My first kiss

It was summer time and my youth would soon be coming to an end. Fall would bring me to the halls of Mancos Elementary to start the first grade. This summer had to be one where I prepared myself to enter the arena with all other big people. Our neighbor to the south of us had her granddaughter, a girl my age, staying with her for the summer. Nancy wasn't like my sister or any other of the girls I knew. She came right over and wanted to play baseball with us. We were reluctant to let her play, until she knocked me down and took the ball away from me. She said she wouldn't give it back unless we let her play....she became the first baseman. This must have been symbolic because later on in the summer, Nancy would be the first girl I ever got to first base with. Nancy loved to climb trees, throw rocks and dig for worms. She was just like one of the guys...only she wasn't a guy and I knew it, even though I was only six. Our club wasn't very big, but Nancy fit right in and we spent many hours together every day. We talked about frogs and sports, little brothers and marshmellows. We played red rover and kick the can, catch and tag. Nancy had worked her way into my life, but still, I knew she was a girl...a girl I was beginning to like a whole lot. One afternoon as the sun was going down and the light of day was escaping fast from our back yard. Dennis, Nancy and I decided it would be a fun time to put together our make-shift tent. We always had to make do with whatever articles we could find when we embarked on some new experience like this one. We grabbed a big, black plastic tarp that Mom had used to cover vegetables earlier in the year. To make it like a teepee tent we used Dad's step ladder as the center pole and we gathered up quite a few rocks to use as the securing poles at different areas out side on the plastic. By the time we got our little tent all put together the sun was down and darkness had settled in. I was kind of feeling like we were our own little family and we had built our first home. I suppose it might have been only chivalrous and proper if I carried Nancy across the threshold of our new house, but I was just feeling a bit too awkward to ask her..."My beloved Nancy, let me carry you, my love into our new abode..."I did have a plan though and put it into action as soon as we were inside the tent. Just as the last opening of our tent was being closed I made a quick gander to see exactly where my true love was situated. With the closing of that last flap at night time, the inside of our tent was completely black. I moved over to where I remember Nancy being situated with my lips in a complete and full pucker...I made contact. Where, I wasn't sure.I immediately felt the hot flash of pain on the left side of my face and only a second later could hear and see that our tent was being destroyed. She had hit me!! It wasn't a girlie slap either. Remember, she was just like one of us guys. My face started to throb immediately.
"Hey!!! What was that?? Nancy shouted out. "Some one kissed me? Who was it?
Even though it was dark the expression on all of our faces was easy to discern. Dennis had a look of bewilderment. What was Nancy talking about?? Who kissed me?
Nancy had a look of fiery indignation...how dare any body kiss any of the one of the other of us when we were all just one of the guys? I'm not sure what kind of look I had. I just knew my face hurt and I hoped it was dark enough that no one could see the welt shaped knuckle indentation that surely was lodged there in the side of my face.
"Well!!! Which one of you kissed me???" demanded Nancy.
I could see Dennis was afraid to get himself pummeled so he spoke up the truth immediatly..."It wasn't me!!" he said.
Nancy turned her fiery eyes my way and I could see she still had her fist clenched ready to club me when I confessed my big sin."It wasn't me!!" I squawked out.
Nancy stood there looking back and forth at me and then Dennnis. Me and then Dennis, trying to figure out who was lying. All she had to do was check the side of my face to see the perfect mark match of that fisted hand, but she didn't. I was half tempted to ask her if she had kissed herself, seeing how neither Dennis nor I had kissed her, but I could see she was in no mood for any of my jokes. Nancy spun on her heels and stomped back over to her grandmother's house not to play with us again during what short time was left of that particular summer.
Dennis turned his bewildered gaze back my way. "What was that all about," he asked?
"Darned if I know," I replied, "Is that what they mean when they say girls are so unpredictable?
""Must be," said Dennis.
The next day when we got up I had a bit of black eye and that undeniable welt on the left side of my face.Dennis took one look and me and gave me a disappointed look...."Liar"...and that was all he said.