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by Doris Cameron Winter Park, Florida
We toasted the New Year with glasses of cold milk and it didn't
matter that it was noon instead of midnight or that it was three weeks too early. It didn't matter because Tony Perkins was my date
No matter how hard I try, I can’t remember what I said to him that first night! The one thing that does come back though is wishing I’d combed the curl back into the end of my ponytail or tucked in my blouse before I answered that knock. Inside, to myself, I might even have said something like “Wow!” But not to him. One look at him — and I don’t think I was capable of saying anything.
Mother was still picking up in the kitchen, and I had just started some pretty impossible-looking geometry problems, when there was a knock at the door. “Doris,” Mother called, “would you mind getting that? I can’t imagine who it is — one of the students maybe.” (My mother was the librarian at Rawlins College, in Winter Park, Florida, and we had been living in a little house right on the campus since my father died two years before.)
“Okay,” I answered, not even bothering to put my loafers back on. I went into the living room and opened the front door.
And there he was — on the other side of the screen door — the tallest boy I ever saw! He was wearing khakis and a cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Under the straight, brown hair that hung over»his forehead, I saw his eyes — -warm and lively and kind of laughing even though it was easy to see, from the way he was standing, how shy he was.
“Is this where Mrs. Cameron lives?” he finally asked. Then, before I even had a chance to answer, “Is she your mother? My name is Tony Perkins.” “Yes, she is,” I said, turning around to call her. He came in and sat down in the living room on kind of a low chair. His knees seemed to come up almost to his chin. He began cracking his knuckles, one after another. I noticed that his hands
were large, with long and sensitive-looking fingers.
“Gee, Mrs. Cameron — -I’m sorry. I mean, it seems terrible bothering you in the evening like this. But I’m in a real jam. You see — I wouldn’t ever cause you so much trouble unless it was for something really important. But there was a required book for Music 1. Well, the exam’s tomorrow! You must be thinking I should have gotten that book a couple of weeks ago at least. I guess you’re right. I should have, but I was pretty busy and one thing led to another and then, the first thing I knew, the exam was here! And I still hadn’t gotten that book.” Once he started talking, he didn’t seem to be able to stop. Words kind ( Continued on page 96)
W e’d hiked out to the beach, the day this picture was taken. Then Tony asked me out for New Year’s.