a teacher and was in a bunch of different societies and clubs. The stuff I did always was around music, I played guitar since I was 11 and I still do that. I was also in a senior marching band and played cymbals for seven years. I am still involved in music.

           When I would walk her home on occasion she would invite me in for a soda and to talk. I still have a mental image of her when she was about sixteen. The closest I ever came to a date with her was one time when I took her to a band practice. I would drag my old Sears twin 12 amplifier to the practice and my Jazzmaster guitar. That guitar stuck with me until I sold it several years after. So I showed up at the practice with her in tow and one of the musicians says to me “Who is this?” I looked at him like he had his head up his butt and mentioned that she went to school with us. She stuck around for the practice and every time I went to a reunion I made a point of looking for her. Unfortunately at the last reunion Janice and I got there and where people signed their names hers was crossed off. We also had the old photos from the yearbooks and wore these so other people would recognize us. Wait till you go to one of these and see what happens. When I asked where she was sitting someone told me she was at the table next to ours. She had sat down about six feet away and when we got to her Janice says to her “Hi Audrey, Paul is here!” she took one look at me and said “Yes I know” that was the end of the conversation, instead of the hot looking woman I remembered she had gotten grey hair and dressed in a very casual way. I was sure something bad had happened to her and wrote her off. About a year ago I got hold of a man who used to be a social director type guy who still stays in touch with her, when I mentioned that I felt she had a problem he assured me that she is fine and living out of state. The people from this class had a birthday party for those who turned 75 in 2021. With the pandemic going on Janice and I decided not to do that. I can only hope that Audrey is still doing ok, when I hear the Queen song Love of My Life, she is the first one who pops into my mind though in reality I know the real love of my life is Janice who is in the other room waiting for my friends Alberto and Riccordo to arrive to play Rummy Q. As for the German class I dragged myself through two years of it including having a good looking red headed young lady for a tutor in between the classes. As for the teacher as I was leaving I asked and I quote “If you to pass me and I will not tell anyone I ever had taken German.” But on the other side Janice and I have been taking Italian lessons for several years, the first teacher was a lady named Donna. After she had a problem with a brain aneurysm we got involved with Riccardo. Alberto was in our original Italian class. With this new class I still have a woman with brown hair behind me but I am not involved with her (Cathy) aside from speaking the language in class. Janice sits next to me and we talk to her and this man named Mike. We had the guys over tonight so I felt I should at least mention them and the class. In Italian this is called classe di italiano . So now I go back to my sculpture work and my guitar playing. Look me up on Youtube and check out my playing. Even though I listen to music when I am typing, there is some rap music on the radio and this is enough to make me leave and play something more like the Ventures of Chet Atkins. Janice is watching Saturday Night Live so that is where I am headed right now.