Twelve

JMJ, my son is going to be turning 12 in ten days.

Let's go back there, shall we? Let's see if you can guess the year. I sure as heck ain't gonna give out that information without a tussle.

It's a cold and snowy after-school day in Yonkers. I am with my friend Janet and a girl from my class who just showed up at Fay Park, named Cathy. We are wearing winter coats and are singing the theme song from "Zoom":

Come on and zoom, zoom, zoom-a zoom!
We're gonna zoom-a, zoom-a, zoom-a zoom!
Everybody's movin' it, everybody's doin' it,
Everybody's havin'a ball, yeah!
So would you zoom, zoom, zoom-a zoom?
Come on and zoom-a zoom-a zoom-a zoom!

During those days, the crush of my life was a kid named Adam. I just thought he was an adonis. He was tall and lean and had a moppy head of curly black hair, swarthy skin, and a big nose. I worshipped him and wrote about him endlessly in my diary. When the Adam entries replaced the Donny Osmond entries in length and attention, I knew that I was in love.

So Adam and his best friend, Blaine ("His name is Blaine? Oh! That's a major appliance, that's not a name!" from "Pretty In Pink") come around the fence into Fay Park. I immediately turn all shades of red and Janet starts whispering. Cathy is the bold one. "Hey kid! You're in our class, right? Hey!"

Adam looks toward us and I gulp and have nothing to say. Then he and Blaine look at each other. They scoop up handfuls of snow and form them into quick but efficient snowballs.

(And now I can hear Mrs. Chapin, the principal. P.S. 27-ites, please note. Also please note that I am now having major flashbacks and that help is probably required to bring me back to this century. Thank you.)

Snowballs flying through the air, the three of us girls create our own quick arsenal and start winging same at the boys.

The sky is grey with more snow. I remember this crispness and know that the cheeks of my light skin are apple red from both the cold and the excitement of the engagement with Adam.

Soon the sky is peppered with relentless snowballing. The boys retreat from Fay Park, around the fence, closer to P.S. 27, still somehow finding their target with the snowballs. We follow in pursuit, with snowballs in our coat pockets, fingers freezing, and run onto Abeel Street. (Note: I had to Mapquest that. I only remember the major SW Yonkers streets).

Lobbing snowballs at us, the boys begin to make their escape onto Valentine Lane, but we are gaining closure. I am so close to Adam now I can touch him, and summon all my nerve. The cloth of his jacket is within my grasp. My boot heel goes out from under me and I crash onto Abeel Street, meeting pavement and a screeching car stops close to me.

As Adam and Blaine make their getaway, Janet and Cathy help me up. I am embarassed and disappointed and still flushed with the thrill of the hunt. Although my prey has escaped, for now, I will continue to pursue him during my year of twelve.

In the land of Yonkers NY 10705.