The Persistence of Time

 

“Come on! Let’s go!” I whisper to Robyn.  She grabs my hand in hers and we run off into the woods, leaving our cousins behind in a hurry.  We run as fast as we dare through the towering birch trees, their white bark reflecting the light of the full moon overhead.  When we reach our private picnic place we’re both out of breath and we fall onto the ground as a heap of laughing teenagers.

            The laughing brings on tickling and even louder laughing. “Stop! Eric. Oh my God!”  She batters me with her hands playfully until I stop, surrendering to the flurry of blows.  We’re lying there beside each other, our arms holding each other close.  The sudden silence makes our breathing seem even louder and heavier than it is.   “You’re such a brute,” she says as she leans close to me and we kiss softly.  Our breathing relaxes but our hearts are beating faster.  The kiss ends, and the silence becomes even more overwhelming.

            We lie there, looking into each other’s eyes, knowing that our time is almost up.  The summer is ending and tomorrow Robyn will be heading back to Buffalo.  The summer went by so fast for us that it hardly seemed more than a weekend.  We had met swimming out in the lake near my grandparents’ cabin.  I went to Michigan every summer and I knew most of the people on our part of the lake, but Robyn had come with an aunt I didn’t know very well.  We hit it off pretty well, and we ended up spending a lot of our time together.  She was going to be a sophomore and I was going to be a junior, but that hardly mattered out at Black Lake, far away from the romantic politics of high school.

            Robyn was cute, pretty even, in a non-exotic way.  There were other girls my age on the beach and some of them were much more attractive physically, but Robyn had a way about her that drew my attention more readily than the others.  I suppose the biggest thing was that she smiled a lot, and what a smile it was.  When the corners of her lips would rise, a twinkle would light her blue eyes and her face would light up like a child seeing a pile of presents Christmas morning.  She had that very smile on at the moment and I was powerless before it.

            “So when are you leaving tomorrow?”  My voice comes out as a whisper, but anything more might have ruined the atmosphere.

            “Early I think.  Before noon I’m sure,” she says as she releases me and lies on her back, looking up at the moon and stars.  The tall trees form a dark frame through which celestial bodies parade before us.

            “Maybe I can see you before you go?”

            “Probably not.  You know how mad my aunt was when we got back last night.  You’d think she was never a teenager the way she was carrying on.”

            “Well you know we were two hours late getting home.” I can still remember the look on her aunt’s face.  I was a little afraid that there was a gun near bye.

            Robyn rolls her eyes and says, “yeah, and you missed the two hour lecture I got after you were gone. ‘A lady doesn’t stay out late with strange boys.  Heaven forbid I have to explain to your mother how I let you get pregnant.’”  Robyn rolls over and looks at me, “if only she knew how little danger there was of that.” 

            “Yeah, with the raging horde of cousins following us everywhere we could hardly find the time if we wanted to.”  We laugh a little, and then the silence returns.

            “You know I’m sure gonna miss you when you’re gone.”  Robyn’s hand slips into mine and she gives it a gentle squeeze.

            “I’m going to miss you too.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my summer.  It just won’t be the same without you.”  We turn and look at each other. “I suppose I’ll just have to do more fishing.”

            She tries to let go of my hand and push away, “Oh!  You and your fishing!  You’d better miss me more than that.”  She affects a pouting look and her words drip with sorrow. “I expect you to pine away for me, never to be happy again…or at least until the summer is over.”

            I climb over her quickly; straddling her hips I hold her down and tickle her mercilessly.  She laughs and struggles until tears stream down her cheeks. “Oh I’ll pine away for you.  I won’t have anyone else to tickle like this!”  After a few moments she pushes me off and we catch our breath.

            “Rrrrooooooobbbyyyyynnn.   Rrrrooooooobbbyyyyynnn.”

            “Damn, it’s your cousin.”  I stand up and offer Robyn my hand.

            “My aunt must have sent her off looking.”  Robyn takes my hand and gets to her feet. “I swear that woman is haunting me.”

            “Rrrrooooooobbbyyyyynnn.”

            “I’m coming!  Tell aunt Mary that I’ll be home in just a second!”  Robyn yells into the faceless darkness.

            “Where are you?”  I put my hand over my mouth to hide my smirk.

            “Just go tell her!” And then in a quieter voice, “I guess I’d better go. Walk me home?”  I nod, take her hand and we start heading back through the woods.

            We get outside her driveway and she turns to face me. “Thank you for the great summer Robyn.”  I put my hands around her waste and pull her close to me.

            “Thank you, Eric.  You helped make the summer bearable.”  She smiles and tilts her head back a little.  I lean forward and kiss her.  Our kiss is slow and patient.  We both know this will be the last one and neither of us is anxious for it to end.

            “Rrrooobbbyyynnn!” her aunt bellowed from the doorway, ending the kiss before either of us was ready.

            “Bye Eric, I’ll write.”

            “Me too.”

            “You know what?”  She pulls away from me and backs toward the house. “I wish we could have found the time.”