Two High School Girls Take a Walk on a Dark Bitter Cold Afternoon

In 1974 I walked down the hill from high school with my friend until we were stopped by our conversation. She wanted to be an actress someday and my only goal was to have a family someday. After my friend expressed passionate disappointment, we walked in silence toward the drugstore where my mother worked for my father while we were in school and would drive us home from there after letting us take a bagful of warm salted cashews from the glass case. Out of our twin green fur lined hoods tumbled long dark wavy hair turning white in the Vermont winter cold. Jimmy Pierce, who I thought was a high school drop out, joined us during our silent walk. I noticed grease acted as an insulator from frost on his long dirty blond hair that hung away from us toward his left. Unlike our thick green parkas, his thin army jacket hung open and, instead of felt lined snowmobile boots, he wore battered shoes. He was an advertisement as to why we should not throw away our dreams, even if we did not agree, and become a drug addict even though I had no proof that he was a drug addict or even a high school drop out. Our silence was an opportunity for Jimmy Pierce to chatter out of a mouth that slanted to the left side, along with his hair, and contained a cigarette. My friend and I were originally from New York and New Jersey, respectively, and sometimes had trouble understanding Vermont accents especially out of ill formed mouths with cigarettes.

Even though we couldn't understand Jimmy Pierce, we allowed him to chatter away and I marveled at his ability to not be frost bitten. He seemed to be enjoying our company and led us into the alleyway next to my father's drugstore with the warm cashews and magazine rack where I secretly enjoyed romance magazines when I wasn't with my friend. The alleyway was already quite dark as though we were close the to arctic circle. We stayed cold for awhile watching Jimmy smoke. He offered us some of his cigarette as if we would take anything from his droopy mouth. We politely claimed to have hands that were too cold to remove from our pockets. Jimmy turned around facing the dark wall of the building. I imagined following him into the darkness into a warm tropical paradise where he would straighten up and turn into a cute surfer guy with blond hair washed clean by the sea. Then we heard water.

“It's too cold to be raining,” I said speaking to my friend for the first time since we had our futures conversation.

“It's just raining in one spot,” she said pointing to Jimmy Pierce who was facing the magical dark wall.