Steve Frost

With the Sun Behind Me

By Steve Frost

Amanda was meeting me at the Barnet General Store in an hour and my bike was at Melissaąs house some three miles down hill from my own. My clothes were still damp as I tossed them on, grabbed some money from my room and ran out the door. I ran half way to Melissaąs house but chest cramps and my own laziness soon slowed my pace. I did walk a little faster past the Chaseąs Saint Bernard that was only held back by the picket fence in front of their house.

My bike was under her carport. It sat amidst wooden dowels her family used for kindling and a Ś57 Chevy which hadnąt run since Reagan was president. Melissaąs father could easily restore the rundown wreck but he merely dreams about doing it, instead of actually having the ambition to go out and fix it.

I grabbed my bike and headed to the store. The gears never worked right and I never fixed them. The gears werenąt really a problem coasting down hill, and I made great time along the meandering road. The sun wasnąt strong yet, and the soft morning light cast my shadow on the road. I went about five minutes down the road and came upon the Wardąs Farm. There was a dead cat beside the barn. The poor creature didnąt strike me as unusual though, as there were always twenty or thirty disease stricken cats running around their farm. The Wards werenąt all to blame for the hoards of cats; people just dropped boxes of kittens in their yard.

I passed the Pinkhamąs greenhouse and went over the bridge. The Vermont half of the bridge had a torn blacktop and rusting steel supports while the New Hampshire half looked only a few years old. A few poachers get caught throwing the remains of game off the bridge every year. They always seem to forget that people wearing bright orange vests tend to stick out.

I hurried down the road anxious to meet Amanda at the store. We entered and bought bread and cheddar. We ate most of it resting against empty boxes in front of the store, then left our bikes and walked to the thrift shop across the street. The little gray building resting on granite blocks wasnąt officially opened yet. However, the owner didnąt want to turn away money, so she let us in. The store really had one room but winter jackets hanging in the center of the building made it look like there were two. I looked through the womenąs clothes, which were all hung up, along with the jackets and menąs shirts. Pants and sweaters were stacked ten or fifteen pairs high along the first sectionąs wall. Tons of clothes were still in garbage bags, strewn about the store. Kitchen supplies, ceramic figures, polka band records and very used paper back books filled every available cranny. Amanda nosed through the Harlequin novels, randomly opening to spots. She began to read one aloud to me.

˛Steve, listen. Ś He held her like a starving orphan. Caressing her thigh with his soft up town handsą.....˛

łUh um! Would you like to buy that? Itąs only ten cents or five for a quarter.˛ The owner of the store, dressed in her own merchandise, turned to Amanda with a Śbuy something or get the hell out smile.ą

Amanda turned her head and picked up another book. She began to chuckle. I inspected a pair of musty corduroys then walked to her to see what was so amusing. She was reading łTeen Sex and Adolescence.˛

łSteve do you have ŚNocturnal emissionsą?˛

łIąll be innocent until my wedding night.˛

łHow would you like me in a poodle skirt?˛ Amanda squeaked then looped arms with me as if we were in one of those old beach party movies with Frankie Avelon.

Amanda continued reading the book, and I started thumbing through the records.

łHey, just what you need, an Abba record.˛

Amanda turned and smiled at me.

łYeah Iąm just a danciną queen.˛ We began to disco dance about the store singing a jumble of disco songs. I made a łY˛ shape with my arms then looked at my watch. Weąd wasted too much time fooling around.

łShit! Are you done? Weąre meeting at Melissaąs house in forty minutes?˛

ł Yeah I guess so.˛ We pooled the money we had left to buy the adolescent sex book and bunch of of corduroy pants, which we wouldnąt be able to wear for another three months. We grabbed our bikes in front of the store and put the clothes and book in my backpack.

The hot June sun burnt our arms as we made our way to Melissa house. I could feel my hair bleaching in the sun. Amandaąs hair was blonde and tied in loose bun on the back of her head. Her usually fair skin had turned bright red on her shoulders. She wore eighties shorts, very short with two stripes down the side. They were vintage. I had corduroy shorts on that I converted from pants that morning and my green tye-dye shirt with the rips and frayed collar. Iąd had it since seventh grade.

Amanda and I had never had an łofficial˛ date. Things always just worked out and wed end up walking through the cemetery or going to the movies together. Like this day, weąd planned to meet up with a bunch of other people but they bailed on us. So it was just Amanda and me.

We crossed the bridge and passed the Wards farm, where the cat still lay molding. By the time we made it to Melissaąs house our ride to a later party at Jenąs had already departed. We needed to get to that party. Melissaąs vicious dog was preventing us from simply walking in the front door and using her phone. We stood in her driveway for a moment staring at the half rotted front stairs, then sat our bikes up against the maple tree on the front lawn.

The mutt sat on the stoop, just inches away from the door. It stopped barking and settled on a pile of grain bags in the alcove. We needed to get into the house. We needed to use the phone. Of course, we couldąve used the pay phone at the town hall, but we were broke.

łForget the dog. We can get in the house through the cellar.˛ I ran to the side of the house and pulled away two pieces of Styrofoam siding. Melissaąs house was old and simply built, with two floors and a cellar. Her family threw wood into the cellar through a huge hole in the side of the foundation of the house. Amanda and I crawled through the hole to get into Melissaąs basement.

łYou go first.˛ I said

łNo. Youąve been down there before. You go!˛ Amanda gestured for me to go down.

łGod dammit. Do you really need to use the phone?˛ I looked into the cellar and kicked away the spider webs. Everything smelt of mildew. Amanda helped me down.

łCome on. Iąll help you.˛ I held Amandaąs hips as she lowered herself into the room. She dusted off her shirt, I still held her hips. She put arms around me.

We began to lean towards each other, I closed my eyes and we kissed. We came away from each other and I looked at Amanda then smiled. The air between us filled with silence.

łI think the stair case is over here somewhere.˛

I tumbled over some pieces of wood and into the dirt, which seemed to be a blend of soot and sawdust.

łI cant see much.˛

Amanda grabbed my hand. Small streams of light seeped through spaces in the floor boards above us. The light was just bright enough to define the dust in the air and make out a dangling light switch at the other end of the basement.

łCome on.˛

My knees and hands were filthy and we crept through the cellar, swatting at the cakey spider webs. I stopped to get my bearings. The light through the floorboards flickered as a cat crossed the floor above us.

łWhat the hell is that?˛ Amanda jumped and knocked me onto a woodpile.

łShit!˛ My knee cap slammed against the wood. łWhat the hell, that was a cat.˛ She turned to me.

łNo that.˛ She whispered, pointing to a shape in the dark.

łOh great, its a skunk.˛

I couldnąt smell it and didnąt want to. I began to picture myself bathing in a tub of tomato sauce. We backed up slowly at first then gave up and ran towards the hole which weąd entered through.

łAh!˛ Amanda fell face first into the soggy soil. I helped her up. She looked at me as a chuck of mud ran a black line down her face. łWatch out for the mud Steve.˛

łCome on!˛ Dragging me, Amanda bolted to the hole. She lifted herself out of the hole scrapping her legs against the frigid cement wall.

łHere,˛ she extended her hand to me. I struggled to lift myself.

łAhh, heąs right behind you!˛ With one great tug, she pulled me from the cellar just as bellow us the skunk lifted his tail. We scrambled away from the hole. Then with a sense of great relief, lied on the lawn a good distance away from the skunky cellar.

Amanda wiped the dirt off her face. Her knees bled and her hair had bits of sawdust and spider web in it but somehow she looked strangely beautiful.

łWoah. Their house is gonna smell good!˛ Amanda began to rub her knee.

łStill need to use the phone?˛ I asked.

łYeah. I wonder if they lock their windows?˛

Comments for Steve Frost? Email him:frost@connriver.net