Bridging The Generation Gap

           The District Manager had called a meeting at nine in the morning. Not unusual, but this one was at a new location and I didn't relish the thought of waking up at five in the morning to drive three hours even if was up the majestic California coast.

I've never been a morning person, unless it was two or three in the morning and I'd been up all night, but that was a number of years ago. Unlike the other managers who were in their early twenties, my body was quickly approaching five decades of existence..

           I tried several excuses, none that the idiot DM would accept. Instead, he suggested I call some of the other managers and car pool. Unfortunately, they had all made other arrangements before I had the chance to ask for a ride. Let him fire me, I thought. I wasn't going to take the risk of driving off the side of the road. Then, the phone rang.

           "Are you going to the meeting tomorrow?" a deep male voice inquired. "My car is in the shop and all the other guys have already made plans."

           "I wasn't planning on it but if you need a ride I can pick you up around seven." Maybe it won't be so bad. I could always catch a few z's on the ride up. "As long as you drive." I told him.

           "No problem. I'll see you tomorrow."

           It was one thing for me to shine off the meeting, it was another to let a fellow manager get into trouble. Especially this fellow manager.

           I’d only met Joey a few weeks ago and didn’t really know that much about him other than he was of twenty-five with a unusual maturity for a boy, or a man of his age. During our weekly meetings I was always impressed with his natural leadership skills and self-confidence. I felt strangely drawn to him and had to force myself, on a number of occasions, to remember I was old enough to be his mother. Now, fate had put us in the close quarters of an automobile, alone for two and a half hours, both ways. My imagination began to go where it had no business going.

           He lived with his parents, of course. He was only working to put himself through school, studying business administration at a local community college. He was young, he was safe. I was neither.

           I arrived at the corner where he'd told me to pick him up, but I was early and he had not yet arrived, so I called him on my cell phone for directions to his house. He gave me precise directions as if he were in the car alongside me. I liked the way he spoke. His voice strong and assured with a hint of humor as he directed me. It wondered if he used the same tone with his girlfriend when they were in bed. I wondered if he had a girlfriend. I wondered if he were a virgin. I wondered a number of things all the way to his front door.

           I got out of the car and gave him the key. I'd bought him coffee and a donut, didn't know if he took it black, but had brought sugar and creamer along with me. I did notice he'd lost a bit of weight since I'd seen him last. Since I'd mentioned that he was too young to be carrying around extra pounds which made him look older. It was nice to see he had taken my advice.

           We stopped for gas before getting on the freeway. Joey opened the door just as I'd released the hose from the latch. Trying to be a gentleman, he took the nozzle from my hand and with a bit of force, thrust it into the gas tank. Just at that moment, our eyes locked onto each other. Joey had the dark eyes of his Latino heritage, but his hair was a dusty brown and his skin was on the light side. He laughed when he told me his mother was from Puerto Rico and his dad was Mexican, and he was the only one in the family who needed to go outside to get a tan. He rolled up his shirt sleeve to show me the tan line. I tried not to stare at the strong muscles under the shirt. I felt my face flush. It had been a very long time since I'd felt the strength of youthful innocence.

           The sun started to part the early morning gloom as we headed up the coast. Once we drove past the bigger cities, California became another state. Joey's family owned property nearby and he gave me a verbal tour of the terrain. I relaxed and watched the scenery go by at a leisurely eighty miles an hour. My car hadn't gone that fast in over a decade and the wind felt great against my face. I couldn't remember the last time I'd driven faster than the speed limit, or when I'd felt so free. Or so young.

           I turned up the volume on an oldies station and was surprised when Joey began singing along to a tune recorded well before he was born. I was afraid he'd want to listen to the garbage most kids of his generation called music, but he told me he had a huge collection of sixties and seventies artist who he preferred over the more contemporary ones.

           "I was thinking about to burning a CD last night and wondered what kind of music would you like."

           He was thinking of me last night?

           "And what did you come up with?" I hoped he wasn't going to say Barry Manilow.

           "Born To Be Wild, was one."

           "That's one of my favorite driving songs." I said, trying hard not to imagine any other reason why he would have chosen that one.

           I decided to play it very safe and change the subject. I asked him about his family, school, how he liked the job...and if he had a girlfriend.

           "I was seeing a girl for about two years..." so, maybe he's still a virgin?... "but we broke up a few months ago, so I'm not seeing anyone right now."

           And I've been married for over twenty-two years, and for the first time in all those years, I wished I weren't.

           "Uh, that's too bad. Here's our exit."

Thank God.

           Joey effortlessly located the business center where our meeting was to take place. I was thankful we were early as we met the rest of the team inside. I made a dash for the ladies' room, not because I had to pee, but because my panties were soaking and I needed to use the air blower to dry them off.

           This is insane, I thought trying desperately to get the song "Mrs. Robinson" out of my head.

           Joey sat next to me during the first session. He had a difficult time sitting still, I noticed. His leg seemed to bounce to a rhythm of its own. I put my hand on his thigh in a playful manner.

          "You're going to start an earthquake." I whispered, jokingly. If only he knew the tremors which were starting to build inside my own fault line.

           The first session ended and we went outside for a break. Joey did some stretches against the concrete wall. I watched him through my sunglasses.

           "Drop and give me twenty." I joked, knowing he couldn't resist my challenge.

          He stretched himself on the ground and managed to do ten push-ups. All the while I was thinking how much I wanted to be the on the sidewalk underneath his young, taunt body, and was quite certain that under the right circumstances, he'd be more than able to do much more than ten.

           "A bit out of shape are we?" I joked. Or maybe out of practice.

          "Yeah, it's been a while." he replied.

I wondered if he was talking about exercise or something more.

           The rest of the day was quite boring and I was relieved when we ended an hour early. I was going to offer to drive part of the way home, but Joey took the keys from my hand and, in a very commanding voice said, "I'll drive." I wasn't about to argue.

          The sun was beginning to set over the horizon as we began our drive south.

           "If you don't have to be home, there's a great spot about three miles from here where the sunset is spectacular." Joey said.

           "No, I don't have to be back. Working nights, I haven't seen a sunset in months. Let's go."

           God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson.

           Joey parked the car off the main road and we walked towards a secluded section of the beach. He was right, the sun was just over the horizon and lit up the sky in a display of orange, yellow and red. We sat down and watched nature's display.

          "It's been a very long time." I said, hoping he'd take the hint.

           "Yeah, for me, too. I'm working every night and rarely get out before dark."

           "Must be hell on your social life." I tried to keep my focus on the sunset. It was all I could do to keep my fingers from stroking his arm, but I couldn't make the first move.

          "Yeah, well. There is this girl I've been talking to, but she's having a problem with the age difference."

          "Oh?"

           This could be interesting.

           "She's 32. Thinks she's too old."

           32?!! Too old???? Ok, time to get my mind out of robbing the cradle and back to reality.

           "Well, you could always tell her you're a virgin." I just had to know.

           "I'm not a virgin!" He laughed at the accusation.

           "Then tell her she could teach you a few things. That'll get her attention."

           I could teach you a few things, my young innocent friend!

           During the entire conversation, I never once took my eyes off the horizon, afraid to look at him. Afraid he would see what I was thinking, what I was feeling and how much I wished I were twenty five years younger. But as if he read my mind, Joey began to run his fingertips up my arm.

           "And what would an older, experienced woman teach me?" his voice lowered to a whisper.

           I turned my face to look into his dark brown eyes. What I saw there wasn't a boy just out of high school, but a man in search of answers. Mrs. Robinson be damned.

           "This, for starters."

           I moved closer, the back of my hand gently caressed his cheek. I placed my hand on the back of his neck and lightly kissed his warm, sweet lips. Our tongues met in a delightful dance of desire. I began unbuttoning his shirt, laughing slightly at the t-shirt which he wore beneath. In less than two seconds, I had both in a crumpled pile on the sand. As my fingers traced through the hairs on his strong muscular chest, all thoughts of the age difference between us vanished.

I wanted him to experience the full pleasure of making love to a woman and was not about to settle for anything less. Fortunately, Joey had the same thought. I took off my jeans and rolled onto my back. Glad I no longer needed to worry about an unwanted pregnancy, he didn't need to ask if I'd brought protection.

Our love making was youthful, playful and intense. I wouldn’t exactly call it innocent. Joey instinctively, or from experience, knew every one of my erogenous zones and found a few I didn’t even know I had.

Exhausted we lay on the sand for what felt like hours, although only minutes had passed. We dusted the sand from our sweaty bodies, dressed and returned to the car in silence. Not one word was spoken on the drive back to reality.

           I was promoted to another district a week later and never saw Joey again. But whenever I take a drive up the California coast, I remember that very special evening when two strangers took a journey across time.