Page "fiction" Paragraph 1033

As it turned out, Jessica took matters into her own hands.

Having received permission to give a camp reunion-Halloween party, she asked that I come and be her date.

I went and, mum and nervous, all but made a fool of myself.

Again among those jubilantly reunited bunkmates, I was shy with Jessie and acted as I had during those early Saturday mornings when we all seemed to be playing for effect, to be detached and unconcerned with the girls who were properly our dates but about whom, later, in the privacy of our bunks, we would think in terms of the most elaborate romance.

I remember standing in a corner, watching Jessica act the hostess, serving soft drinks to her guests.

She was wearing her dark hair in two, thick braids to attain an `` American Girl '' effect she thought was appropriate to Halloween.

It made her look sweet and schoolgirlish, I was excited to be with her, but I did not know how to express it.

Yet a moment did come that night when the adventurous letter writer and fantasist seemed to stride off my flashy pages, out of my mind, and plant himself in reality.

It was late, we were playing kissing games, and Jessica and I were called on to kiss in front of the others.

We blushed and were flustered, and it turned out to be the fleetest brush of lips upon cheek.

The kiss outraged our friends but it was done and meanwhile had released in me all the remote, exciting premonitions of lust, all the mysterious sensations that I had imagined a truly consummated kiss would convey to me.