In the blink of an eye the summer was over. What did that mean for Mongoose and I? Throughout the camp season I learned that he was going to be a freshman at Central Washington University, a small college 40 minutes outside of my hometown. In the beginning, we had assumed that our relationship would fizzle out by the end of the summer. But we were more attached than ever and I was scared for what was ahead. Forty minutes seemed so long and I was just going to be a senior in high school.
Would he even want a girlfriend starting off in college?
The subject was in the back of my mind and we just enjoyed whatever time we still had together.
Right after camp ended, we jetted off to Lake Chelan. My family had rented a cabin there for the week and my mom suggested I invite Mongoose and some other friends.
“There are plenty of beds and we can always set up the tent!” She suggested with that peppy voice.
So Mongoose and I caught a ride with my uncle and Smalls and our camp friend Kennedy joined us two days later.
As we pulled into the driveway, we passed a community pool. Mongoose and I looked at each other knowingly. Over the summer, we had made it a goal to kiss everywhere possible. It became a game to find interesting and fun places to kiss. Even though camp had a pool, the counselors were never without kids in it. We knew we had to kiss in that pool, it would just have to be the right timing to do so.
After dinner we walked out to the dock to talk and watch the sunset. The water rippled beneath our feet and I played with a broken splinter of wood as we discussed everything and anything you can imagine. There was this ease that came from the stillness of the lake, an ease that washed over my usually racing mind. There was no pressure or hidden agenda to our conversation. No expectations for answers, we talked openly and honestly. We discussed our individual goals and ideas for the future. He mentioned wanting to do something medically related, due to his nerdy love of the sciences. I hadn’t noticed this love quite yet as I still considered him to be just a good-looking, incredibly kind jock. He talked about how he wanted to get married in the temple, a sacred place where he could be sealed to his wife and children for time and all eternity. This thought was new to me.
Eternity? I inquired a little more about his ideas of marriage. What he wanted in a wife and in a mother for his kids. His answer was a little on the side of female house slave but after I pointed that out he seemed to delve a little deeper. In actuality he wanted someone to make him laugh. Someone he could talk to and share ideas. I liked this version a lot better. My inner feminist had raised a red flag at his first response but he salvaged himself when he described his relationship with his future wife.
That idea of eternity still got to me, and what did he mean by sealed? He explained that the person that he marries will have to be someone he wants to be with forever; someone who he will be bound to not just till death but beyond that, in heaven. It was a new concept to me. I had never realized that the vows said in civil marriage end that relationship at death. The idea saddened me and I came to the discovery that I wanted an eternal marriage, one that lasted forever.
It was a daunting thought that made spouse selection into an even more difficult choice. Not that I was thinking marriage already. Ok maybe I was a little.
I was a sixteen-year old girl, remember?
The sun set as we started in on our future together. The conversation went on and on and on. I didn’t want it to stop. Soon though our words turned into kisses as the moon grew in the sky. I remember thinking that life could not get any more perfect. I was with the most wonderful guy. He made me laugh, he was handsome, and he listened to what I had to say. Plus he respected me, even with his ideal of marrying a perfect housewife. He couldn’t be perfect right?
With no one watching us and our joints stiff from sitting on the hard wooden dock we looked to the pool. It was closed unfortunately but Mongoose had a mischievous look in his eye.
“Let’s jump the fence.” He declared.
I wasn’t so sure. I was a stickler for following rules and this would definitely be breaking some.
“It closed at ten though; I really don’t think we should.” I suggested we head on back to the house.
“No. I just have to kiss you underwater. Come on, no one is out right now and no one is watching the pool. It’s not like it has a guard.”
I thought about it as he pulled me closer and closer toward the fence. We were wearing our bathing suits already…. So we stripped off the rest of our clothes by the dock and made a plan for how to actually jump the fence.
He easily got over and helped me as well. We slid into the pool and he immediately drug me underwater for that kiss he so badly needed. After a couple of minutes of kissing and playing in the abandoned pool , we heard a noise.
“Gina?....”
It was my dad.
Click here for Part 13
Would he even want a girlfriend starting off in college?
The subject was in the back of my mind and we just enjoyed whatever time we still had together.
Right after camp ended, we jetted off to Lake Chelan. My family had rented a cabin there for the week and my mom suggested I invite Mongoose and some other friends.
“There are plenty of beds and we can always set up the tent!” She suggested with that peppy voice.
So Mongoose and I caught a ride with my uncle and Smalls and our camp friend Kennedy joined us two days later.
As we pulled into the driveway, we passed a community pool. Mongoose and I looked at each other knowingly. Over the summer, we had made it a goal to kiss everywhere possible. It became a game to find interesting and fun places to kiss. Even though camp had a pool, the counselors were never without kids in it. We knew we had to kiss in that pool, it would just have to be the right timing to do so.
After dinner we walked out to the dock to talk and watch the sunset. The water rippled beneath our feet and I played with a broken splinter of wood as we discussed everything and anything you can imagine. There was this ease that came from the stillness of the lake, an ease that washed over my usually racing mind. There was no pressure or hidden agenda to our conversation. No expectations for answers, we talked openly and honestly. We discussed our individual goals and ideas for the future. He mentioned wanting to do something medically related, due to his nerdy love of the sciences. I hadn’t noticed this love quite yet as I still considered him to be just a good-looking, incredibly kind jock. He talked about how he wanted to get married in the temple, a sacred place where he could be sealed to his wife and children for time and all eternity. This thought was new to me.
Eternity? I inquired a little more about his ideas of marriage. What he wanted in a wife and in a mother for his kids. His answer was a little on the side of female house slave but after I pointed that out he seemed to delve a little deeper. In actuality he wanted someone to make him laugh. Someone he could talk to and share ideas. I liked this version a lot better. My inner feminist had raised a red flag at his first response but he salvaged himself when he described his relationship with his future wife.
That idea of eternity still got to me, and what did he mean by sealed? He explained that the person that he marries will have to be someone he wants to be with forever; someone who he will be bound to not just till death but beyond that, in heaven. It was a new concept to me. I had never realized that the vows said in civil marriage end that relationship at death. The idea saddened me and I came to the discovery that I wanted an eternal marriage, one that lasted forever.
It was a daunting thought that made spouse selection into an even more difficult choice. Not that I was thinking marriage already. Ok maybe I was a little.
I was a sixteen-year old girl, remember?
The sun set as we started in on our future together. The conversation went on and on and on. I didn’t want it to stop. Soon though our words turned into kisses as the moon grew in the sky. I remember thinking that life could not get any more perfect. I was with the most wonderful guy. He made me laugh, he was handsome, and he listened to what I had to say. Plus he respected me, even with his ideal of marrying a perfect housewife. He couldn’t be perfect right?
With no one watching us and our joints stiff from sitting on the hard wooden dock we looked to the pool. It was closed unfortunately but Mongoose had a mischievous look in his eye.
“Let’s jump the fence.” He declared.
I wasn’t so sure. I was a stickler for following rules and this would definitely be breaking some.
“It closed at ten though; I really don’t think we should.” I suggested we head on back to the house.
“No. I just have to kiss you underwater. Come on, no one is out right now and no one is watching the pool. It’s not like it has a guard.”
I thought about it as he pulled me closer and closer toward the fence. We were wearing our bathing suits already…. So we stripped off the rest of our clothes by the dock and made a plan for how to actually jump the fence.
He easily got over and helped me as well. We slid into the pool and he immediately drug me underwater for that kiss he so badly needed. After a couple of minutes of kissing and playing in the abandoned pool , we heard a noise.
“Gina?....”
It was my dad.
Click here for Part 13
