Our Magical Summer (eBook)

Chapter 1

The guys, Billy Burton, Matt Hingle, and Paul Tyler, were singing the Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” in the shower after their last gym class for the year. It was Wednesday, June 3, and the next morning, the school year 1963–1964 would end, and they would officially be seniors.

When they finished with the Beach Boys, they went right into “Help” by The Beatles. They even sang parts, with minor success.

Paul was the leader of the group. He was 6’2” and 180 pounds with light brown hair and an athletic body. He was on the tennis team in the fall and on the baseball team in the spring. He believed he had a real shot at a Division 1 college baseball scholarship when he graduated from high school. Matt was six feet tall, 175 pounds with carrot-colored hair. Billy was the runt. He was 5’8”, 150 pounds with sandy hair. Both Matt and Billy were fairly athletic, but not enough so to make any of the Lake City High School teams.

Out of the shower now, they quickly got dressed. It was seventh period, the last period of the day—of the year to be precise. The next morning, they would meet in home room, clean out their lockers, and go to the auditorium for a final assembly before being let out at 11:30. Then the summer of 1964 was theirs.

“I can’t wait for this summer. It’s going to be great,” said Paul. “What are you guys going to do this summer?”

“I’m going to swim at the lake and get as much pussy as I can this summer,” replied Matt.

“Yeah, me too,” said Billy.

“Do you guys think you’ll get twice as much pussy this summer as you got last summer?” Paul asked.

“At least,” Billy answered.

“Well, let me do some figuring here, two times zero is still zero,” Paul laughed.

“That’s really funny, you turkey. How much do you think you’re going to get this summer since you broke up with Cindy?” Matt asked.

Paul answered, “Hey, I’m going to go wild this summer. I’m going to let my hair grow long like the Beatles, and let the sun turn it blond. I’m going to hang out at the lake and turn my body bronze, and I’m going to fall in love with beaucoup girls this summer. This is going to be the best summer of my life. I’m glad Cindy and I aren’t going steady anymore.”

“This is going to be one hell of a summer,” Matt said.

“Come on, guys, we better get back out to the gym before the bell rings or Mr. Foster will be pissed,” Billy said.

“So what? The grades have already been turned in. Hell, let’s just sneak out the door. He can’t do anything about it,” Matt remarked.

“Come on, let’s do it,” Paul said.

The three boys opened the door to the locker room and looked down the hall toward the gym. The rest of the boys were milling around waiting for the bell. Mr. Foster looked right at them. They waved to him and went out the side door and into the Lake City High School parking lot.

Lake City High School was one of two high schools in the town of Lake City, a town of about 30,000 people, located in Southern Indiana, about fifty miles east of Evansville. The other high school was St. Thomas Aquinas High School, a Catholic school on the other side of town.

The town was named Lake City because of its greatest feature, a beautiful 600-acre lake at the southeast edge of town named Sapphire Lake. When settlers first arrived in the area and discovered the gorgeous, pristine lake, they named it Sapphire because it was so blue and because sapphires were symbolic of good fortune. It was good fortune indeed that they discovered the lake.

Paul said goodbye to Matt and Billy and jumped on his Yamaha 90. Matt and Billy walked to Matt’s car.

As Paul rode home, he had mixed emotions about the end of his junior year and the start of summer break. Paul, who was seventeen years old, had been going with Cindy Franklin since they were fifteen years old. They had broken up the week earlier. Cindy was one of the prettiest and smartest girls in high school, with her beautiful curly brown hair and her alluring brown eyes. Everyone knew she would be Prom Queen next year, and probably class valedictorian.

Even though Paul had been the one to ask for his ring back, he hadn’t expected her to give it back so easily. In fact, he had expected her to cry and plead with him, and then he was going to let her keep the ring, and they would continue to go steady, with some new conditions. He was so certain of her love and devotion that he had been in a state of shock since the breakup. Not only had she given the ring back with no argument, but she refused to talk to him at school. And when Paul tried to call her on the phone, her mother told him that Cindy didn’t want to speak to him. Man, what a dumb move pulling that macho crap. He wanted to show her who was boss in the relationship and she had shown him the door.

His heart was broken. He knew now for certain that he had handled his relationship with Cindy badly for a long time, and the breakup was the result. He loved her, but too many times, he had taken her for granted and not treated her the way she deserved to be treated. He could see that now. He wanted to try to patch things up with her if she would only let him. If they did get back together, he would treat her much differently. He would not only love her but also cherish her and respect her the way he should have from the beginning. If they didn’t get back together, at least Paul learned his lesson. No more macho man for him. Any girl he might get into a relationship with from now on would have his full devotion and respect.

Paul pulled his motorcycle into his driveway, cut the engine, then walked it into the garage, and parked it next to his mother’s 1962 Ford Galaxie.

Normally, his mother would be at work this time of day. She was the personnel director at Sneed’s Bearings Company in Lake City. He wasn’t sure why she was home today at this hour.

Paul lived in a pleasant three-bedroom home on Meadow View Lane, about a mile from the lake. He lived with his mother, Sharon, and twelve-year-old sister, Trisha. He had an older sister, Sarah, who was married to an army captain, and they were currently stationed in Germany. His parents were divorced when he was eleven, and his father was remarried and living in Chicago. Paul seldom saw his dad, and he was sorry about that.

Paul pushed open the door from the garage into the kitchen. His mother was sitting at the table addressing a card.

“Why are you home, mom?”

“My boss’s wife died, and they let us all off this afternoon to go to the funeral home. I’m going to go there in just a few minutes. I shouldn’t be gone for more than an hour or so.” She looked at her watch. “Trisha should be home in about twenty minutes. Will you be here?”

“I don’t know, mom, probably not.”

“I’ll have supper at about six, so be home by then, okay?”

“Sure.

Sharon stood up, put the card in the envelope, put her arm around Paul’s waist, and squeezed. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“Okay. How did she die anyway?”

“Oh, it was breast cancer that had spread. It’s really a sad story, and I feel really terrible for Mr. Sneed.”

“Oh, man, that is awful.”

Sharon exited into the garage, got in her car and backed out.

Paul opened the refrigerator and got out a carton of milk. He grabbed a couple of cookies from the bag on top of the refrigerator and walked into the living room. He had butterflies in his stomach because he was about to try to call Cindy again.

He turned on the TV to the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. This afternoon it was Quickdraw McGraw. He watched distractedly while he munched his cookies.

When he finished his snack, he went back into the kitchen, picked up the wall phone, and dialed Cindy’s number. He hoped her mother wouldn’t answer because he knew she wouldn’t let him talk to Cindy. The phone rang four times.

“Hello.” It was Cindy.

“Cindy. . .”

“Paul, I don’t want to talk to you. You caused this whole thing, and you’re going to have to live with it.”

“Can’t I come pick you up and let’s go someplace to talk? It’s crazy for us to end up this way. I love you, Cindy, and I thought you loved me.”

“I did love you.”

“But not anymore?”

“No, I still love you, but you ruined it.”

“Whether it’s over or not, we can’t leave it like this. We went steady for two years, and now you won’t even listen to me.”

Cindy was silent for fifteen seconds, which seemed like an eternity to Paul. “Okay, how soon can you get here?”

“I just have to hop on my Yamaha and come right over. Ten minutes or less.”

“I’ll be out front waiting for you.”

Paul went into the garage, rolled...