Not a Blueprint: It's the Shoe Prints That Matter

But when I wasn’t home, they’d find me hanging out over at Netti’s house. Netti was a close friend and lived around the corner in an apartment complex. We’d been friends since the age of nine. We both attended the same schools,  from grammar through to our senior year. I was known in their family as “Netti’s little buddy.”

During the summer break, we’d separate. Usually, I’d visit family in Chicago, but one summer, I wasn’t going. I’d planned to hang out with my best friend Netti. When we returned to school, I’d start my senior year.

Forget going to Chicago. Netti’s brother Craig is coming from the Navy, my thoughts reminded me.

Craig was a cool person, but a little egotistical. Guess he thought he was all that and a bag of chips. In my eyes, he was. Craig always walked with a good posture and stared a person dead in the eyes when they talked. He stood five foot ten, with a dark-toned complexion, deep brown, beady eyes, a short pudgy nose, and a stocky build. He had no eyebrows, which did look rather strange. But his smooth talk made up for that flaw. Boy, he reminded me so much of Dad. They both were sharp dressers, quick thinkers, smooth talkers, and definitely ladies’ men. Craig even blew those perfect smoke rings that floated in the air as he exhaled his cigarette smoke, the same way Dad would’ve done it.

When Craig pulled up in his flashy white Thunderbird convertible, I hadn’t seen him since I was around fourteen. And that had been five or six years ago. Now he’d no longer think of me as Netti’s little buddy, but as a woman. I gazed into his brown eyes, bucked wide open. His look gave the impression that he found me appealing. This was going to be the beginning of a great summer! As we stood face-to-face,  Craig grinned and asked, "So, you’re Nettie’s little buddy, huh? I see you’re not little no more. How about I take you on Nettie’s little buddy, huh? I see you’re not little no more. How about I take you on a date.”

With a bashful smile, I replied, “Yeah, I’d go out with you.”
Since I had never been on a date, I thought, What should I wear? How should I act? How would he act?

I decided to wear my tight, low-cut red and black mini dress with black fishnet stockings and red and black pumps. This look showed every curve in my tiny physique, enough to catch any man’s eye. When I opened the door, his beady little eyes scanned my body. I had grown into a full woman, and it showed. But had I truly reached womanhood? Although it felt real, was it?

These questions are what I’d asked myself. Here is where the story should’ve ended. But in reality, that’s where it all began.should’ve ended. But in reality, that’s where it all began.