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Wednesday, 24 October 2007

Party at the Sandbanks

By Kay Richard of Letters From New England

I'm not, by nature, much of a risk taker. I never disobeyed as a child. I always did my homework, sat with my feet together on the floor hands folded on my desk. Even with my (undiagnosed) OCD, I still like to have all of my ducks in a row before making a decision, so to speak. Yes, I can be compulsive about purchases from time to time, but when the BIG changes in my life need to be made, I usually have it all planned out before I take any action.

Except, of course, in high school. That age of defiance, of testing the waters, of well, pushing the proverbial parental buttons. I have to say in my defense though, that all in all, I was a pretty good kid. Except, of course, when I was with Sharlene.

Sharlene was my alter-ego. The person I'd have been if I weren't so timid, so afraid of adult wrath. I would stand behind her in amazement as tale after tale left her lips, adults nodding their heads and saying, "Go get my purse" or "Be home by 11:00".

There were times when her daring went further than my bravado and I just made up an excuse for not participating. The day she told us (me and Linda, that is) about the party at the Westminster sandbanks, that feeling of "how can I get out of this" began to make its way to my brain.

"It’ll be a total blast," she said. "Lefty's friend, Henry's older brother, is home on leave before he gets shipped off to Vietnam. They're throwing a big party at the Westminster sandbanks for him before he goes - just in case, you know, he doesn't come home. We'll be back early in the morning. No one will know where we were".

I should have said no. I should have made up some lame excuse. I should have used my head. Except, of course, I didn't.

We schemed and lied. I said I was sleeping at Linda's house. Linda said she was sleeping at Sharlene's house. Sharlene said she was sleeping at my house. We were so damned clever. Lefty would pick us up downtown at 6:00PM.

The party itself is lost in time. I remember a huge bonfire and fear of getting caught. I probably made out with Pete, my interim boyfriend, at some point. There was beer being passed around, but no drugs (that I witnessed). I didn't drink anything, hated the taste of beer. Still do for that matter. We stayed up all night though, something I couldn't do today even if I were promised my weight in gold.

We were supposed to head to Linda's house by 8:00AM. If any parent was going to start snooping around, it would be her mother. Better to nip that in the bud. The details are foggy, but I remember Sharlene saying she would go home a bit later. That she wanted to spend more time with Lefty. We argued about getting caught, but she was adamant. She was sooooooo in love. Whatever.

By noon, Linda and I were answering questions in front of separate firing squads, holes all over our stories. Neither of us prepared, neither of us in the same room to cover for the other. I remember being about the most scared I'd ever been in my life. First of all, we'd been caught in a HUGE lie. Second of all, I had no idea what had happened to Sharlene.

Her Mom called looking for her because she and Vic were going to attend an outdoor country music festival and wanted to let her know where they'd be if she needed them. She was told that Sharlene wasn't there, hadn't BEEN there, that I'd spent the night at Linda's.

So, Carmen called Linda's mom and she said that Sharlene and I hadn't been there all night, that Linda said she was staying at HER house. And on and on it went. I confessed, as did Linda, but that didn't tell any of us where Sharlene was.

She finally went home mid-afternoon. Her punishment for that deed was to spend the day in a lawn chair beside Carmen and Vic at the country music festival, not being allowed to sleep, hangover making the smallest noise unbearable. She got grounded, of course. We all did. Linda and I were livid, but, we forgave her. Of course we did. It WAS Sharlene, after all.

I vowed I'd never get involved in any of her schemes again though. Except, of course, the night we tried to sneak into the drive-in theater. "It'll be a total blast", she said.

Posted by Ronni Bennett at 02:30 AM | Permalink | Email this post