Chapter Seventeen: Kisses

Tuesday, July 5, 1910

Lynn smiled coyly, "How about a ghost story?"

Emily nodded. Sarah was thrilled, "Oh yes!"

Audrey and Jan were both leery.

Lynn said, "Before we get scared, I'm hungry."

Sarah beamed. "I have a popcorn maker!"

Emily was shocked: "Seriously?"

"My father got it an auction in River City. He's giving away popcorn at the Music Festival, some promotion with the bank. Anyway, I have to operate it."

Lynn smiled. "You're going to make popcorn? Goodie, goodie!"

Sarah put on a coat and ran to the garage.

Jan wrote: "I have a new chocolate candy you'd like, Emily. It's called a Hershey's Kiss." She reached in her purse and gave it to Emily.

Emily loved it. "Exquisite! Jan, have you ever had a S'more?"

Jan shook her head.

Emily jumped up and ran to the kitchen. She returned with marshmallows, graham crackers and Hershey's Chocolate Bars and pulled up a table near the fireplace. She unfastened a wire hanger and stuck a marshmallow on it. She placed it in the fire. Lynn spread the crackers and the chocolate on a plate. Emily got the marshmallow sufficiently toasted. She gingerly placed it on a graham cracker and added four segments of the chocolate bar on the marshmallow.

Jan was about to drool. She then covered it with another graham cracker.

"It's a chocolate sandwich. Scrumptious, delectable. Here, you may have the first one."

Jan took a bite and she was in heaven, "Hmmmmm."

Emily smiled. "Better than kissing your boyfriend Robert?"

Jan giggled. She put the s'more down on a napkin and took out a picture of Robert from her purse. She rubbed her chin. She closed her eyes and pointed to one and then the other, right and left, right and left about ten times, her finger landed on the s'more. They shared a laugh.

Lynn asked, "Emily, tell us about your first kiss."

Emily put another marshmallow on the hanger. "My first kiss?"

She looked to Jan and Lynn and then Audrey. She looked out the window to Sarah. She whispered, "It was Simon."

They all gasped and Lynn covered her mouth.

Audrey asked, "You mean…?" she pointed at Sarah who was on the porch with the popcorn machine.

Emily said softly, "That Simon."

"Does Sarah know?"

Emily closed her eyes and shook her head.

Jan thought for a moment and wrote a note Lynn read it, "Wait a second, the day you met me was the day Sarah met Simon. There is no way you could have kissed him first!"

Emily got the girls in a huddle. "I climbed through a window into his dorm room."

They all stepped back, "You climbed through his window to… Emily!" She laughed, everyone else did as well.

Emily made another s'more and gave it to Audrey, she took a bite. Emily confessed, "Ok, my first kiss came from Tommy Grossman. I was walking home from Sarah's house; it was my thirteenth birthday party. We had talked about boys all afternoon. I saw Tommy coming down the sidewalk and I decided to talk to him.

We walked around the park. He was telling me some stupid story, hunting or something, he kept going on and on about the joys of blowing away furry creatures. I thought of a creative way to get his mind on something else. So, I kissed him."

Audrey was tickled. "You kissed him!"

"Uh-huh. I've been crazy about him ever since, but we've never been more than friends."

Amanda spoke up, "David Clementine, Emily's brother, is the most charming, inviting, masculine form I have ever salivated over. When we were in eighth grade there was a spark between us. I knew we were destined to be together. One day I went to the park. David was running sprints. He went down one end of the field and when he began his return he saw me. It was though our eyes were making love before we could even comprehend the dream.

He huffed and puffed as he ran towards me. I stood there, aloof, afraid, enamored, seduced and utterly immobile. When he finally made his way to me, he reached out and cradled the small of my back. I gave in to him and he bent me over. We shared the greatest first kiss in all of recorded history. His sweet lips slid across mine with a boundless ferocity. He gleefully surveyed my mouth and then, it was over.

I recovered from the moment. I never recovered from him."

All the girls were fawning, envious of her ecstasy. They could not see the fractured smile Amanda wore beneath her mask as she recalled both the wonder of having him and the sadness of knowing they would never be together again.

From the porch they could smell the oil heating in the popper.

Audrey smiled and whispered, "Mine was at my friend Margaret's house. I was fifteen and head over heels for her eighteen-year-old brother Phil. I went to the bathroom and when I came out I noticed him asleep on a couch in the parlor. He was dead to the world having just returned from football practice. He was drenched in sweat; the aroma of a wild beast. I stood there for a few minutes adoring his body but then I was, helplessly drawn in for a closer inspection.

I tip toed over and knelt next to the couch. I admired his lovely form as the light from the fireplace danced on his hairy arms. His muscles were still bubbling from the exertion of running up and down the field. His neck was like a tree limb, his legs were marbled columns. I hovered a single finger above him and slowly traced his jaw line, his nose, and his eyes. I held my palm flat, about two inches above his body and ran my hand from his shoulders, down… to his feet. I then repeated the action. I closed my eyes and pretended that he was kissing me, ravishing me, fulfilling every secret desire.

Well, he must have seen me tracing him earlier. While I still had my eyes closed, he reached up and kissed me. I nearly passed out. I didn't know what to say. I wondered if I'd dreamed it all or if he had somehow violated me, either way I was pleased with the outcome.

He kissed me on my forehead, the cheek and then my ear lobe. He whispered, 'It's been a long day. Margaret is probably wondering where you are now.' I backed away from him. Part of me was hurt that he had no interest in taking it further. Another part realized that I was fifteen, he was eighteen, and this was a one time fantasy fulfillment. I dunno. We never kissed again."

Lynn replied, "That's sad."

Audrey smiled. "That's love."

Emily teased, "Well, I know that Lynn must have a dozy of a first smooch tale!"

Lynn cringed. She looked to Emily; unsure about how to answer the challenge.

Emily innocently shrugged. "What?"

"Nothing," Lynn smirked. She shuffled her feet and said, "I kissed Tommy Grossman too, but, it was really just because Emily kissed him first."

Emily giggled, "It was an accident!"

"What about the second time?"

Audrey was confused. "Lynn, weren't you two together at the carnival?"

"We were!" Lynn shrugged and gave Emily a goofy face. "Emily was giving me pointers. Tommy Grossman and another boy were arm wrestling. Emily was trying, so she claims, to tell me to give Tommy a good luck kiss. She leaned down towards him and puckered up. Tommy turned around and they 'accidentally' kissed. I was ready to scratch her eyes out. Emily has a way of… getting men's attention, shall we say. Well, she explained to me that it was inadvertent and, in the middle of the explanation… she kissed him yet again!"

Audrey, Amanda and Jan gasped. "No!"

"Yes."

Emily shrugged. "What can I say? The boys like me."

Lynn smirked, "So I've heard. Anyway, after the second kiss, I gave Tommy a kiss too so as to make things even."

Audrey raised an eyebrow. "So, you kissed him purely out of spite?"

Lynn nodded. "Yup." The girls laughed together.

Lynn scratched her neck. "My first kiss occurred when I was sixteen. I lived in Great Falls and I was terribly shy and awkward around guys, but now, of course, I am older and more mature… and I am terribly shy and awkward around guys, but, I digress. The cutest boy in my class was this well toned, statuesque, robust long-distance runner named Terrence Conley.

One day I was taking a stroll through the woods near my house. I was attempting to sort out my feelings about an announcement my father had just made, something he'd been saving until the last day of school, we were moving to some backwater town called Eagle Creek.

I'd grown up in Great Falls; I was devastated by the news. I wouldn't be graduating with my friends. I would be a fish out of water in some two-bit cattle town that surely lacked indoor plumbing and men. I didn't want to move and leave my friends. I did not want to go to a new school.

I was miserable and on the verge of tears. I stopped and leaned back on a Cottonwood tree; utterly devastated. I was so downcast that I didn't pay attention to the sounds of Terrence as he ran through the woods.

I merely noticed his shoes when he stopped. And then I felt two fingers lifting up my chin.

He looked deeply into my eyes and presented a most adoring smile. I felt faint as I hoped beyond hope that he could read my mind as I pleaded for a kiss. He obliged my longing. We kissed for a minute or two. I held him close giving him slight pecks on his ear and broad shoulders.

We shared one last embrace and then he took off into the deep forest. I've not seen him since. We moved the next week. Periodically, I talk to my best friend Marcia Shelton back in Great Falls; she hasn't heard from him either. Terrence's father was in the Army. They moved to Wyoming.

I will forever cherish that moment while knowing that no other boy no matter how adapted or well intentioned with his affections can compare to that first kiss."

By now they could hear the popcorn popping.

Sarah proudly proclaimed, "All done" and turned the kettle onto the floor of the popper. The glass case which housed the machine was nearly steamed over and dripping with coconut oil. She tossed on some salt. They stood around with bowls and filled up on popcorn.

"We were telling first kiss stories," said Audrey.

Sarah laughed, "Believe me mine is nothing special. I was fourteen; it was Pete Jackson. I had a crush on him, my first, I suppose. He came over to see me one day. My mother was a little unnerved. We couldn't go anywhere; just sit on the porch.

We talked for about an hour and watched the sunset. He held my hand. I put my arm around him. He leaned over and we kissed, just a one second peck on the lips. He smiled; I grinned ear to ear.

We kissed again, a little slower this time. He was softer. He whispered something in my ear and then I heard, '7:00 pm time for you to go.' I turned around it was my mother. He jumped up. 'Um, um, yes ma'am. Goodnight Sarah.' I longingly replied, 'Goodnight my love.' He ran home lickety split and that was the end of our tryst.

The girls all laughed.

They continued eating various snacks as Lynn began her ghost story. She held them spell bound. Sarah was biting her nails. Emily and Audrey and Jan were curled up together on the couch hiding behind pillows.

"And there, in the fog, he could see the creature's red glowing eyes!"

Just then Sarafina jumped on to the window ledge which looked outside onto the porch.

Jan could see her big red eyes glowing in the night. She let out a blood curling scream.

Soon all the other girls screamed they ran into the hallway towards the back door.

Sarah said, "Wait, wait, wait! It's only Sarafina scratching at the front door."

The girls calmed down, Sarah opened the door.

"Ahhhh!" Sarah screamed, "She's killed a bat!"

The girls shrieked and ran around the house. Sarah got a broom and chased Sarafina back outside.

Sarah said, "Hey, Jan, we never heard your story."

She shrugged and they all sat around the kitchen table.

Jan began writing: "When I was thirteen, I went to a Valentine's Day Ball at the Four Georgian's Country Club in Helena. It was a costume ball. I wore a doe mask. A boy walked up to me who was a buck. Perfect match. We danced. When the song was over I didn't want to lose him so we danced some more. After awhile, I was utterly enticed by the young man.

We took a break out on this veranda overlooking the golf course. It was a moonlit, starry night. He held me close to comfort me from the chill wind. I looked in his eyes, he looked in mine. We kissed. Check for reaction. We kissed once more. I indulged myself in a couple of minutes of expert smooching.

I mustard some courage and took off my doe mask. He immediately screamed in terror and ran through the ballroom, out the door. Needless to say, I was mortified.

I went to another young man wearing an elk mask that he'd been talking to during one of the breaks. I asked his name. It was Carl Johnson, as in the son of my father's brother! I'd been necking with my cousin!

Thanksgiving and other family functions since then have been… uncomfortable to say the least, and, yet, part of me fondly remembers him as an exquisite kisser."

Audrey giggled and said, "That's scandalous."

"Scandal!" Amanda shouted.