The little house out back that once stood proud and tall, has now been torn down.  Nothing left but rubble and a lifetime of memories.  You could not miss that ole house, it was pink.  Guess somebody wanted to make sure they could find their house in the dark.

I remember going there and knocking on the door and a beautiful young girl answered.  She would come outside and we would talk.  Young kids stuff, you know.  She would talk about the other boys that came calling.  I must say, I wanted to talk about us, not the other boys. But, I listened anyway. I thought she had a voice like an Angel.

We would go out back and play mumbly peg with a knife. Somehow, she would always win.
Or, sometimes we would sit on the ground and play marbles.  But, she could not touch my shooting marbles.  I would bop her on sided of her head.  Nobody, but nobody touched my shooting marbles.

There was a fence that separated our houses, as it was easy to crawl over when I seen her out back.  Or, we would yell across and we would meet at the fence.  Lots of talk went on at the corner of that old fence.

We would pretend to be movie starts in a movie, singing to each other. ( a dog would start howling), so I would shut up. We had an old refrigerator out back of my house, lying on its side.
I would use it as an operating table.  We would play Dr. and patient. She would lie down on the table, and I??™d get a stick and pretend it was a knife. I??™d start my surgery, and it was fun to watch her giggle. But, that was all I was allowed to do. I told her, I was in training as an OBGYN Dr. She sued me for no licenses, and malpractice.  So, I was expelled from my training.

My old house has been torn down too. But, the memories are still there.

Wonder whatever happened to that girl.

It??™s been many years now, seems like a life time ago, that we were kids playing out back. No matter how long its been, she is still a wonderful part of my memory.  A cute little girl that once was a tomboy, climbing high in a china berry tree.  A little girl that surely must be a beautiful woman now.

Oh well, so much for the lucky guy.  The Dr and patient, the Nurse and patient, the little cheater at marbles.  Sure wish I could go back to them good old days again.  Somehow, I would find a way to beat her.  Maybe, I should have kissed her while she was on that operating table.
Perhaps I would be kissing her today.

?© 2004 Robert H. Gilbert, Jr.