OH LAWD chapter 11

Missing the Boat
courtesy free clip art

 

My childhood was made up of a series of events connected together with what you might call tedium or things that were boring.

Though I must admit being on the pier a good portion of the time, those “down times” never lasted that long.

Oscar, the ladies man was to ship out today, so I went down to see the tugs nudge the big ship over into the channel. The ship was about a quarter mile off shore when Oscar came running up shouting for the ship to wait.

Of course they didn't pay any attention to him even if they heard him shout; this was the navy and he was supposed to be on board. If he missed this ship he was in deep trouble.

Oscar ran to the end of the pier still shouting and jumped into the sea and started swimming toward one of the tugs. As they were speeding up I run and got Pa binoculars, and I saw the tug fish him out of the water. I guess he got transferred to his ship for I never saw him again.

From time to time I would see one of the girls he brought to the restaurant for dinner, and what I had seen that night in the movie house had whet my appetite for more information. I wanted to ask them a lot of questions about their experiences with Oscar but I was too embarrassed to do so.

I was doing fairly good in school.  Marly was getting a little better grades than me but I didn't care.

 

We had a routine of studying an hour before bedtime. Ma said that way we could sleep on it. Marly having reached the age of eleven (I was a year older) had been overtaken by the Romance Yen.

I was too busy to think on such things as of yet, though being honest I can't say I never had the thought about girls go through my mind.

She had a boyfriend and was proud to have one. He was thirteen and to my mind wasn't much to look at although he was a good ball player.

He started to come by the house so he could walk her to school each morning leaving me to walk by myself.

This made me a little angry for I felt funny walking quite a ways in front of them or even worse behind them seeing them hold hands.

Up until now Marly and I had been so close, as I had been assigned by Ma and Pa to watch over her.

Since we were only a year apart and both Ma and Pa had to work we had bonded more than perhaps some other siblings might have. I was no longer the "man" in her life and it was painful.

Most brothers consider younger sisters to be pests, but it wasn't like that with us. I think it was because we had to depend on one another so much. It seemed like it was overnight that she had developed and was becoming a young lady instead of a child.

What was happening was changing all that and it took me a few days to get over it

Things we used to do together she now did with girl friends or her new guy.

I was ashamed to talk about this with anyone, but Ma understood me and helped me through this period of what seemed to be rejection.

I finally realized that some of my friends my age were experiencing something similar with older brothers who no longer were having anything to do with them, because of the vast differences that now were in place.

There is someone that I was associated with during these years and that was Abdul. I always called him Doo-ly, and he was a Turk.

He was the early morning man who was there by four thirty making coffee and getting breakfast ready.

Oh Lawd!

To Be Continued