The Older Woman

As a high school junior, I considered myself no better or worse than my peers. I enjoyed school as much as a teenage boy could and life was routine. That was until I met The Older Woman!

I think every adolescent boy fantasizes about having a relationship with an older and experienced woman. Just a fantasy, a passing daydream and then forgotten right? WRONG!

In high school, I was pretty much a loner. I had friends and I enjoyed their company but I liked being by myself also. I had a job as the janitor at the church next to New Hanover High School so during my lunch break from school; I would go over to the church and do assorted chores so I could get home earlier in the afternoon.

For lunch everyday, I would walk down to the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Shop and buy a half-dozen doughnuts. That and a 16-ounce Coke and I was in business! I had a fairly simple life right? School, doughnuts, janitorial chores, school. Then one day, the cycle was shattered.

On an ordinary day, I was heading for the Krispy Kreme with nothing on my mind and nothing in my belly (kind of the way I was after eating half a dozen doughnuts).

I walked into the doughnut shop and there stood behind the counter a beautiful young woman! She was a new waitress and very enthusiastic! I looked at her smiling face, gave her my order and when I paid for the doughnuts, she curtsied as she said, “Thank you.” She was pretty!

I forgot about her though. I had doughnuts and a Coke. What more could a boy want? I was soon to find out what a boy, a teenage boy wanted.

The next day it was the same routine. There was school, lunch break and on my way to the doughnut shop. I walked in… and she was standing there with this big mischievous smile on her face and a bag of doughnuts in her hand. She said, "Six crullers right?" I stood there with the change rattling in my hand, very dumbfounded and said, "Right." I gave her the money, she said, “Thank you” and I left smiling also.

I walked about a block back toward my lunchtime chores thinking how sweet it was that she had my order ready and how pretty she was. Then I looked down at the bag of doughnuts in my hand and saw a phone number on the bag. Her phone number!

Now in high school, I was not naïve about the birds and the bees or the relationship between men and women…I WAS STEWWPID!

This older woman wanted me and she must have known I was stupid yet she wanted ME. I was going to learn about the birds and the bees, about the relationship between men and women from a beautiful older woman who wanted to teach me. A woman of the world! An experienced woman!
I would be the envy of my peers! Girls would notice my savoir-faire. I was bound for glory!!!!
Then it hit me. I was beginning to realize what all of this meant. I hadn't expected this attention, this tutoring. It was all happening too fast. This was too much, too soon! My head was spinning and my vision began to blur. I felt weak in my knees and it was suddenly getting dark. All this was happening while I was walking back to my job. I thought I was going to pass out so I grabbed a tree and tried to compose myself.

Now about this time, my older sister and some of her friends drove by on their way to lunch. They saw me and one of them said, "Penny, what is your brother doing standing there hugging that tree?" She didn't even look up. Her reply was, "He's seventeen! He's an idiot! Leave him alone."

I somehow made my way back to the church where I worked and I ate the doughnuts in the bag but I don't remember tasting anything. I was looking at the phone number and feeling excited and frightened about how my life was going to change.

Then I got scared! I was scared to call the number. I didn’t know her name but I had her phone number, proof positive she wanted me. Still I needed to know more. I decided I needed to know where she lived. Perhaps I needed to find out an impression of her from the look of her house. To make sure a motorcycle gang didn't live there and that she wasn't the leader's "main squeeze". I was uneducated in affairs of the heart. What was I going to do?

I decided I could look her number up in the phone book and get an address that way. It WAS a long shot. She may have an unlisted number. I was determined however to try. I decided I would start at the beginning and check every number in the Wilmington phone book until I found her phone number or got to the end of the book.

I got the phone book, opened it the page one and began going down the list of numbers. To my amazement, on the first page…on the first column… halfway down… was her number.

I said out loud, "THIS IS IT!" I ran my trembling finger over to the name and address. It was the ACE RED TOP CAB COMPANY. In a split second I came back to the real world. I realized what I was seeing. Someone needing a taxi had called information for the number and written it on the closest piece of paper which happed to be a doughnut bag. This bag became my doughnut bag.

All my dreams and fantasies evaporated like a puff of smoke and I was still STUPID about the birds and the bees, about women and I would remain that way a while longer.

That older woman made an impact on my life she never realized. I felt foolish, humble and safe again. Sometimes when I get too cocky, I think about the older woman and I remember how human I really am and this valuable lesson I learned so easily.

Let's look on the bright side! The lesson could have been much harder to learn. The phone number (which I was so determined to find) instead of being the Ace Red Top Cab Company could have belonged to the ZEBRA TAXI SERVICE!

Phil Brady