Thursday, April 10, 2008

"taken"

I've done a lot of foolish things in my life. A lot. And it's God's grace that I haven't been harmed in the process. I haven't done foolish things for thrills ... I'n really too timid for thrill. The most foolish things have been done in charity. Often involved with inviting someone into my home. Even as I write this, I'm embarassed to describe how naive I have been.
I'm going to do it though. As a writing exercise. And I'll probably revise online.

I was 18. Old enough to drink, not interested in voting. My first summer after high school graduation. Like my father before me, I was a camp counselor. I rode a bus home for my mid season break. Somehow I met a sailor at the Port Authority. There's a cliche. He indicated that he needed a place to stay , and being charitable, I invited him to stay at my parent's house. My parents were out of town, leaving me alone no doubt they trusted me.
It took me a few hours to get there. We lived had to take the ... train to its end and then ride a bus from Jamaica to the city line where we lived. When we got to the house I gave him my sister's room and said good night. In the middle of the night he woke me up and told me that I was a sweet kid and that he was leaving. I feel sorry for the poor guy. He thought he was going to find sex and all he got was several hours with the New York City transit authority.

2 comments:

Annette said...

My, my, my. I'm glad you were okay.

Anonymous said...

Howdy: Sorry I don't get by more often (it's so much easier to read my wordpress friends' blogs then to go over to the ones I keep at yahoo). That map (of my favorite city) drew me in. What a story. But so nice that you lived in a naive time where you didn't think the worse. OOOOh. That makes you sound OLD (and I just had my _0th birthday... who's old??)