It was a post high school house party, the summer after we graduated... that transitional moment in time of many a “summer of” movie lore. And as the story always goes, it was just another house party, but destined to be so much more.
For me, in retrospect, it remains in fact a twilight zone like juncture in time and space, a kind of dimensional entity where for one moment, at that time, in that place (29.978603N, 90.058134W to be exact), much that I knew before and much that I’d come to know would seem to converge in that one “singularity”.
I had gone with my best friend, in character, my very own “George Costanza”. The party as most, started uneventfully. We showed up, separated upon entry, and I moseyed into the main room of the event, having taken the short route through a long front room which lay perpendicular to the entryway.
After drifting about I found myself talking to a guy I’d seen in one of my classes that last year of school. The class seating was arranged with two halves of desks facing each other, and he had sat in the half facing mine. But until that night we had never spoken.
He was having problems with his girl, who was also there. We introduced ourselves, spoke a bit, shared some witticisms, and I eventually moved along. Unbeknownst to me, he would in time replace my “Costanza” as my best bud.
Moving into the kitchen I spotted a group of guys who coolly regarded me as I did them. I knew them and they knew me. These were the “in crowd”... you know, the popular guys, and “all that”. Though on past occasions I seemingly was always in the same settings, I was never a part of that “set” a bystander, as it were. Moving right along.....
I found myself at the foot of several steps at a doorway other than the one through which I’d entered. Here one had to step up to leave the kitchen, though I hadn’t recalled actually stepping down going in. But having done so I found I had come full circle and was back in the room at the front of the house, the one we had quickly crossed when we first entered.
Though now I was walking the length of the room, slowly making my way into it. Moving thusly I soon became aware of a soft glow of light coming from the far end of the otherwise darkened room. I couldn’t determine its source. This was because the room was wider at that end, forming a kind of “L” shape, a bend in the far wall obscuring the apparent source of light.
Instead only the light itself was visible, seemingly suspended in the smoky atmosphere. It hung tightly, in a veritable glowing ball, toward which I was inexorably drawn, making my way through the guests.
I had only started into the room when my “Costanza” came up to me with much excitement. Seizing my shoulder and drawing himself nearer my ear he whispered, “‘Stay In My Corner’ is next!” then bustled off, disappearing into the darkness to stake out some intended prey, no doubt.
I continued slowly moving through the guests, heading toward the glow, and had just about gotten up to it when suddenly, there she was.
She was crossing the room right in front of me heading into the other, coming from the glow though I still could not see its source. She appeared before me so suddenly that in fact, as it were, she quite literally CAME FROM OUT OF THE LIGHT. Now there before me, I thought her the most BEAUTIFUL thing I’d ever seen.
Long dark hair, tall, long legs, slim with well rounded hips, those cheeks, those lips, those eyes...exotic to the max. Somehow, all at once, the face of an angel, yet sex personified. At that instant, all others there had become immediately obsolete.
I just stood there actually, stopped in my tracks...waiting. She returned and began talking to some people she knew there, one or two whom I’d known too. Then a song started up, a slow one, the only kind I dared try to dance to, because actually I was a lousy dancer.
So what does a shy introverted geek-like guy with two left feet and absolutely NO game do? I asked her to dance, of course. Not because I expected her to say yes. Fact was I expected her NOT to, but at least I would’ve spoken to her. Yes, I know...pathetic.
But then a new dilemma arose. She said yes. Now I was faced with actually having to dance without looking like a complete fool if I could help it. I had to get this right. Steady...be cool...
Two steps into the music someone stopped the record, almost to my relief. So we stopped and sort of stood there saying not saying much. I think we started talking to the people we were talking to before. Someone put the record back on, so I asked and we started again. But... someone stopped the music.... She walked off, and for all practical purposes, the night was over. I don’t remember the rest.
* * *
Well I did see her again. A year later she showed up at my college, where I started following her to recreation rooms at the center, trying to strike up conversation and being generally ignored. And then there was the time I tried to walk with her to one of her classes and that angel face got angry, those eyes grew dangerous, and she chewed me out for following her to class...such as it was. Ah well....
Long story short...I’ll always remember that night, that twilight zone moment in time and space where past and present merged as one, remember it for its unspoken goodbyes and unpredictable foretelling of things to come. But mostly I’ll remember it for when I first saw her, first saw the One... the one who came from out of the light...
...because she’s been in my head ever since.
For me, in retrospect, it remains in fact a twilight zone like juncture in time and space, a kind of dimensional entity where for one moment, at that time, in that place (29.978603N, 90.058134W to be exact), much that I knew before and much that I’d come to know would seem to converge in that one “singularity”.
I had gone with my best friend, in character, my very own “George Costanza”. The party as most, started uneventfully. We showed up, separated upon entry, and I moseyed into the main room of the event, having taken the short route through a long front room which lay perpendicular to the entryway.
After drifting about I found myself talking to a guy I’d seen in one of my classes that last year of school. The class seating was arranged with two halves of desks facing each other, and he had sat in the half facing mine. But until that night we had never spoken.
He was having problems with his girl, who was also there. We introduced ourselves, spoke a bit, shared some witticisms, and I eventually moved along. Unbeknownst to me, he would in time replace my “Costanza” as my best bud.
Moving into the kitchen I spotted a group of guys who coolly regarded me as I did them. I knew them and they knew me. These were the “in crowd”... you know, the popular guys, and “all that”. Though on past occasions I seemingly was always in the same settings, I was never a part of that “set” a bystander, as it were. Moving right along.....
I found myself at the foot of several steps at a doorway other than the one through which I’d entered. Here one had to step up to leave the kitchen, though I hadn’t recalled actually stepping down going in. But having done so I found I had come full circle and was back in the room at the front of the house, the one we had quickly crossed when we first entered.
Though now I was walking the length of the room, slowly making my way into it. Moving thusly I soon became aware of a soft glow of light coming from the far end of the otherwise darkened room. I couldn’t determine its source. This was because the room was wider at that end, forming a kind of “L” shape, a bend in the far wall obscuring the apparent source of light.
Instead only the light itself was visible, seemingly suspended in the smoky atmosphere. It hung tightly, in a veritable glowing ball, toward which I was inexorably drawn, making my way through the guests.
I had only started into the room when my “Costanza” came up to me with much excitement. Seizing my shoulder and drawing himself nearer my ear he whispered, “‘Stay In My Corner’ is next!” then bustled off, disappearing into the darkness to stake out some intended prey, no doubt.
I continued slowly moving through the guests, heading toward the glow, and had just about gotten up to it when suddenly, there she was.
She was crossing the room right in front of me heading into the other, coming from the glow though I still could not see its source. She appeared before me so suddenly that in fact, as it were, she quite literally CAME FROM OUT OF THE LIGHT. Now there before me, I thought her the most BEAUTIFUL thing I’d ever seen.
Long dark hair, tall, long legs, slim with well rounded hips, those cheeks, those lips, those eyes...exotic to the max. Somehow, all at once, the face of an angel, yet sex personified. At that instant, all others there had become immediately obsolete.
I just stood there actually, stopped in my tracks...waiting. She returned and began talking to some people she knew there, one or two whom I’d known too. Then a song started up, a slow one, the only kind I dared try to dance to, because actually I was a lousy dancer.
So what does a shy introverted geek-like guy with two left feet and absolutely NO game do? I asked her to dance, of course. Not because I expected her to say yes. Fact was I expected her NOT to, but at least I would’ve spoken to her. Yes, I know...pathetic.
But then a new dilemma arose. She said yes. Now I was faced with actually having to dance without looking like a complete fool if I could help it. I had to get this right. Steady...be cool...
Two steps into the music someone stopped the record, almost to my relief. So we stopped and sort of stood there saying not saying much. I think we started talking to the people we were talking to before. Someone put the record back on, so I asked and we started again. But... someone stopped the music.... She walked off, and for all practical purposes, the night was over. I don’t remember the rest.
* * *
Well I did see her again. A year later she showed up at my college, where I started following her to recreation rooms at the center, trying to strike up conversation and being generally ignored. And then there was the time I tried to walk with her to one of her classes and that angel face got angry, those eyes grew dangerous, and she chewed me out for following her to class...such as it was. Ah well....
Long story short...I’ll always remember that night, that twilight zone moment in time and space where past and present merged as one, remember it for its unspoken goodbyes and unpredictable foretelling of things to come. But mostly I’ll remember it for when I first saw her, first saw the One... the one who came from out of the light...
...because she’s been in my head ever since.
