Sentimental Water//Life at the Cascades

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I suggested we go to Tower Grove-between Grand and Kingshighway.  But unexpected time constraints led us Forest Park.  The craving for popsicles and time from work consumed us.  So we bought the treats from Shop-N-Save and headed towards our destination, where it was free.  No price of admission or loud music like the last place we hung out.  Just natural noises that hummed tunes of spring-audible enough to value, yet low enough for us to talk.  We parked near Norman Probstein.

“What flavor do you have?” I asked.   We were pulling out fruit bars from an Edy’s variety pack.   Each bar had antioxidants-a new product of Edy’s.  “I can’t tell.” Jay said.   “It’s dark out here.  I think it’s ‘Goji White Grape’.”

“I got the red one.”  I always choose “red”.

Jay got a phone call and I sat on a bench near The Cascades.  It had the least amount of spider webs, and a good view of the pond.  As Jay talked on his iPhone, I thought of my times there, on Lagoon Drive.  I had often visited this pond- climbed it’s cascades in the warmer months, racing to it before the first frost.  It is by far my favorite place in the park.  Jay got off the phone, then sat down next to me.

“When I was little,” I began.  “I thought I’d have my first kiss here.”

“You did?” I nodded to assure him.

“I don’t remember my first kiss,” he said.

“I think mine was on a school bus.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Some kid. Jonnie. Made me kiss him.” I looked away.  Jay said something, but I wasn’t listening.  I was recalling Jonnie’s face.  Resenting him.  And I could still sense his presence as a bully.

The conversation shifted to memories of high school and forms of “self-defense.”  Jay was taught to fight, while I was taught to be passive.  “If one person got in a fight, all of us had to fight.” Jay recalled, referring to his family.  “My mom didn’t allow us to let each other get bullied.”  I reached for another Popsicle.  This time ‘Goji White Grape’.  We were trying each of the three flavors.  Now Jay was trying a “red one”.

More was said about Jay and the reasons for fighting in his youth.  I listened and understood, envying him slightly.  Learning to fight would have helped me with things in school, like reserving my first kiss for The Cascades, instead of having it taken from me on a bus after school.  Perhaps I could have kissed someone special the first time.  Someone, instead of Jonnie.

Written as a Proposed Feature for Alive Magazine