markwildyr.com,
Post #68
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| Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons |
“Waders” received some nice comments on my personal email
address. Strange how things work. Page views from the US barely outstripped
Spain over the past 30 days with China falling third. But high up there on the
list were hits from “Unknown Region.” This raises a question in my mind. Can aliens be reading my posts? You know,
otherworldly aliens. If so, know that you’re welcome.
This week, let’s try another trip down memory lane.
*****
MARCO?
POLO!
If you want my advice, don’t
ever get tagged as part of a game. I’m Marco Benson, and my best buddy is
Robert Polo. Need I say more? Nobody ever tags me as Benson—except the baseball
coach. And nobody—but nobody—ever calls him Robert or Rob or Bob or Bobby.
I believe that if anyone asked
my friend if he had a habit, he’d say “Marco.” If asked the same question, I’d
come right back with “Polo.” We were not only best buds for life, we were
habits. That’s a hard bond to break.
Somebody nearly did it our
senior year. This gal named Sissy Rawls made a serious move on him. Of course,
he responded. And it worked out okay for a while because he always got me to
double with them with Mary Anne Winchester. We had some fun together, but when
I went home after a double, I’d get to reliving things and realize it was Polo who
kept the evening going… at least for me.
Then Sissy started making
demands. She wanted him to herself, not as a part of a quartet. So far as I
knew Mary Anne was perfectly happy with the way things were. Why did Sissy have
to upset the apple cart?
But upset it, she did. First,
she put her foot down about the spring prom. If Mary Anne and I wanted to go,
we could do it on our own. Despite my initial disappointment, that didn’t turn
out too bad because we hooked up at the dance.
I felt a little funny when
they pulled away in Polo’s old Chevy coupe, but that resolved itself when we
ended up parked beside them up on the bluff with half a dozen other cars. They
were still there when Mary Anne and I pulled away. I felt a little funny down
in my guts as I lay in bed that night wondering if Polo was still up on the
bluff with Sissy. Why did I care? I don’t know, but I did.
The next morning, Polo said
Sissy had a conniption fit when we parked beside them last night. My mother’s
always having a “conniption” fit, but I couldn’t tell the difference between
that and a regular fit. But that’s what my dad always said… and so did Polo. So…
conniption fit, it was.
The school year rocked on, and
I mean “rocked” as in a rocking chair. Several times I found myself at functions
without my buddy and felt at sea. Occasionally, he made comments that led me to
believe he was feeling the same.
One day at the beginning of
November, we found ourselves sitting together in the gym after a workout with
nobody else around. Comfort and companionship almost overwhelmed me
in the first five minutes as we chattered like old times. Then we fell silent.
That was comfortable, too. Used to happen all the time. Finally, Polo sat up
straight on the bleacher seat beside me.
“You know what?”
“What?”
“I’m tired of it all.”
“Tired of what?”
“Sissy and dates and walking
the straight and narrow.”
“Me, too.”
He looked straight into my
eyes. “Marco, I’m not up for the winter prom.”
“No?”
“No. I’m up for you.”
Wooo!
Sounds as if a new experience is about to enter Marco's and
Polo’s lives. What happens next? I’ll leave that to your imagination… or
perhaps remembrance of something similar in your own background.
Amazon permits you to read a short passage of my novels, Cut Hand and Johnny Two-Guns.. I believe the STARbooks-published River Otter, Echoes of the Flute, and Medicine Hair are still up. I would
like to get the final book in the Cut Hand Series, Wastelakapi… Beloved, published, but it’ll take some help from
readers to get Dreamspinner interested.
My contact
information is provided below in case anyone wants to drop me a line:
Website and blog: markwildyr.com
Email: markwildyr@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.wildyr
Twitter: @markwildyr
The
following are buy links for CUT HAND:
And now my mantra: Keep
on reading. Keep on writing. You have something to say, so say it!
Until next time.
Mark
New posts at 6:00
a.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month.
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