Tales Of An Enchanted Twelve by H.L. Dowless - HTML preview

The Tarnished Enigma

 

Yes the year was 1973, probably one of the best in my entire life. The school year had went very well in that happy little one room building right beside the main building. That is where we had the first and the second grades back then. My teacher was named Mrs McNeil, and she had to be the very best teacher in the entire school system. She was a medium sized gray haired lady who had a warm, caring personality, but at the same time, could be firm and really strict. She also had her own method of handling discipline, and later on I was to admire her very much for that.

For example, there was one time that I can remember well, that a fellow student named Darrel got in an argument with me about the type of game that we were to play, and he threatened to attack me for disagreeing with him. So I told her about this threat, and she simply said to me; “Well, you need to handle your own situations, since in real life you will be forced to deal with other much more serious situations.”

So I did so, I followed her advice. When he tried to force me into a particular game with him, I protested and held true to my own direction in spite of his forceful demands, and he eventually attacked me for doing so.

We fell by the bushes in the middle of the play ground right beside the nursery building. I will never forget it. We wrestled furiously right there by the bushes, where no one could ever hope to see us punching the lights out of each other from any direction that they so desired to look. Before long he sat on top of me, saying through tightly clenched teeth; “Now white boy, what are you going to do? I am your master, and I am going to tell you what you will do, and you will do just what I tell you to do, or else! Do you have that? Do you understand?”

I turned my head to the right side, closing my eyes tightly, fully expecting to take a solid punch right into the side of the head.

What am I going to do now, I thought, as I lay pinned into the earth with this fat black pig sitting on top of my stomach? I prayed silently with my eyes closed very tight. Please Lord, get me out of this mess. I opened my eyes, and behold, the answer to my prayer now sat right before me, but tucked away just enough inside a small bunch of green grass. But it was a very strange answer. It was a foil pie pan with a large snakelike pile of human fecal waste wound right into the very center.

The idea struck me just like a sword of light from the sky. Just as soon as I had the thought, I acted on it. It was like my limbs moved with out my mental control, and I suddenly grabbed the front of his shirt with my left hand, shaking him violently, then reached over with my right hand, smashing Darrel right in the face with the loaded pan, just as he turned to see what was coming at him. I rubbed the pan hard right into the mouth and nose of his face. Darrel collapsed from his perch upon the center of my breast, rolling onto the ground, screaming, spitting, gagging, and crying. I jumped up immediately and backed off, so as not to give him the opportunity to retaliate against me. He then raced to the teacher, screaming with disgust and sheer rage.

“Look what he has done to me! Just look what that white boy has done to me,” Darrel screamed to the teacher!

“Now now,” spoke Mrs McNeil with gentleness in her voice. “Lets just go back to the school room and get cleaned up, and I will call your mother, if you want. Do you want that?”

“Yes,” Darrel sniveled.

“Who did this to you,” asked Mrs McNeil in a gentle voice?

“He did,” replied Darrel, pointing in my direction. “That white boy yonder did this to me!”

“Well, go on back to the room and I will be there very soon.”

As Darrel made his way back, she walked over to me standing in the distance watching the events that unfolded before me.

“Did you do this, boy,” she asked?

“Yea,” I replied. “I did it. He deserved it. He was on top of me trying to beat me up. Any way, I handled my situation myself. I seriously doubt that I will ever have anymore problems with him ever again. Don't you think?”

Mrs McNeil then stuck her nose up in the air and huffed, stomping off toward the old school room that sat in the distance.

Later on the entire class returned back into the school room. Class had been going on for an hour or so, and I saw Darrel's mother appear at the door asking for him. “What happened,” she asked?

“Well Darrel had a little accident,” replied Mrs McNeil with a warm patient smile. “Get him to tell you all about it on the way home.”

So the two made their way out the door and into his mother's big blue 1973 Marquis Mercury. I did not see him any more for at least a week.

My ride home on the big yellow bus was a very happy ride. We made our way through the sleepy May-vile town settlement deep in the wood. We then slowly made our way down the old Twisted Oak road toward the brick ranch style home where I lived at the time.

As the bus made it's exit from the May-vile city limits, a slender girl with shoulder length dark brown, almost black hair that always appeared to be wet, made her way toward me as I sat alone in the bus seat. She was not particularly much to look at, but she had a very pleasant warm personality. She always held to the happy positive side of life, even when every thing else seemed to be going wrong around her. Joy seemed to bubble over within her, no matter what the weather was doing or what the circumstances around her. She was twelve at the time, and was a grown woman old enough to be my mother as far as I was concerned. The very sight of me always seemed to bring out a certain special happiness from deep inside her, it always seemed to me.

“Well hello there, you good looking thing,” she would always say as she eased into the seat beside me. “Are you my little boy friend?”

I would smile broadly as I felt the heat move up through my face. I felt as though I wanted to melt into the very seat that I sat in, but wanted to stand up tall at the same time. It was a very strange feeling to me. I nodded my head up and down, feeling like my face was glowing bright red.

“Yea, I thought so. I got you a nice present,” said she, as she handed me a piece of thin clear wrapped plastic with the chocolate cake bound tightly inside. “You like that,” said she as she gently kissed my blushing cheek? “See how nice it is to be my boy friend? See the good things that I can do for you,” she whispered into my ear? She kissed my cheek right beside my ear where she knew no body would ever see her doing so. I could not help but to smile very broadly.

She sat up tight beside me. “Well, how is school going now for you,” she would ask?

“Going well,” I replied.

“Oh really, you haven't gotten into any trouble, now have you?”

“Well, sort of, but not really, it all ended well, it seemed to me. So it must all be well, as far as I can tell.

“Well what happened,” she asked with a smile and a laugh?

So I proceeded to tell her about the incident with Darrel. I told her about me hitting him right smack dab in the face with the pie pan full of poo. She fell out into floor of the bus with laughter, well almost, but she still seemed to laugh about it all for what seemed like an hour.

“ I cannot believe that you did that to him. How could you be so mean? What did your teacher, Mrs McNeil, do,” she asked?

“Nothing, just sent him to the room to get cleaned up and called his mother.”

“That's so funny. I have never heard of such a thing before,”she laughed as she replied.

“What will your mama say?”

“Nothing, just as long as I won the fight. Had I lost she would have beat me for sure then,” I lied jokingly.

Sonya continued to laugh as the bus soon neared her stopping point. The mail box at the end of a long dirt road soon came into view. The brakes of the bus squeaked as it slowed into a stop. Deep inside, my heart sank as it did so, and I wished to take her home with me, but knew that I never would be able to. She was such a warm jolly person that no body could help but to be over come by her presence.

“Well now, love, I guess I gotta go. You'll still be mine in the morning, won't you?”

I smiled broadly, feeling my face burn with heat as I nodded my head up and down. I silently hated the fact that she did not whisper those words into my ear, and instead spoke them aloud so that everyone else on the bus could hear. I think that she intended for them all to hear.

“Bye now,” I said with a shy wave.

She exited the bus with her tight cut off jeans hugging her slender thighs, dancing away as she walked. I gazed down the dirt road as she walked. I wondered where her house was as the road ahead went straight off into the distance for a hundred yards or so into the thick woods, then curved sharply to the right, disappearing into the timber.

Every morning that year she was to sit with me on the bus. I sometimes pretended not to want her to sit with me, but in secret, I really wanted her there.

“Yea, you'll pledge your self to me one day. I will win ya over,” she would say. I would shake my head from side to side rapidly. “Yea you will! Yea you will! You'll see! You'll see,” she would say.

For many days we laughed and talked about animals, situations with parents, situations at school and with our friends. Soon days turned into weeks and weeks into months. Now I sat beside her and was not afraid of being picked on by the other kids on the bus. I really did not even care what they thought.

“What are you doing today at lunch recess,” she would whisper into my ear?

“Nothing,” I replied.

“Can you meet me behind your classroom? You'll not see me until you step into the edge of the woods. Don't let any body see you, ya hear now,” she whispered into my ear?

“Yea, sure, don't worry, I'll be there.”

My heart would race in anticipation, and it seemed like lunch time would never get there. I could hardly sit still in my seat. I went into the lunch cafeteria and pretended to eat, eating only some small portions of my food, then giving the remainder to a classmate named Marvin who was very overweight and always hungry.

I slowly walked through the huge double glass doors into the outside, trying to appear as though I was not heading anywhere in particular. I turned right, then I made my way passed the old physical ed supply room, and then around the corner. In the distance I saw the old wood framed classroom, sitting quietly beside the baseball field in the edge of the woods. Looking at it felt strange with no people moving around there. I glanced over my shoulder both ways and then before me both ways, and no body was paying any attention to me, it seemed. So I slowly made my way toward the old one room classroom.

As I neared the building there appeared no sign of activity at all, but I remembered her words, whispering as she told me to step into the edge of the woods. I glanced around again, and no one had noticed me I reassured myself, so I gingerly stepped into the woods edge, and on still farther in. I neared a huge live oak tree ahead that appeared to be some four feet in diameter with massive drooping limbs, and as I eased around it, this slink vixen eased from around it in my direction, grasping me with her arms and kissing me warmly in my ears.

“So I see that you did not deny me after all. You'll be glad that you did not. You know what I mean?”

“No,” I shook my head from side to side.

“You ever been kissed,” she purred.

“Here, let me show you.” Her warm lips gently caressed mine. I felt that warm surge of heat move from the pit of my stomach up into my face.

“It's like this,” she said as she kissed me again. “I'll christen you yet. The other boys will be jealous and will not know what to think if they knew. You will have tasted the red wine, and they only be able to imagine what it is like.”

“I'll never tell”

“Not even to your best friend Fish?”

“No, not even to my best friend Fish.”

“What about to your best friend C.L.,” she asked as she kissed my lips gently but much deeper and with much more passion?

“No, not even to C.L.,” I struggled to say in between her heavy panting, kissing embraces.

Gently she took my left hand and led me a few yards up on the other side of the huge oak tree. We eased into an area that had thick bushes on either side and behind it. On the other side was the huge oak with the great outspreading limbs. In the empty space I saw a six by six blue baby blanket laying flatly on the ground.

“Come here,” she whispered. “I fixed a place.”

She embraced me again, kissing me passionately and very deeply. My heart raced with excitement and some fear, but not as much as some might think. We gingerly eased down in our embrace, making our way upon the blanket.

“Let me be the one,” she whispered while continuing to kiss me warmly.

Gingerly her right hand eased upward, gently unbuttoning the top most button of her dress. Finally her small breasts were exposed. She did not wear any bra, and I was to never know the difference until many years later.

“Do you like what you see? Now what you are supposed to do is to kiss them, if you want to be a real lover now.”

So I did so, very slowly, just like she told me to, being very careful to caress each tender nipple with my hot tongue.

“That's right...yea... that feels so good. I love it when you do that,” she would purr as we embraced.

She gingerly seized my left hand, placing it between her thighs.

“Rub gently, but firmly, like this,” she said, as she moved my hand up and down while still in the firm grasp of her own. “Yea, that's right... That's right...”

Then I felt her hand move slowly toward the center of my thighs, and it caused those surges of heat and excitement to rise until I felt as though it would explode.

“Yea, I can see that you want me, but you learn fast. You learn so very fast.”

Her hands then moved, slowly pulling down her silken underwear.

“Do you like that? Let me show you,” she said as she eased my own cotton briefs down. I struggled to get them over my brogans, but somehow I managed to do so.

“Yea,” she whispered. “That's right, now take my hands. Come here, to me, here...”

I eased on top of her feeling her warm body beneath mine, feeling her warm breath in my face.

“That's right,” she would whisper. “Just allow everything to fall into place on it's own. That's right... oh... that's right... oooooh... that's right now..... You've got it....just go with the feeling now.”

Well the months had turned into a year, and it was October, and nearing Christmas of 1973 going into 1974. I couldn't have loved Sonya more that year, and I looked forward to seeing her on the bus. We had spent many hundreds of times behind the old oak tree by now. She said that I loved like an old hand, and she pronounced me an expert in the field of love, a master of the craft. She was funny, pretending to want to stick me with the needle that she used to give herself insulin. It scared me. I trusted her, but did not dare push my luck.

“You're the best. You know that, don't you? Several men visit me from time to time, but none have the up on you, cause I trained you right. I got you broke now, boy. You ain't just the little boy down the road any more. Please don't be mad now. There is no reason for you to fear.”

Well September came and went, moving right into October. October was now half over with, and the rains had begun to pour. I still had to ride that big yellow bus to school, Mama saw to it that I did so. Monday morning rolled around, like it always does after Sunday. I was excited on the inside about seeing Sonya that morning. When the bus stopped at the mail box by the road, the other girls, Faye, Brenda, and Chrystal got on, but there was no Sonya.

“Where is Sonya,” I asked?

“ We don't know. Maybe she is sick, or just did not feel like coming to school,” they said. “Why, why are you so anxious to see her?”

They all then looked at each other and laughed heartily.

Monday turned into Tuesday, and Tuesday turned into Wednesday, then Friday finally came, but no Sonya at all.

“Where is Sonya,” I inquired?

“We don't know, but that is strange for her to be out like that. We will walk down to her house after school and let you know, come Monday again. Ya hear? Can you wait that long?”

They all laughed out loud as they made their exit from the bus.

All weekend long I sat and worried. Finally Monday came, but no Sonya.

“The whole community is worried about that girl, and we are all searching,” the girls told me. “But we don't know anything as of yet.”

When the week ended, I rode the bus home that day and felt as though I was all alone. My mother approached me when I walked through the door of the house, and asked me; “Have you heard the news about that little girl up the road? She is lost and the police are looking for her. She has been gone about two weeks now, and they still can't find her.”

A few days passed, then she said to me... and I will never forget her words.

“Well, they found that poor little girl today. She was dead in a tobacco barn at the first bend in the dirt road over there where she lived. She was severely diabetic, you know. They done a test on her... and found out that she was seven months pregnant! The parents didn't even know it. Can you believe that? This girl was only thirteen years old, and pregnant! My oh my, just what in heavens name is this world coming to? The pregnancy caused her to go into a diabetic comma.

They don’t even know who the daddy of the baby is. Is that just not a shame? They first thought that it was some body in the family, but that turned up negative. They thought then, that it just might be somebody from the black community a half mile or so up the road from her, but that proved negative as well. Now they think that it may be some body from the old center road community, an hours walk from where she lived.

They have found a trail leading to the barn through a thick cover of woods, but they have no suspects. The trail just divided about a third of the way from the center roads community, and then dead ended at the creek. The profile was an unemployed man around twenty or so. Several that fit the profile in the area were questioned, but none were a match up. So the book on the case, for now, is closed. I hope they catch this older man. Goodness knows, he knew better than to take advantage of a little girl like that.... meeting her in a tobacco barn, for crying out loud.....!”

 

Today the rain is pounding the window pane where I now sit, thinking deep inside my self. It has been well over thirty years, and even though the pain has long since fled from my heart, deep inside my mind she still holds a place all of her on. Even though all of those of whom had once questioned things are now dead, I stil