Days Gone By

Contest entry

“And that’s the way we did it back then…” Bob interrupted mid-sentence, “What’s that you said? …back what…?” Bob was always hard of hearing and never could stay on topic. It didn’t matter to Jackie, she loved to tell a story and was happy to tell it more than once.

“I’m talking about when we were young, remember?” she said as she opened up into a tale down memory lane.

We used to walk everywhere we went. In the spring, we’d step out onto the front porch and you could hear the birds signing by the dozens. Children ran and played outside in the street. Sometimes they’d run through someone’s hedges after an errant ball and they always hollered ‘car’ when it was time to clear the road. There was none of this wearing ear sets to talk to our friends. The telephone was off limits for kids. If you wanted to talk to someone, you walked over to their house or sent a letter by post.

Bob started looking at the dust swirling around his shoes and took another sip of his lemonade. “Are you even listening?” Jackie said under her breath. “What’s that...?” he said gazing in her direction. She continued.

I remember the first time you came to my house; you were the most handsome man in our school and I had a crush on you since grade school. You came knocking on my door and my mom seated you in the parlor. You were sitting there so proud sipping on iced tea. When I came into the room, you were so nervous you asked my mom if I could go to the dance with you. Do you remember what she said? She told you to sit down and relax and that my father would be downstairs in a minute and you would need to ask him. We giggled about that for days.

Just then Bob interrupted, “Who’s in a daze?” he asked. She leaned over and stroked his hand. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. She worried about Bob, just as she always has. He asked her if she was going to tell the story. She looked at him tenderly and Bob’s eyes locked onto hers like when they were in love. He said, “Janie, aren’t you gonna tell the story, you know the one about the way we did it back then.”