When I was a senior in high school I went out with a girl named Sarah. I liked Sarah a lot. She had a real mischievous streak to her, but she also knew how to be incredibly sweet. We had our share of sneaking beer and cigarettes in the woods behind the house, but on rainy Sunday afternoons we were just as likely to be found under a blanket in the family room watching reruns of Little House on the Prairie.
“You’re into that do-gooder, Laura, aren’t you? I bet you wish I was all demure and sweet.” Then she’d grab my hand and move it, ” …but then I wouldn’t let you do this, would I?”
Sarah and I went together that whole year, and while I was certainly too young to understand what love was; I was also stupid enough not to realize that.
That summer, the last one before heading off to college, Sarah and I slowly drifted apart. I was getting ready for college and she had gotten a summer job at the local grocery store. That’s where she met Marty. Soon after, our conversations were peppered more and more with anecdotes about Marty and when I asked her if she wanted to watch the July 4th fireworks together she said she couldn’t becuase she was “doing something with Marty.” I got up and ran away so she wouldn’t see me cry.
And that was that. We would speak just one more time.
It was late August and I was packing for college. I was going through my records and deciding which ones to take with me. I was convinced that in college you got judged by your record collection. (I was right, of course.) I was debating whether to take Cheap Trick’s At Budakhan and decided to give it one more listen. I pulled out the sleeve and out fell a picture. It was Sarah. She was lying on my bed. She was naked. Sprawled out on my Star Wars comforter. She looked fantastic.
The morning I left for college I took that photo, put it in an envelope with no return address, and mailed it to Sarah’s Mom.
One week later Sarah called me.
All in all I don’t miss the picture that much, in fact I’d forgotten all about it until a few weeks ago, but I’m glad that if that were to happen today I could scan the picture, or even post it on Flickr, MySpace or my blog. I could have shared it without having lost it. And that’s what the future means to me; having my cake and eating it too.
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Mike Monteiro is a creative director at a design studio in the bay area, which neither sanctions nor approves what comes out of his mouth after hours. He’s basically a good person, but he remembers and saves everything you’ve ever said or done to him.
Sarah lives in a suburb of Washington, D.C. with 3 children and drives an ecologically irresponsible vehicle. Her husband works for the government. Her mother passed away 3 years ago, at which point I like to think Sarah might have regained possession of the photo.
I have nor clue what happened to Marty.
(Drawing by Timothy Buckwalter)