A Bird in the Bush

A Bird in the Bush

    Tracy’s affection was sweeter than ice cream on a summer’s day. Yet Penny’s  rare confection of virtue and beauty charmed me. How could I help but double dip?
    Tracy rose up the ladder from the pool dripping with beauty. I gazed at her long tan legs sparkling with sprinkles of water. She gazed back at me with her blonde hair laying wet across her breasts. Tracy asked, “Do you like me John?”
    I replied, “As a friend.”
    She hung to the ladder smiling knowingly.
    She said, “No John. I think more than that.”
    I obeyed her command to meet her on Saturday night with smoldering ardor.
    That Saturday night we floated across the skating rink. We were carried along by the music and suspended in time. Red and green lights danced across our faces. Her hair blew in the slip stream. Our hands clasped together for dear life. Disco music washed across us in waves.
    Tracy was the dancing queen, young and sweet, but us only thirteen. We sailed through the sweaty bodies like comets streaming through the heavens. We passed in an oval orbit  around the cavernous room. I felt giddy as we swirled like the arms of a spiral galaxy.
    The moments seemed to stretch into eternity till all that was left was endless motion.  Her body was so close I could feel her warmth. Her hand gripped mine tenderly.
    My dream of love was realized. My adolescent hormones added spice to her touch. My arm wrapped around her for a moment. Then she slipped from my grasp. She vanished into the decades like a star imploding. Finally nothing was left but a cinder, the shell of a star which blazed eons ago, a faint echo of love.
    Tracy never knew my secret. I kept concealed my cheating heart. How could I choose one? I loved them both. So one June morning my double life came unraveled.
    A sultry summer breeze caressed my soft young skin. I breathed in the scent of freshly mown grass. Cloud castles soared across deep blue skies. I was bathed in a shower of sunshine.  On this sensual morning of innocence the dream of love sang through my body like a lullaby of soothing harp music in sacred groves misted in mystery.
    Penny swayed on my grandparent’s porch swing like an enchanting fairy. She beguiled me with radiant glances full of portent. Her eyes glittered with mischievous seduction peering through the translucent sheen of my masculinity. She gazed into the heart of my adolescent insecurity.
    Penny knew that my affections were divided. The smoldering coals of her jealousy were softened by my magical youth. My secret was revealed through the words of her sister, “Two Timer.”  The glint of devilish playfulness sparkled like jade in her eyes. Her words teased my affections, stirring the deep waters of my emotions.
    Penny whispered her desire for the convent and celibacy. Her words dropped like stones, echoing in the well of my heart. She shared her visions of a cute green-eyed boy who enchanted her waking hours. With endearing laughter and winks of love her words singed the tender petals of my emotions.
    My guilt ached like a slow throbbing heart failure with each heart beat resonating my loss like the slow drum beat of a dirge.
    We walked down summer streets hand in hand. She needed to divert the unwanted attention of another scoundrel through the illusion of romance with my culpable soul. Our song of youth was sung once more. We passed through the honeysuckle forest lined streets. Morning ebbed into afternoon. Reflections of lost love glimmer in the mirror of memory like an image of paradise suffused in golden mists of time.