Roger, 12

It was movie night at Camp Billings, an overnight camp on Lake Fairlee, Vermont. The whole camp was watching Hoosiers on the tennis courts. I was 12 or 13. I was told there was a girl named Megan that liked me. Her friends brought her over to me and my friends, we didn't say much to each other. I couldn't see her face, but we kissed at the cheesy ending of the movie. Her nickname was "Ram Screw", but only because it rhymed with her last name, not because of any barn yard encounters. I asked her if I was good at kissing, she shrugged. I've gotten better since then, I think. We continued to make out together at summer camp until the next summer when she decided to make out with my best friend, Kyle. Kyle and I won a regatta together and I kissed a girl named Amy. Amy didn't have any weird nicknames.

Catherine Anne Hayes, The Tree

The tree
a memory

I love trees...
Their calm... their strength...their stories.
I love to lie under a tree and I remember once going deep inside a tree
to hide during a game of hide go seek.
I must have been in my early teens...
and all of the sudden I was not alone in that tree.
One of the guys that was the son of my mother's friend...
he was about 18 I think...takes my chin in his fingers and
lifts up my face to him....I could not make out his
face because, even though we were in that tree, patches
of sunlight could make their way inside.
They haloed his head and darkened his face.
He bent down and kissed me...
gently...fully.
As he pulled away my lower lip was caught between his
as if he did not want to break away from me.
I remember he tasted like cold coca cola.
He then let out his breath and said "Beautiful...grow up fast"
and disappeared out of the tree.
I tried to follow him out but it was like he vanished.
I never saw him again.
He was killed in a boat accident down in Florida where his family spent the winter.
I never forgot that kiss.
Funny...I don't even remember his name but sometimes when I drink a
cold coca cola and I lick my lips with my cold tongue he comes to mind.
He was the first to kiss me like a woman.
The first to make me feel womanly...beautiful.

First Kiss Quote

“We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.”
-Eduardo Galeano