WP Prompt asks us to write about  our first crush-  m’kay.

Photographer Unknown

His name was Darrin and we met for the first time in the third grade.

We were both 8 years old and the one thing we seemed to have in common was our ability to get into trouble and get right back out of it before we were caught. Also, he got high scores for math and I got high scores for reading and spelling.

For some reason, we didn’t exactly click and we weren’t exactly friends. I mean. He was a boy.

Regardless of that barrier, during recess Darrin and I would gravitate slowly to the monkey bars- like convicts in a prison yard  we sort of skirted along the fence  line with one eye on each other and the other eye on the kids around us.

Eventually we ended up on the monkey bars, almost side by side where we would hang upside down by our knees and sway a little and from the sides of our metal cage. Not a single word passed between us-

until one day he asked me

” Do you really want to be an astronaut? ”

I told him yes. I planned to fly my ship and not only was I going to the Moon, I was going to head out to Mars.

He looked at me. His eyes were shining.

” What do you want to be? ” I asked him.

Darrin said, ” I want to be a lizard so that I can touch my eyeball with my tongue. ”

I reached for his hand and he reached for mine and we have been friends now for over 50 years,