OMG, there is nothing like a well written short story! This is achingly beautiful - took me back to similar scenes of hot urgency. I recall when I was 45 and falling in love after a painful separation. My boyfriend and I were standing in line at The Bank of America. It was crowded with lunch time workers trying to get their checks cashed or deposited. We were laughing and kidding around, holding hands, kissing. Then we felt the quiet disapproving gazes of the button downed establishment. I remember thinking, how sad, do they not remember how incredible it is to feel so young, so free? Whenever I see young lovers, I smile because it has to be the best feeling that life has to offer.
Yes!! “Well-written” is exactly right. It’s crisp, tight, and easy to read. And it’s steamy!
As I have travelled, I have seen that in different places there are completely different rules about “public displays of affection” or PDA. A few years ago, in Cuba, my partner and I observed couples making out and humping all over the place. It ruled. In other parts of the world, even touching is forbidden.
An added complication is who is touching? Most people wouldn’t mind seeing a young, good-looking straight couple going at it. Just now, I’m realizing that this story is about privilege. Obviously. There are oysters.
Whenever I see young lovers, I smile because it has to be the best feeling that life has to offer.
Whoaaaaa. That comment is so bright (and true!) but with a kick of darkness. When I first read this story, I was the exact age of the narrator and Kate. (And, in fact, my “Kate” was the one who gave me this story!) The exhibitionistm is wonderful, almost cinematic, but I think it’s incidental to the point of the story, which is the interaction between the narrator and that kid on the platform. But: why?!
I’ll probably never figure that out for the rest of my life: Why is the narrator thinking about anything besides Kate at that last moment? Kate is missing from the intro, about Pet Milk, and then she fades from view at the very end, during that hot moment. It’s still a story about a couple. But it’s also a story about how one man remembers it all, before, during and after.
For me, there could be 2 possibilities. The boys were not that far apart in age - about 6 years. The 16 year old could be waving as a sign of approval, of either something he, himself, has enjoyed, or hoped to enjoy in the future. I can remember so clearly being on the beach with my parents and desperately wanting to be the girls in the bikinis, face down, tops untied and the boys rubbing Coppertone all over their hot, brown bodies. And I was equally aware of myself getting to be that age and having young girls stare at me with the same longing. There was such a pull, at least for me, when I was young to experience the freedom and danger of the older years. But I’m really dating myself here because when I did my substitute teaching back in the early eighties, I had 6th graders who confided that they were afraid they were pregnant. So much for my theory! But it could also be some sort of flashback for the author, remembering his youth and saying goodbye to it. Because a lot of the story was remembering his past - the Pet milk and grandmother. By the way, if you never had that milk, it’s really disgusting!
Wow, this is really excellent! Totally enthralling.
OMG, there is nothing like a well written short story! This is achingly beautiful - took me back to similar scenes of hot urgency. I recall when I was 45 and falling in love after a painful separation. My boyfriend and I were standing in line at The Bank of America. It was crowded with lunch time workers trying to get their checks cashed or deposited. We were laughing and kidding around, holding hands, kissing. Then we felt the quiet disapproving gazes of the button downed establishment. I remember thinking, how sad, do they not remember how incredible it is to feel so young, so free? Whenever I see young lovers, I smile because it has to be the best feeling that life has to offer.
Yes!! “Well-written” is exactly right. It’s crisp, tight, and easy to read. And it’s steamy!
As I have travelled, I have seen that in different places there are completely different rules about “public displays of affection” or PDA. A few years ago, in Cuba, my partner and I observed couples making out and humping all over the place. It ruled. In other parts of the world, even touching is forbidden.
An added complication is who is touching? Most people wouldn’t mind seeing a young, good-looking straight couple going at it. Just now, I’m realizing that this story is about privilege. Obviously. There are oysters.
Whoaaaaa. That comment is so bright (and true!) but with a kick of darkness. When I first read this story, I was the exact age of the narrator and Kate. (And, in fact, my “Kate” was the one who gave me this story!) The exhibitionistm is wonderful, almost cinematic, but I think it’s incidental to the point of the story, which is the interaction between the narrator and that kid on the platform. But: why?!
I’ll probably never figure that out for the rest of my life: Why is the narrator thinking about anything besides Kate at that last moment? Kate is missing from the intro, about Pet Milk, and then she fades from view at the very end, during that hot moment. It’s still a story about a couple. But it’s also a story about how one man remembers it all, before, during and after.
For me, there could be 2 possibilities. The boys were not that far apart in age - about 6 years. The 16 year old could be waving as a sign of approval, of either something he, himself, has enjoyed, or hoped to enjoy in the future. I can remember so clearly being on the beach with my parents and desperately wanting to be the girls in the bikinis, face down, tops untied and the boys rubbing Coppertone all over their hot, brown bodies. And I was equally aware of myself getting to be that age and having young girls stare at me with the same longing. There was such a pull, at least for me, when I was young to experience the freedom and danger of the older years. But I’m really dating myself here because when I did my substitute teaching back in the early eighties, I had 6th graders who confided that they were afraid they were pregnant. So much for my theory! But it could also be some sort of flashback for the author, remembering his youth and saying goodbye to it. Because a lot of the story was remembering his past - the Pet milk and grandmother. By the way, if you never had that milk, it’s really disgusting!
Happy #FictionFriday
This is one of my all time favorite short stories. I’ve probably read it over fifty times in the last decade.
The “high school kid in shirt sleeves” is profoundly vivid. I feel like I see versions of him all over the place, in the real world.