The First Time...

The first time I saw her was in the auditorium of the former Junior High School that our Department was using as the police academy. The rows of seats were curved, and I was sitting on the left side of the room. There were over 240 academy students in that room, but when I looked across the room, all I saw was her. She was absolutely beautiful. Her hair was pulled back into a french braid, with a black bow at the nape of her neck. She has such a long, graceful neck. I was transfixed by her... I could hear my heart beating in my ears.

One of the instructors began calling out our last names, in alphabetical order, and ordered each group to follow an instructor to a different classroom. My group was sent to the school cafeteria.
When I arrived there, I took a seat at one of the tables. She came walking in to the room a few minutes later, and sat at the other end of my table. As she passed by me, I could smell her scent. It made me dizzy... she smelled wonderful.

When she sat down, I couldn't help but notice her wrists.. so delicate and beautiful. (Her WRISTS!!?! God... I knew I was in some deep trouble.....). She had the biggest clearest eyes in the world... the color of whisky in amber.... soft, kissable lips... perfect lips.... and a smile that could light up the world.

I tried to never let on how I felt... but I would always catch myself staring at her.

Apparently, one of the instructors noticed me staring at her as well, because the first day of defensive tactics, he picked me and her to fight and wrestle on a gym mat in front of the entire class.

• I am nuts about her.
• She is the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
• She is in a pair of nylon, satiny gym shorts and t-shirt.
• I am in a pair of nylon, satiny gym shorts and t-shirt.
• They expect me to roll around with her on a mat in front of everybody.
• NOT!

My big strategy was to put her on the ground, on her face, and keep her there, immobile, until somebody said that time was up. I did that, but didn't know that she was claustrophobic. When they called time, she sprung to her feet like a cat and charged at me swinging, angry tears in her eyes.

So much for a great first impression.

At least I escaped the indignity of a very public bump in the pants.....

... that has to count for something.

We ended up becoming fast friends during our time at the academy. It never became more than that, and I just enjoyed spending time with her, laughing with her, and just being friends.

I would watch her when she was studying, or taking tests... the little tendrils of hair that hung down at the nape of her neck just about drove me out of my mind.... I so wanted to kiss that beautiful neck... put my arms around her and hold her forever... but the timing and the climate just wasn't right. So... I kept my distance. Slowly, though... I began falling very much in love with her.

On the last day at the academy, I took a photograph that was taken during training, in which she was practicing emergency medical skills on a mannequin. I kept that photo and looked at it daily for many years to come....

We had plenty of laughs during those six months, some of which I will write about in future posts.

That was our beginning.

After the academy, we went our own ways... I only spent one day with her after that, and saw her one other time... she was directing traffic, and I was in the back seat of somebody else's car.
We were only three or four feet away from each other, but it may as well have been a hundred miles....

The next time I went to the precinct where she worked and asked about her, they told me that she had quit the job, and moved away. I was devastated. I drove out to her house on my next day off, and strangers answered the door. I searched the phone book, asked around in her old neighborhood, and finally resorted to writing letters to her with no address to mail them to.

I used to put them into bottles, and toss them into the sea... or put them into baloons and have them filled with helium... which I would release into the sky.

Nine years passed... she had some relationships, and so did I, before fate brought us back together again.... but....

That's another story.....