Champions

By Paul Michaels

Margie was six feet tall, a voluptuous beauty who was a singer and a dancer and, was smart as a whip. It was her dream to become a schoolteacher. She studied hard and became a third grade schoolteacher, a substitute physical education coach and a part-time music and dance teacher. She was loved by her students and admired by all.
Bill was a hard working, self-employed business owner, eight years her senior, who could provide Margie with anything she wanted or needed ...especially his love.
For years they shared all of their life experiences. Good times, bad times, laughter and tears, their hopes and dreams and a whirlwind social life with the simplicity of a small town. But, always under the watchful eyes of Margie’s mom, dad, and her tag-along little sister.
As time went on and after Margie left for college, they slowly drifted apart, but still always loved one another. Two decades later and simply by fate, they found each other again. Soul mates can never be denied.
They picked up where they left off as if there was no twenty-four year gap and they were determined to have a life together once more. They could never have imagined their second chance of life and love would be suddenly cut short. They didn’t realize their time together was already over.
For just eight short months, they were able to share those days of their lives once more. This is a true love story that should not go untold. THIS STORY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Michaels
• Release date: Jan 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370393923

Paul Michaels

PAUL MICHAELS is not your conventional writer. Born in the Northeast he was an all-American boy who loved baseball and apple pie. He began writing poetry at the tender age of nine and attended many different schools since his family moved often because of his father’s work. After college, he attended acting and drama classes but ultimately he decided he’d rather write and create stories than act them out. He worked as a commercial illustrator in New York City then moved onto writing advertising slogans and then ran a small farm in Kingston, New York. After that he began helping out at a friends radio station and seeing the inner workings of writing and producing a radio show, his passion for writing non-fiction blossomed. His favorite authors include Harper Lee, Truman Capote and Stephen King.

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Preface:

In Loving Memory

of Margie Davis

‘Champions’ is a tragic and timeless love story about two people who fell in love a long time ago in a small town in upstate New York. They were made for each other and became instant soul mates. But their relationship wasn’t quite that simple. Bill was twenty-five years old, married and a father. Margie was seventeen. But there was such a strong bond between them it couldn’t be broken. A love like that doesn’t happen every day. It was a once in a lifetime love and through all the trials and tribulations, they managed to pull through and be together; at least for a while.

‘Champions’ is an undeniably sexy story of life surrounded by love, all American life and family, and the naïve dreams of a small town girl who was young and beautiful when she died. What makes ‘Champions’ different is it’s not just a story about people’s lives but it’s a tragic non-fiction story of love and life that everyone can relate to, or only imagine happening to them. It makes them realize that all of the good times of their lives may be numbered and could have a dark shadow of tragedy looming in the background. It really hits home and highlights why we shouldn’t take life or love for granted. It’s not your garden-variety love story. The circumstances and everyday life are so easy to feel at home with and relate to. This tragic true love story carries such impact that it’s not forgotten. The revolving door of emotion is so powerful one can’t stop reflecting on it.

So let’s take this journey and re-live all the hopes and dreams and good times, the growing-up and the sharing of a life that finally became a memory from the past for good. It’s funny, but if it weren’t for our memories, we’d never know those great days ever existed at all.

Today most of the people are gone. The place still exists, but in an altered state from time and progress. But if you stop and think real deep, the world that we were once so happy in, all comes back to us and is here to stay in all the days of our lives.

* * *

Last week my agent/friend turned off the lights in his bookstore, locked the door then said Lets have a smoke, then we’ll go to the Erie Café for a coffee… So Bill, off the record, like the song, what becomes of the broken hearted?

I never gave it much thought Dan, but I guess if you’re unlucky enough you just exist

How’d you come across such a great story?

I guess you have to pay an unimaginable price for it.

YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY CHAMPION

Prequel coming soon!

Acknowledgements

Champions: A Life Story has been an epic journey that could not have happened without the people who supported me along the way. I would like to thank those who took interest in this story. It was extremely hard emotionally to relive all those days of happiness once more. But it was worth the effort. After Margie’s end I felt compelled to write a tribute to her. I wanted to share her story. Those who had the good fortune to meet her would know that she had a lot of love in her heart. She was a gift to all of us. There will never be another Margie Davis. She was super special and a major loss at such a young age.

Those who knew her always said, She was so beautiful on the inside that it came through to the outside. I thought Margie’s story of love, life and death must be told.

I would like to thank Dan for his professionalism, guidance and support every inch of this book.

I want to thank Ellen for typing and sharing this story with me all along the way.

I especially want to thank my good friend Deb for her guidance, help and professionalism all through this journey.

I learned that the value of a good woman will last forever. I was blessed with knowing Margie, which continues to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Prologue:

A Day of Destiny

2011: I’ll never forget that particular day. Now that I look back on it, if one item changed or was altered even for a few minutes, it would have changed our destiny permanently.

After about four years of counseling at a divorce recovery and singles support group, I came to know a lot about people, good and bad situations, timing and fate. Part of my volunteer work was to represent our group when someone became sick or died. It would be mandatory that I visit them in the hospital and attend their funerals. I always felt honored and obligated to make it to all of those functions which led me to think about how things turn out in people’s lives despite their plans, hopes, dreams and goals. I believe we’re all on a collision course with fate. We just can’t predict the total outcome of our days whether its by accident or desire, there’s not a thing we can do about it.

For example, on my day of destiny, Pat, one of my group members, forgot to set her alarm clock and was running late to open her t-shirt and jacket store. Meanwhile, I was headed from Connecticut, about sixty miles east of the city of Middletown, where Pat’s store was located and where I had some vending machines to service on this particular day.

I always stopped at the same mini market for coffee when I got into town, you know, creature of habit, OCD, whatever. Meanwhile, little did I know, Pat was heading for the same mini market to save time from being late already.

As I was driving on my way over, my cell phone rang. But on this day, I forgot my headset so I had to pull over to answer the call in front of a Laundromat in town. A truck pulled in front of me and blocked my car in so I had to go into the store to find the driver to let me out which all took some time.

Then, just before I arrived at my favorite coffee place, the one that Pat would rush into in a few minutes, a taxi hit the car in front of me, which made me wait even longer until I finally squeezed around the accident. I might’ve already been gone when Pat got there if it wasn’t for the accident.

When I walked in and saw Pat she started telling me how she was running late and a whole story about her clock and how she left her wallet home and had to go back to get it and said her favorite coffee place where she’s been stopping for twenty years was just a little out of the way so she came here to save time so her employees wouldn’t be sitting in front of the store waiting for her.

Then she said, Oh boy Bill, I have to go right now! At that very moment, her phone rang. Hi Lois, what’s up? I’m just getting coffee and running very late, but guess who’s here with me? Bill from our support group! Then I heard Pat say, Oh my God Lois is she alright? …Bill, Lois says ‘hi’ and can you stop to the Orange Regional Hospital when you’re done today? …Georgette fell down the stairs yesterday and is injured quite bad!

Yes Pat, no problem. I’ll stop on my way out of town later today, but for now I have to go do a few stops. I’ll see you next Tuesday at the meeting.

Pat said it was a good thing she ran into me or I wouldn’t be going to see Georgette tonight.

Yes I’ll go tonight, I thought, oh, that’s just wonderful. Secretly I just wanted to go home after work. She laughed and said, Thanks Bill as she walked out of the door.

Later that day I was pulling into my last vending stop when I saw they were closed so I just headed straight for the hospital. If my stop had been open, I would’ve never run into Margie’s parents, Burt and Audrey who said they would’ve never ran into me if they hadn’t decided to go back into the cafeteria to get another cup of coffee for the road, or they would’ve been gone already.

When I got there, Burt and Audrey were in the lobby just before heading to the cafeteria as I was just coming in the door. And now that I think of it, if my last stop was open, I wouldn’t have seen them for the rest of my life! Or, if Pat had set her alarm clock and not forgotten her wallet, I wouldn’t have run into her. If the laundry truck hadn’t blocked me in, I also wouldn’t have run into her and if Lois hadn’t called as Pat was leaving I would never have gone to the hospital and if Georgette never fell down the stairs, Lois would’ve never called Pat while we were in the mini market or, for that matter, if the taxi hadn’t hit the car in front of me, Pat would’ve already rushed out of the mini-market and I would’ve just driven home as usual.

Odd, life being what it is, a series of coincidences and if only one of them had changed that day it would’ve altered the course of my life permanently. I would’ve been on my way home and Margie would’ve remained just a memory from the past and I wouldn’t have run into Burt and Audrey and seen Margie for the first time in over twenty years. Oh, and by the way, Margie just happened to be at the Orange Regional Hospital that particular day for a test. Otherwise I would have never re-met her at all!

Incidentally, Georgette was no longer in the hospital as she was released that afternoon at approximately 3:30pm around the time I got to my last stop, which was closed; and Georgette never called me to tell me she was being released that afternoon. But, thank God, or I would’ve just gone home and not to the hospital.

Eternal Love

2012: I get emotional when I write about you, my eternal love, Margie. When I found you again, we didn’t realize that it was already physically over. But our love goes on, eternally. One thing I learned, no time or distance can come between us. Not years, not even death. You’re with me sweetheart, all the days of my life. Those days are gone now but one thing’s still true, that I look and I find: I still love you...

I had a dream last night. I was at the hospital to visit you again.

I’m going to get out of here soon, let’s get a place and live together again so we can be with each other twenty-four seven like the old days.

Ok let’s do it Margie!

You know, sometimes when I look back to when we were young, wild, crazy and carefree, it makes me sad to remember those sunny days and the love that we shared for each other. It was good times in those days and you were my life, my hero and my pal. I never thought it would end the way it did. I miss you so much. You always said we were the Champions until the end; and when you knew the end was near, you said that I was your first love and that it looked like I was gonna be your last.

You smiled and sang so beautifully: "Those were the days of our lives. Those days are gone now, but one thing’s still true, that I look and I find, I still love you,"

You looked at me and asked, You won’t forget about me when I’m gone?

Of course not sweetheart, I’ll think about you all the time like I do now.

We have a family plot in St Mary’s Cemetery. Then you took my hand. I’m afraid that’s where you’ll be coming to visit me from now on.

I got choked up. That’ll be our meeting place, I said.

Yes, we’ll have a meeting place again ... like the old days. And I’ll still love you as always, Silly Boy. I’ll be waiting for you Bill, I won’t be going anywhere, so you better be there. I teared up and thought, wow, is she brave! I was missing her already.

Our capacity to love and trust each other was overwhelming. Why? I don’t really know. The historical facts will always be. But these facts don’t make world history. Our story of Margie and me just describes the lives of two everyday people who were very much in love as people were for thousands of years and always will be. But like some kind of a miracle, Margie and I just happened to be brought together and connected in the same time and place. I think we were just human beings whose best hope for love was satisfied to the fullest in a very short time. I guess that’s why I refuse to let go of that hope and love as Margie wouldn’t let go in the hospital because we both knew it should have lasted for our lifetime but didn’t.

Nowadays I try to absence myself from those memories of us. Margie took her love for me with her leaving me to hold on to my love for her until I die. The link between Margie and me can never be broken. The love that we shared, now only exists in my wild imaginings.

Every now and then I’ll drive by the old Maybrook custard stand and wonder, why not let it go and get on with life? Then there she is smiling, on a sunny day, standing in line. She turns to me saying, Give me a kiss Silly Boy then I realize once more we’ll never part in life or death from those days of our lives.

The Letter

2012: This is one of the last letters that Margie ever wrote to me, four days before she died, when she knew she wouldn’t live long:

Hi, it’s Margie,

I find it hard to say good-bye now that I found you again...so I won’t. Even if it was only for a little while, I was so happy. Thank you my love. I’ll be with you now and forever, but I know it’s time for me to go.

You need to go on with your life without me, but I’ll be the breeze that ruffles your hair, I’ll be in your sunshine, I’ll be in your snow, I’ll be in the places we used to go, Orange County Park etc. ... I’ll be the shadow in your dreams, the reflection in your loving eyes. I’ll be in your greetings and not your goodbyes. I’ll always be with you and always care, don’t cry at my gravesite, I won’t be there.

LOVE YOU,

Your MISS DAVIS

PS. I doubt if I’ll see you again, but I’ll be with you always. Please try not to be sad for me, I’ll be sad for you instead. Always know that I’ll be with you, my silly boy, my pal, we had a lifetime together and, it was good. Love ya babe, xoxoxoxo

"Those were the days of our lives, those days are gone now

But one thing’s still true, that I look and I find, I still love you"…. Margie

My Little Margie

Flashback: The phone rang. Hi honey, it’s Margie, I was fixing up the apartment, PS I LOVE IT! And it seems we are King and Queen of Maybrook, alias ‘the Champions.’ So I was looking at some brochures and, well... ah... maybe... we should think about taking a trip to Aruba?

Sure honey, but for now can we just go to the drive-in and get drunk?

Ok! But you’re funny sometimes, Silly Boy. I want to go to Aruba and you want to spend two weeks in Maybrook where I grew up, where my mom will have us running errands and carting Darlene around every day. Funny boy, ha-ha!

I’m so sorry we never made that trip to Aruba, but we made it to heaven together instead.

Flash Forward 2012: Hi Honey, I stopped by St. Mary’s today to see you. I miss you so much it hurts. You were right I have you all to myself whenever I want. Seven days a week the world races by, but I stop time; I’m with my sweetheart. As I kneel down on your grave all of the memories come back to me. I see your smile, I hear your voice, I see your face and I see you. I see you laughing at something silly, I reminisce about those sunny days and good times. You’re physically here with me and I’m mentally and physically here with you so we’re together. I can’t replace you so I have to live with us as we are. I know you’d do the same for me. And just think our names are carved in a tree with a big heart around it, at OC Park just a few miles away, from those days of our lives.

Another Note

January 2012: After you passed, your mom called me and asked me if I wanted to come over to open your bags from the hospital that Darlene just dropped off. I felt kind of nervous about it but I was honored and thanked her and told her I’d be right over. When I got there your mom opened the door. She smiled, Thanks for coming Bill, I’d rather you be here

Thank you for asking me.

I hugged your mom and tears came to her eyes.

I miss her real bad Bill.

I know Audrey, I do too.

I looked over at the table and there were three big bags on it.

Well, let’s do it. Audrey said.

I may get emotional about it.

I know Bill, I will too.

When we sat down at the dining room table I could almost see you sitting there from so many times before. It was very sad because it still smelled the same, like home. Audrey turned on the lights and sat down at the table with me. I pulled the first bag over to us and opened it. I immediately got choked up, there was the Mustang drawing that I gave to you, it was all wrinkled up and had dirt on it from one of the flowerpots in the bag. That really bothered me because you really loved that picture, just because I drew it. Tears came to my eyes as I could see you looking at that picture in your hospital bed and saying, ‘I love it!’ Little things like that made you happy and were important to you and they just threw it in a bag as if it were garbage without realizing this was someone’s life they were throwing in a bag.

There were also three flowerpots I gave you. I instantly remembered you smiling and saying ‘they‘re so pretty Bill". Now, they still had some dirt on them and some dried out brown dead leaves. One of them still had a little dead flower in it. It made me very sad. I remember it well; it was a tiny little purple flower that you liked. You were always very sweet like that. It was also brown and thrown in the bag like it died with you. I remember you tickling its ‘belly’ with your index finger and looking so cute.

The next bag I just poured out on the table. There was a blouse with kitties on it, a new pair of jeans that you filled out so well, a brand new pair of sneakers and your pocketbook with your wallet. I opened your wallet and saw your driver’s license and thought, you even looked beautiful on your driver’s license picture. Besides that, was a black and white kitty clipped onto your remote ignition keys for your Chevy Tahoe that was also covered with dirt and thrown into the bag as if it were garbage. There was twenty-eight dollars hidden in the back of your wallet. It was all in that pocketbook I got you for your last birthday. I got choked up again. Then, to make things worse, there was the brand new CD of Queen with our song Champions on it marked with a black marker that said, ‘Bill and Margie Always’. You had surprised me with it when you turned it on in your Tahoe on our last date on the way to the Hyde Park Drive-In. I was very surprised and honored and will never forget you playing it for me that day. When I asked you how you got it, you told me you had asked Darlene to get it for you at the music store at the Galleria Mall in Middletown. As it played you just squeezed my hand and smiled. The same bag was full of letters from friends and colleagues and all of the cards I got you and a very neatly folded letter that was also wrinkled and covered with dirt from the flowerpot that said ‘To my love, Bill.’ You dated it 6:30pm Wednesday and then you died before you could give it to me. By that time you were so sick you could only write. I opened it and told Audrey, Look what I found!

Oh my God Bill it’s for you, can you read it? You don’t have to Bill

No Audrey, I’ll read it to you because it’s the last letter she wrote.

You always had such beautiful handwriting; but not this time …this time, you were sick and trying to write your last letter to me.

"To my Love Bill, I feel all right now, but just in case, I need to write you this one, honey. I know you won’t ever forget me as I wouldn’t ever forget you. Its about 6:30pm Tuesday, feeling very weak, so I’ll begin… To my love Bill"

"Today is Tuesday and I hope to see you tomorrow. (But I never saw her alive again.) I’m worried that I’ll go before we see each other, so I’m trying to write to you babe. It was so good to have you back even if it was only for a short time. It was my dream-come true. Thank you babe. I can be laid to rest now knowing that you’re here with me. If I go to sleep tonight and don’t wake up at least I’ll know you’re with me so I wrote you this note. I feel so tired and weak all I can do is think of home, you and my kitty. Lately I’ve been getting mad. I wonder what I did to deserve this. But in other ways I was lucky and became a teacher like I wanted. I may not have ever been legally married, but I was always married to you, honey. I hope you know that you were the only one, ever. You were my soul and if you should travel to faraway places like Aruba, I will be with you in your mind and heart. Remember we wanted to go to Aruba? Maybe now you can go for me. I can’t think anymore, I’m getting real weak. But I’ll think of you until I can’t think anymore. OK love, I’m too tired and weak. It’s about 7:15pm. I feel like I’m falling asleep. I’m not afraid honey, I just keep thinking of you and all of those days of our lives. Good night honey, my silly boy, I love you and I also love and miss mom, dad and Darlene and my kitty Cleopatra. I miss you bad"

As I read, Audrey teared up, When you’re done Bill, I have to go lay down. I feel so bad, Burt’s taking a nap. Just let yourself out and thank you so much for coming.

* * *

Sometime around 5am that morning my honey died. Margie E. Davis was gone... my soul mate, the love of my life. With my hand shaking I picked up the letter and started reading again. It said, "PS. For my eternal love, I know I wrote that letter I gave you babe, but I couldn’t resist writing you another one. Well here I go again. Not feeling so hot tonight and I miss you bad. I hope to get to see you before... you know. I’m worried about you because I’m not feeling well and I know you’ll miss me bad, but I’ll always be with you. I tried the best I could for you babe. I have nothing to fear because you are here and you’ll always remember me..."

Love you babe,

MARGIE aka your Astro xoxoxo

Those were your very last thoughts on paper.

* * *

I was born when you kissed me, I died when you left me, I was alive when you loved me…Bill aka your Silly Boy xoxoxo.

Life Is Precious You Said,

I Never Want to Die

Flashback: I remember so well Margie’s zest for life. She always said Life is precious it’s all we have! She had so much enthusiasm about life and the future always making plans and looking forward to next year. She had a lot of respect for her life and what she planned on doing with it. She once said, Maybe I should become a nurse and help people live longer. She was a big girl with an even bigger heart. Maybe that’s why she made such a good third grade school teacher. We once saw a turtle get hit by a car and she cried, so I rubbed her shoulder and told her, It’s just a little turtle She said, Exactly and his little life was just as important to him as ours is to us, so I feel bad for him.

She was different from most people I ever knew and I was glad about that. I’ll never forget the night at the lake when she was just seventeen years old. We were camping out and playing and having fun all day. Then, out of character for her, she started getting upset. I immediately said, What’s wrong Margie?

I’m just thinking real bad thoughts she replied. Like someday, this will all be gone.

What d’ya mean?

What I mean is, we’re going to die and leave each other.

I took her in my arms, Don’t worry sweetie, we’re gonna live for a long time.

She frowned, But not forever, because nobody and nothing lasts forever. Please hug me I’m afraid of leaving you. I’m also so afraid of dying. You lose everything, they bury you in dirt, and finally everyone forgets about you. I’m so scared, I don’t ever want to die, at least not while you’re alive and leave you all alone and behind!

I’ve never seen her get that worked up about anything before let alone death!

I told her, Aww, don’t worry honey, I’ll make sure that I go first!

Noooo! I don’t want you to die either!

Honey, you’re just having a bad moment

No Bill, I’m really scared, please hug me, I’m so scared. Let me tell you a story Bill, once while I was delivering flowers inside of the funeral home in Walden, when I first got my drivers license and worked for a florist, when I went in, I was so scared there! No one was around and the doors where they have the funerals were closed so I walked down the hall saying ‘hello, hello’. I didn’t know where to leave the flowers so I started walking slowly down the hall and I opened the first door on the left and…Oh my God, there was a dead lady with hoses in her! She looked kind of purple. There was blood on the table! I slammed the door and ran, leaving the flowers on a folding chair in the hallway! I’ve never been so horrified! And now when I think about it, I’m afraid of dying, BIG TIME! Please don’t let me die

I thought it was kind of cute and naive but all so real for her. She was shaking, I hugged her tight and said, Listen, don’t worry honey, you’re way too pretty to die anyway. And besides, we have the rest of our lives together. You know I’ll always take care of you, don’t worry honey.

But you can’t honey, as tears rolled down her cheeks, Just like I can’t help you or mom, dad and Darlene or my kitty Maybe. We’re all gonna die no matter what we do

I said, Honey as I held her tight, that’s just normal, we live out our lives, then we get old and we die

"I know Bill, but I feel just like the song, ‘I don’t wanna live forever, I just wanna be forever young’, like we are now, happy, healthy, in love and having fun together. But it’s impossible and that can’t happen. We have to die!"

Listen Margie, we’re gonna get married and be together for the rest of our long lives.

Then I could see she was finally coming out of it, Ok Bill, just hold me and I’m gonna hold you to that! We’ll get married, have some babies, and slowly grow old together and still love each other more than ever. We’ll sit on our porch together years from now and look at old photos of our kids and grandkids. Then we’ll look into each other’s eyes and realize how much we still love one another, deal? She put out her hand like always. And we shook on it.

She laid her head on my chest and said, We have more than fifty years together yet babe, don’t we?

I kissed her on the cheek, Yes honey, we sure do!

Oh yeah, and P.S. Bill as she started falling asleep, Will you always take care of me?

Deal, sweetheart I looked at her face as I hugged her and thought she is my life. At that moment, she fell asleep.

2012: I remember that night at the lake so well and ironically I’m walking slowly into the same funeral home where she got so scared once, to see her just twenty-five years later on her funeral day. I got so choked up and tears rolled down my cheeks just thinking about how scared she was that night up at the lake. And here she is, right where she was so afraid to be. I felt that I didn’t take care of her like I said I would. I’ve never felt so bad in my life and never forgot that night at the lake. My poor baby girl!

True Love Found, Lost…

and Found Again

Flashback: Margie and I fell madly in love and shared the best days of our lives together. The world was our playground, and our love knew no bounds.

We became known as ‘the Champions’ and for the next few years we were inseparable. New cars, new trucks and hot ones and alcohol and drugs... We were young and foolish and ran all over the place having fun. We got our own apartment. We had it all. She looked so hot and she said she loved the way I looked too. And we made love seven days a week and nights too, and just had fun all the time! She was doing real well in school and stayed that way. We were at the lake a lot, boating and swimming or just getting drunk. I bought a black ’57 Ranchero that was loud, cool and fast, and also a 15ft sailboat.

She rocked and I rolled. The combination of her teenage exuberance and our contempt for risk and my grown-up paycheck was deadly. One thing we both loved was cars, especially old and fast ones, and we had the coolest in town. My truck, her Mustang, and especially our Ranchero, which we customized to the fullest, like no other in the world it quickly won Best in Kustom Class at the Rhinebeck Car Show. I’ll never forget driving out of the car show with Margie holding the beautiful gold trophy; with her long hair streaming back out of the window, looking every inch the queen that she was, like Cleopatra in her chariot. It was glorious.

We went many places, but her favorite was good old OC Park. She loved it there and called it her ‘playground’ or her ‘happy place’. She sang Madonna’s song ‘This Used to be My Playground’ on her last birthday in that very place years later. Little did we know it would be the last time she would ever go back there. Amazingly we were there on our very first and our very last dates. On our first date she said, I can show you my favorite place. I’ve been going there since I was about four years old with my parents and girlfriends, skiing.

I’d love to see it Margie, sounds nice.

Ok, I’ll show you how to get there.

After that, we spent years in her ‘happy place’ right to the very end. We even carved our names on about ten trees. We had picnics with friends and family, and over the years we camped out there numerous times. We played baseball and basketball and almost all the time, we took her little sister Darlene to cookout with us or we just went there to hold hands and look at the lake, hug each other and kiss.

Sometimes we would walk all over the park all day and then get ready to go to the Maybrook Drive-In, another special place where we shared many nights together.

The drive-in was right behind her house. I used to say, This is very close to take you home! and she would say, Too close! and smile. She always brought her giant plaid quilt with her ‘blankie’ as she called it, and made me get under it with her and get ‘snuggles’. Sometimes we watched the cheesy horror flicks because they made us laugh. One time she said, They’re running a special at the drive-in tonight, FIVE cheesy horror flicks instead of two. It’s an all-nighter! She laughed, So let’s get our gear! Which meant beer, Slim Jims, etc.

For a dollar twenty-five a carload, you couldn’t beat it! Another night she told me, These movies are real trash! So why don’t we just play with each other instead of watching this crap?

Ok, that sounds great Astro, I’d rather play with you anyway!

It was about nine o’clock and still very hot out in August when she threw me down on the truck seat and jumped on top of me and proceeded to attack me. She said, You never met the Nasty Girl M?

No. Who’s that?

I don’t know, I just made her up just now.

She took off her bra and stuck my hand under her blouse. After about an hour of that, she said, Let’s get out of here and go to OC Park where I have more room to attack you, honey, I want to get super nasty!

Well nowadays, that ole drive-in is as gone as she is. In place of it is a senior citizens housing complex. You would never know it had once been there, but I do, because I remember the old drive-in well. The smell of the snack bar, the popcorn, the French fries, hamburgers and hot dogs frying on a hot summer night, the sounds of kids playing on the swings and last but not least the feel of my girl Margie in my arms.

Flashback: Drifting Apart

We thought it would never end. But of course it did. Time passed. She grew older, and went away to college. She went from a teenager to adult while I just got older.

Late in our relationship I foolishly began to convince myself that if she was going to be a schoolteacher she had to grow and maybe live her own life for a while. I came to think it was selfish of me keeping her all to myself for all her important years, in her late teens and so on. I kept her to myself and she loved it but now I thought the time had come for her to spread her wings and grow for a while without me.

Margie and her best friend Kim always wanted to go to California, but they hadn’t done that yet and I think it was because of me. I felt bad about that and knew that she needed to go to college to become a schoolteacher. She had a scholarship that came easy to her but she hadn’t used it yet. I always supported her in anything she wanted to do. But, I didn’t want to hold her back and I felt bad like I had taken part of her youth. I just loved her too much to do that anymore.

I used to ask her Are you happy with me Astro? I had nicknamed her Astro from the Jetsons cartoon TV show because she sat high in the cab of my truck. It was my pet name for her and she just called me Silly Boy.

Why do you ask?

Because I love you.

And you know how much I love you, Silly Boy, she would say.

So Astro, sometimes I feel that I ask too much of you.

She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and said, No way honey, I love you, you know.

I know, honey, but we agreed from the very beginning that I wanted a full life for you and that nothing would ever come between us, and that one day we would take a break and let you fulfill your dreams. I’ll take care of business and you’ll become a schoolteacher and then we’ll get married and have a baby like you wanted.

Sometimes what you want doesn’t work out exactly the way you want it to, but I’m happy the way it is. Don’t tell me you’re trying to get rid of me Silly Boy?

I would never get rid of you honey,

But we gradually took care of our own businesses, really just to give her a break from living my life. One thing I knew with all the powerful and eternal love we shared we didn’t even worry about it. We went our own ways with no problem and didn’t even consider us breaking up because that would be a foolish thought.

She ultimately took her trip to California with Kim. Kim called me one night and told me how she got a little upset on the beach when she had some drinks. And Margie told Kim that she thought I was trying to get rid of her. Kim told her no way, that wasn’t so.

We always loved each other. It was a matter of fact. But the phone calls thinned out and she went to college and then later came back to Maybrook and became a schoolteacher. I found out from her colleague’s years later that she kept my picture on her desk and told her students, friends and colleagues that she believed that there was only one true love in the world for her. There was no substitute, and hers was always Bill, the guy in the picture. And if we didn’t ever get married or get back together we would remain the same in each other’s thoughts every day and nothing would change that. And if we ever ran into each other again we would be together forever, for eternity. She said I was her first and only love and I’d be her last whether we’re together or not. There’s no replacement or substitute for our kind of love, she told everyone.

She avoided tracking me down in case I had gotten involved with someone. But she always said she would have open arms if we ever met again and she was not going to try and fake it with someone else.

She bought her own ranch house and moved her little sister in as a roommate. And she was happy with the way her life was, with lots of girlfriends and family. She told her friends she was the luckiest person in the world with all the memories of the past. I will love Bill until I die, she said, and after in heaven like Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart she told Darlene, and if she can’t have the relationship she always had, then the memories of it would do just fine. You can’t replace the perfect relationship with a substitute.

With all these years behind us we