A Bit Of Personal Stuff (Part Two)

His name was Mike. He was 28 years old when we first met there in the park. When we were at the Dairy Queen, he told me a little about himself. He was employed driving a delivery truck for a bakery. A “bread truck” he called it. He made about a dollar over minimum wage. He had held the job for about a year at the time, and he said it was the best job he had ever had. He said he felt free out on the road.

I found this all kind of perplexing. After all, he seemed like a smart guy. Well, it turned out he was a smart guy, a smart guy with a learning disability. Mike was unable to graduate with his high school class. A few years later he got his GED. In Massachusetts that stand for General Educational Development. I did not know that at the time, Mike told me. I also found out that he had a terrific sense of humor, and of course he was very thoughtful. We continued to talked long after we had finished our ice cream cones. I thought he was pretty cool. In fact, I thought he was pretty cool in a lot of different ways.  

We dated all that summer, and when it came time for me to go back to Cornell for my junior year, I couldn’t do it. I had fallen in love with a bread truck driver. My father was furious. In fact, the thought of it still annoys him. It makes him roll his eyes and shake his head.

I remember a few weeks after we met, Mike and I were at the beach. It was sunny and about 90 degrees. I asked Mike to put sunscreen on my back. I can clearly recall that his hands felt utterly magical as they slithered around on my back, spreading the sunscreen. The sensation was tranquilizing and yet erotic. Mike was unable to finish the task before I almost commanded him to take me back to his apartment and make love to me, and so that’s where we went.

Technically Mike was not my first, but that’s how I think of him. In bed, Mike was unselfish and tender. It was never sex with Mike but rather actual love-making. He was the first, and to this date the only man to take me to “the promised land”, as my girlfriend would say in reference to an orgasm. Mike could take me there almost every time. 

After about a year of dating we moved in together. We both seemed to be fairly flexible, and we both demonstrated the required give-and-take needed for co-habitation. We became very comfortable with each other while still maintaining a pretty high level of passion. More than a few times I would be taking a shower when all of the sudden I would have an uninvited, but a completely welcome guest there with me under the spray. One time I was spontaneously seduced while making dinner salads. It began with some warm nibbles from behind on my ear and neck, and escalated into hands wandering into sensitive areas and performing erotic deeds. It ended with me leaning over the kitchen counter, with my shorts and panties discarded and lying on the floor nearby, and Mike behind me, deep inside.    

We were together for almost four years, and then one night Mike got arrested for drunken driving. He had been at a bachelor’s party and shouldn’t have driven afterwards. He was driving a little bit erratically and a cop pulled him over. He was not fired from his job for the offense; he was fired from his job for not informing them of it.

After that, Mike could not find a steady job that was not either short-term or very dirty, and everything was low wage. He worked for a roofer in the summer until he got laid-off, then he worked in a grocery store. I noticed he started to change. I think Mike just felt depressed. He became more moody and less enjoyable to be with. We did not communicate as much or as openly. Six months after the drunken driving charge, Mike received a call from a cousin in Columbus, Ohio, asking him if he would like to relocate and work for Rush Delivery Service in Ohio. It was a chance to drive a delivery truck again; the occupation he enjoyed the most.     

I would have gone with him if he had wanted, but Mike felt like it would be better if he went alone. I did not argue. I felt like maybe Mike could find a new beginning there and hopefully become his old fun, personable self. That was almost two years ago. I have not heard from him in almost a year and a half. I cannot deny that I think about Mike almost every day. Sometimes my thoughts are about him in the last months we were together, when things were not going so well. Other times I remember Mike as he was for the majority of those four years. When I remember those days, I miss him. I miss hearing his voice, his nuttiness, his kindness, and the way he would hold me.

Time has done its job and my heart is no longer hurting. I have had other men in my life since Mike, if for shorter relationships. But I’ve got a lot of life ahead of me, and I’m nothing if not optimistic.

Now since it is Sunday, I think I'll go exploring in the forest. June is here and there are butterflies dancing in the air, warblers singing from the trees, and wildflowers coloring the landscape.