“Um, actually Mom, we have a few errands to run,” I said.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, Tay has to go exchange a shirt he got the other day, we have to go return a movie to Blockbuster, and I have to go put gas in my car anyways.”
“Well, you can do all that while you’re out with us. You’d probably have to take your car anyways.”
“Well, you see, we told Brandon we’d meet him at the park to play basketball at one,” Taylor spoke up.
>“Oh. Well, I guess you can go run your errands. But we’re going out to dinner tonight, and you have to come. I’m not giving you a choice,” she said.
“Okay, we’ll be back in time,” I assured her. “Okay. Bye,” she said, and walked back into the house. My brothers and I grinned at each other. We waited until everyone left, then got into my car to drive to the fair.
~*~*~
The fair was out on the outskirts of Tulsa, by the Arkansas River. Before we left town though, we stopped at a Texaco so that I could get gas. As I was filling the tank up, I suddenly realized that I was thirsty. “Hey, Tay,” I said through the open car window.
“What?” he asked.
I fished a dollar bill out of my pocket. “Go get me a Coke. Not Pepsi, Coke,” I told him.
“What’s the difference?” he asked. I gave him a “who-cares-just-shut-up-and-get-it” look. “Okay, okay,” he said, taking the >dollar and heading into the store. He came back out a few minutes later, tossed me the 20-ounce bottle, and got back into the car. I finished filling the car up with gas, then got into the driver’s seat and drove out to the outskirts of town.
When we got to the fair, I parked the car, and we all piled out. We started walking through the fair, just seeing what there was to do. After we had walked through the entire fair, I asked, “So, what do you guys want to do first?”
“Get some food. I’m starving,” said Taylor.
“Me too,” agreed Zac. My stomach rumbled, and I realized that I was too, since I hadn’t eaten any breakfast and hadn’t had lunch yet.
“So am I. What do you guys want to eat?” I asked.
“Ooh, barbecue chicken wings!” Zac exclaimed pointing.
“That sounds good. Come on, Ike,” said Taylor. I followed my brothers and we stood in line. After getting our chicken, we sat down at a table to eat it. Zac, not surprisingly, finished his first, then started talking about going on the rides.
“Zac, you’re insane. Look at the line to buy tickets. It’s ten miles long!” Taylor exclaimed. I picked up my last chicken wing, then took a look at the ticket line, which was to our right a little, myself. That’s when I saw her. She was standing patiently, waiting to buy some tickets. Her long blonde hair reached to nearly her waist. She was wearing a short, white, sleeveless shirt with a black mini-skirt that showed off her great legs.
“Ike! Wake up!” Zac exclaimed, snapping me out of my trance. He shoved me in the arm a little, causing my chicken to hit my shirt.
“Oh, good move, Zac! Now look what you did,” I said, showing him the barbecue stain the chicken had put on my white T-shirt when he bumped me.
“Oops. Sorry, Ike,” Zac said, handing me a napkin. I wetted a corner of it with my tongue and tried to rub the stain out as best I could. However, it wouldn’t come off.
“Oh, forget it,” I said, throwing the napkin on the ground. It was obvious that I was gonna have a barbecue stain on my white T-shirt the rest of the day. I looked back to the ticket line to check out that girl again, but she had vanished. I sighed. “Oh, well. Maybe I’ll see her later today,” I thought.
“Come on, let’s go get some tickets to go on the rides,” said Zac, standing up. Taylor and I stood up and the three of us went to go stand in line.
~*~*~
“Man, that ride was so awesome!” Zac exclaimed as we all filed off one of the many rides.
“Yeah, it was,” Taylor agreed. “Come on, let’s go on that one next!” he said pointing. I turned to look where Tay was pointing to, and as I did, I saw her. The girl from the ticket line. She was down on the banks of the river, just past the old railroad tracks. She was skipping rocks on the water.
“Come on, Ike! Let’s go,” said Zac.
“You guys go ahead. I need to, uh, go get something to drink,” I said.
“Okay,” Taylor said shrugging, and he and Zac took off in the direction of the next ride. I waited till they were out of sight, then started walking down to the girl. When I got up behind her, I cleared my throat a little, then said, “Hi.”
She turned around, smiled and said, “Hello.” That’s when I got the first real good look at her. Her blonde hair was very straight and the colour of cornsilk. She was very tan with red lipstick on her lips. She showed off her legs by wearing that black miniskirt. She was gorgeous.
“My name’s Isaac,” I told her.
“I’m Amanda,” she said.
“That’s a very pretty name.”
“Thank you,” Amanda said, smiling.
“So, who are you here with? Family, boyfriend?”
“Oh, just my older brother. But he found someone that he knew and ditched me. So, I’ve just kinda been hanging out alone all day. Who are you here with?”
“Oh, my two younger brothers. Getting away from our crazy household.”
“Crazy?” she asked.
“Yeah. Three other siblings, plus my grandparents are visiting.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Seventeen,” she answered.
“Cool, so am I.” She smiled. “So, since you don’t have anyone to hang out with, you wanna go on a few rides together?” I asked.
She grinned. “Sure, that’d be great,” she answered. We left the riverbank, and started walking back to the rides. We went on a few rides, then I realized that it was starting to get close to dinnertime.
“Hey, I have to leave soon. Do you wanna go on one more ride?” I asked Amanda.
“Sure. Which one?” she asked.
“I don’t care. You pick.”
“Okay. Umm…how about the Ferris wheel?”
“Okay,” I agreed, and we went to stand in line. We got on the Ferris wheel and started talking about our families. After it was silent for a moment, I asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?” “Hey, it kinda ties in with family,” I thought to myself. Amanda shook her head. “You don’t? A pretty girl like you doesn’t have a boyfriend?” I asked.
She smiled and blushed. “Nope,” she answered. I was amazed. When the Ferris wheel stopped at the top, we gazed out over the view before us. “It’s beautiful,” Amanda said.
“Not as beautiful as you,” I said. She smiled and blushed again. “Can I kiss you?” I asked her. She nodded her head. I leaned in, and softly kissed her lips. We both smiled, and I took hold of her hand. When we got off the Ferris wheel, we exchanged phone numbers then said goodbye so that I could find Taylor and Zac and so that she could find her brother.
“Jeez, Ike! Where have you been?! We’ve been looking all over for you!” Zac exclaimed when I found them.
“I’ve been around. Come on, we have to leave. We have to go out to dinner, remember?” I said.
“Oh, yeah,” Tay and Zac said, not sounding too thrilled about the idea. We started walking back to the car, and I thought about Amanda, wondering if I’d ever see or talk to her again. I knew one thing for sure though. I’d never forget this day.
~*~*~
Five years later, I was in the airport waiting for my flight to New Orleans, Louisiana to be called. I was meeting some friends of mine down there for the Mardi Gras. When my flight was called, I grabbed my carry-on bag and filed onto the plane. I found my seat, and sat down, trying to get comfortable. “Man, this stupid airplane seats are never comfortable,” I thought to myself. I pulled a book out of my bag, and started to read it. All the sudden, I heard a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. It was coming from a few rows back, so I turned around to see if I could catch a glimpse of who the voice belonged to. When I looked, I couldn’t believe who I saw. It was Amanda! She saw me, and said, “Hi, Isaac!” Then she kinda laughed and said, “Oh, oops. You probably don’t remember me.”
I grinned and said, “Don’t remember you? Heck, I remember every other memory!” I put my book down and walked back to her seat. She stood up and we hugged.
“How have you been?” she
“I’ve been doing great. How have you been?” I asked in return.
“Good, very good. I just got married last year.”
“That’s great! Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” she said smiling. Then she said, “So, you remember every other memory, huh?”
“Pretty much,” I answered.
“Okay, mister. What were we wearing?”
“Well,” I started, “I was wearing a white T-shirt that had a barbecue stain on it. You were wearing that great little miniskirt of yours, and red lipstick.”
“Where was I when you first introduced yourself?”
“Skipping rocks on the river,” I answered.
“Down by the railroad tracks,” she added.
“Yep, that’s right. And you had a tan I remember too.”
“And you asked if you could kiss me when we went on the Ferris wheel.”
I smiled and nodded. She had a good memory, and I told her so. “How could I forget something like that?” she asked. I just grinned.
“Passengers, please prepare for takeoff,” a stewardess said over the loudspeaker.
“Well, it was great talking to you again,” Amanda said smiling.
“It sure was. Hey, can I get a picture of us together?” I asked her.
“Sure.”
“Great, just let me go get my camera.” I hurried back to my seat, grabbed the camera, then walked back to Amanda. We stood together, and had another passenger snap a picture of us. We hugged again, and I walked back to my seat. “I can’t wait to get this roll of film developed,” I thought to myself as I fastened my seatbelt.
~*~*~
Quite a few years later, I had gotten married to a wonderful woman and we had a beautiful son. When my son was 12, we were looking through an old shoebox of pictures from when I was younger. We came across the picture of me and Amanda on the plane, and my son asked, “Is that Mom?”
I smiled and said, “No.”
“Then who is it?” my son asked.
I grinned and said, “Her name’s Amanda. I met her Labour Day weekend, when I was seventeen.”
“Do you still talk to her?”
“No. But the memory of your first love never fades away,” I said.
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