SUZANNE

SUZANNE

CARICATURE #023

Drawn 1997-06-14-221

      With a flourishing script, she wrote into my yearbook. I gaped at her, the most beautiful girl in school was signing my 1962 yearbook because I asked her to. I couldn’t believe it. She was two years older than I was. She was a graduating senior while I was just a 10^th grader. I hoped she didn’t notice how stupefied I was. She was way out of my social order. She was of the elite society, very pretty, and highly intelligent.

      Then, abruptly she asked “Where’s your brother, Danny?”

      “I haven’t seen him in the past two years. Where is he?” she queried.

      “He moved to Dallas two years ago”. I said.

      “I’m sorry to hear that”, she said. “I always wanted him to ask me out. I really liked him. Do you care if I sign your yearbook for him?”

      “I don’t mind a bit”.

      “You promise you’ll show it to him”.

      She signed for Danny as well, and turned to the mob who was begging her to sign their yearbook. I was stunned. She had wanted to date my brother, and he had the nerve to move to Dallas. I couldn’t wait to tell him. She could easily have been a movie star queen. She was that pretty.

      It was six months before I saw Danny again. I told him about the incident and showed him what she’d written. Naturally, he wanted to move back to Wewoka to find her, but he was now a High School dropout, and she was already in college somewhere.

      Danny would later finish High School with a GED, but for now his only comfort was to stare at the words she had written to him: “Love Always, Suzanne.”

✥

the wordmaster says:

❝Wish I had been her age.❞