Anticipation
By ice rivers
- 729 reads
Nobody would ever confuse me for an apple pie kinda guy. I much prefer cake to pie and I prefer chocolate devils food to vanilla.
Some folks say that if you haven’t done something by the ago of thirty, you probably won’t ever do that something and what you have done by the age of thirty, you will do over and over again.
Fortunately, I did an awful lot before I reached the age of 30, so I have some leeway.
Now, let's cut to the action
Last night, we met up for dinner and beers with our two dear friends Ron and Peg at the Galway Hooker. We arrived in separate cars. Peg drove Ron and as usual Lynn drove me. We got to Galway at exactly 4:30. We pulled into the parking lot and right behind us came Ron and Peg. Lynn and Peg are very fond of punctuality. Ron and Peg chose tables. We sat out front of the Hooker at a rickety table that was rockin’ and rollin’ even before the music started.
Peg and Ron already had their Pabst Blue Ribbons in front of them. As soon as we arrived at the table, the waiter was right there and asking “PBRs for both of you?”
I said “yeah”. Lynn ordered a glass of white wine. Because I am a creature of habit, I once again ordered bangers and mash. My dinner companions all tried something new. Obviously, they are more daring and I more timid.
By the end of the meal, we had a few more drinks and during the meal our conversation ascended into the kind of elevated conversation that friends have which may or may not be understandable to anyone but those involved.
Peg had just come from a pedicure and Ron had just come from the doctor’s office where he endured a couple of injections into his arhtritic knuckles. We touched briefly on each subject which led us to the subject of elective surgery. Peg was talking about a friend of hers who had damage to her neck and was electing surgery to confront the damage. This led to the revelation that Peg had non-electively undergone similar surgery when she broke her neck.
“You broke your neck? How the hell did that happen?” Lynn and I asked as one.
It seems that a number of years ago, Peg was driving to the grocery store when out of nowhere a tree collapsed and fell on their car. The tree smashed through the driver’s side roof. The roof of car and the tree fell upon Peg, breaking her neck and demolishing the driver side of the car. The passenger side was completely unharmed They had to use the jaws of life to pull Peg from the car. Peg told us about the months that she spent in a “halo” which is a brace type contraption doctors use to fuse the shattered vertabrae together.
Wow
A personal story like that was bound to lead us into conversations that featured anecdotes that we didn’t know about each other which of course led us to knowing each other better and liking each other more
After the Hooker we went over to Ron and Peg’s house. They own two houses; one in Florida and the other in North Carolina. They bounce between the two residences and when they are in Carolina, we are always glad to see them and the pleasure seems to be mutual. Peg has a delightful laugh. Ron has a great memory. Both of them are people of experience and understanding. Lynn and Peg are like two sisters.
When we sat down at Peg and Ron’s, Ron offered me another PBR. I had my quota so instead I asked for and received a bottle of Diet Pepsi. Ron joined me in cola carbonation. Peg opened a new bottle of wine and poured a glass for her and Lynn.
The conversation took off again from where we left off as we shared semi-secrets and rounds of hearty laughter. It’s amazing how far a conversation can take you when your guards are down, inhibitions reduced, trust and camaradarie engaged.
I’m not going to go into the conversations and questions that we shared, asked and entered but it became clear that we were embarking upon a new level of intimacy.
We're all adults here.
The girls had couple more glasses of wine with another scoop of veritas and insight.
Then it happened, seemingly the most natural thing in the world.
Something happened that I had never experienced before and thought that I would never experience in my life time although I had wondered about it.
It didn’t take long, maybe five minutes at most. I’m sure it wouldn’t have happened anywhere else but in the location and with the company in which it happened.
After it was over, we continued to talk. I had a certain afterglow because I was the only one of the four who had crossed into this particular delight for the first time.
I didn’t know whether to talk about my new experience. All I could think of was “once a philosopher, twice a pervert’. I decided to keep my thoughts to myself.
The girls had another glass of wine. We could have gone on for another hour easily but it was getting late and we had already covered a lot of ground...anything else would be anti-climatic.
Ya gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em
We gathered up our shoes and belongings. We embraced and prepared to leave when suddenly I felt compelled to come clean.
I was proud of what we had done and wanted to let everybody know about it.
“I have an announcement to make and I’m sure Lynn will back me up on it or she more than anyone else knows what a weird bird I am. Tonight was a first for me."
Everyone was listening intently.
"After all of these years, tonight was my first piece of apple pie.”
Ron and Peg were surprised.
“Did you eat it.” Lynn asked.
“I did.”
“Did you like it”, Peg asked.
"I did. I mean what is apple pie anyways but apples which i like pie crust which is okay and whipped cream which I like."
“I had no idea”, said Peg.
“Yeah, he’s a weirdo” added Lynn.
We said goodbye and already began planning our next trip to the Hooker.
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Comments
You make your reader feel as
You make your reader feel as though they're right there with you. I don't know how you got through life without the glories of apple pie. The best I ever had was when I was ten years old, in a cheap cafe, with squirty cream. Been trying to reproduce that memory ever since.
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