Chapter 2
Summer 1965
Charles was twenty years old, and quite innocently and unexpectedly he was about to have his late-blooming attempt to a coming-of-age story. Her name was Royce. It was the Summer of 1965.
He still has a good image of her in his mind 50 years later, but nothing as descriptively accurate as those three pictures now resting calculatingly on a shelf in his office. He has always prized those pictures. He lost the originals a long time ago when they were left in an attic of a place he lived in for a short while. A transient stop now has his prized, past possessions buried somewhere, or thrown out. The pictures he now has on the shelf were given to him by Royce decades after she disappeared from his life the first time. Now in his custody again, he would stare at them each time he came into the office. As unclear as this abbreviated timeline that those pictures represent, it was clear to him now, that Royce was a memory that would wander endlessly in his life; he was, will always be, obsessed with her.
Pixy would be a good description of Royce; a carefree life, loving jester with blond hair. He gave her a nick name when first they first started going out together, Buffy. Making sure to only use this abbreviated word privately, as his cute description of her being the consummate joker, comedian. Silky golden blonde hair that was allowed to hang over her brow seductively sweeping to each side of her head that helped make her stand out in any crowd. He forgot the color of her eyes, he never really stared at them long enough to remember. Maybe he wasn’t allowed. And those three pictures in his office weren’t any help. They do show her eyes but the pictures are copies, printed in black and white. That wasn’t what Royce was all about anyway. She didn’t want you to see her inner soul; she didn’t offer anything of herself. Beneath that pixy glow was a very private introverted person that just displayed enough for you to want her. It wasn’t a give and take relationship. She never asked about who you were, or what your dreams were. She wasn’t interested. And just never bothered to ask.
She had an easy laugh, but he knew there was also a serious side of her that she never allowed him to know. Theirs was a superficial relationship at best; but he didn’t care, not then. Raspy voice, but it could have been her nature to whisper that made it sound hoarse; helping her keep her secrets. Short, 5 feet and barely a couple of inches over. Her body was shaped into the “pretty” category, with small breasts, but enough to know she had curves to attract your stare. She hated bars, dancing, always wanted to be alone with one or two people max at her side. Didn’t have endless friends, actually only one that he was aware of. Royce was an incoming freshman that summer, which meant a lot to him and his ego; pretty, young and willing to walk arm in arm with him. That worked better than a newly engaged woman subtly, innocently flashing her engagement ring, making sure that that beautiful diamond glistened in the viewers eyes. He ‘wore’ Royce around his heart like that ceremonial ring, and believes, in retrospect, that Royce allowed that to happen.
They met early in the summer session, but he doesn’t remember where nor by whom. She seemed attracted to him and said yes to a walk to the campus coffee shop that night; she rejected PJ’s Bar on Main Street. That summer session at New York State University at New Paltz was to be his last summer in attendance, he needed to finish his required courses before he started student teaching in Walden NY that fall. This upcoming year was to be his senior year, and graduation was only months away. Nothing was to screw this up, he was determined to leave his home. He thought he loved his parents, but he also knew it was time to get out of that place that caused so much anguish, pain and sadness. And a college degree was to be his ticket out.
Her only vulnerability was her kiss. For that moment she seemed to let go of her inhibitions. She would reach for the back of his neck with her soft hand, and with the strength and focus that comes with intense passion, she would caress his emotions, until they were both succumbed to that moment of her touch. Those five weeks of the summer session, however, was also a bit of a challenge for Charles. It was clear to Charles that Royce was also attracted to him. She was determined to be by his side as much as she could before the campus curfew split them apart. Those incredible nights with the stars as their background, the moist dew coated grass feeding its dampness through the blanket on which they laid on the soccer field; a stage so vast and secluded and dark, and completely alone, within each other’s grasp. It also included her waving from the Science building hallway while he suffered through his Physics lab class. He ended sitting on the floor just outside the classroom with her hip against his. She excited him, and he became oblivious to where he really was supposed to be. “Charles,” his Physic teacher demanded his attention from the doorway. “Charles, your learning is supposed to be in this room. What you are doing can be discussed on the soccer field tonight!!” The proclamation was undoubtedly clear, even to a love-struck senior having a coming-of-age moment with a freshman girl. So, accepting the true value of his teacher’s advise over the years, he adjourned the enjoyable intercourse with Royce until later that night, on the soccer field, as instructed . And so, his weeks at summer school was clearly mapped out; and he dutifully adhered to the rules of engagement. What a wonderful summer.
In the end, Charles was never sure why Royce attended the summer session that year; she never told him that she wasn’t returning to New Paltz in the fall. Why would anyone just do five weeks of summer classes, which she never apparently attended? He just assumed it was a given fact she’d be there in the fall, he just never asked her. That’s how he operated; fearful of confrontation’s answers, full of avoidance and always filled with assumptions. All that remained true was the fall session will be filled with swollen emotions still riding a sensational roller coaster of love, love making, and awoken senses; all five of them. With the new school year beginning in September 1965, his dorm room chosen and approved, bags and boxes unpacked, he immediately reached out to all the girl dorms on campus to find her, to learn that she no longer existed on any enrollment list. Royce?
