It Happened in One Night

I am sure that everyone has one date that you can’t forget, and this is my story. So much happened on this one night that it could fill the time for several dating experiences. The cast of characters is six. Myself and my date, his friend and my sister’s friend, Linda G., my sister and what turned out to be her date of the evening. The night was like any other. The next day I was due to return to college, so I wanted a special night and did I get it!

I met up with Linda G. early in the evening. Linda G. lived about two miles from my home. In the country side, two miles away was like the house next door. I had called a boy that I had met in the summer, and we had decided to go out for the evening, but he had a friend that would need a date, so Linda G. was to be his date for the evening. Dale, my date, lived in the next hamlet so I picked up Linda at her house and off we went. When we got to Dale’s house, we had to wait for his friend to arrive. We started talking and it wasn’t long before I noticed that Dale was a little depressed. Dale was a cute, blonde hair boy that had a deep mystery that had gotten my attention. Finally that mystery was going to be solved. His twin brother had been killed in a car accident a few years before. He had been his parent’s favorite and Dale felt that he could never live up to his parent’s expectations. This left a void in his life; his parent’s wish that he had been killed and not the favorite son, and his own loss of his twin brother. I was determined to get him in a happier state of mind, but what I didn’t realize that Dale had developed a self-destructive nature that would come into focus before the end of the night.

We had decided to use his car and I left my car at his house. The four of us drove into town, trying to figure out what on earth we were going to do. I couldn’t go dancing at the local bar because only Linda and I were of drinking age. As we were driving, we saw my sister in town. We picked her up. There is another void in my memory because somewhere in that early part of the evening we did pick up another boy, so that we became three couples. Another factor was the fact that my sister was under a curfew from our parents. She had to be home by 10 p.m., which would never be met. We finally decided to go to “Lookout Point”. This was a place that overlooked the lake. It was a great scenic view and one that had a local history of lover’s leaping to their death, thus called “Lover’s Leap” by the teenagers. I don’t know if anybody ever leaped from this spot, but it made a good reason to see the locale.

The site was a few miles from town, so off we went. It was a night that was overcast and the moon could not be seen. We had never made plans on how we were going to walk through to dark woods to get to the spot. Since we had no flashlight, I bought out the cigarette lighter that I had. Using the lighter was a light, we made our way though the woods to the area. We had to walk single file with one hand on the shoulder of the person in front. It looked a little like the blind leading the blind, but it was fun. We got to the spot and it was beautiful. The country side was full of lights from the houses below, but how it could be a “Lover Leap” escaped me. There was no cliff but a down hill slope with lots of trees. It was a good place to get hurt but no suicide jump off. But it was a scenic and a special place.

Now we had to get back to the car. We had to wait for the lighter to cool down so we could use it as a light once again. During our trek back, the lighter ran out of fluid. We walked, single file, one hand on the person’s shoulder, to the car. The person in the lead was the one who had it rough. Since we couldn’t see, there was a lot of running into trees, tripping, etc. Then someone looked into the surrounding dark woods. Through the trees we saw a pair of eyes. I don’t know if it was a deer or bear, but we all decided it was a bear, and we all started running as best as we could, the girls screaming and the boys yelling all the way.

Once at the car, our fears melted away and we started trying to figure out what to do now. Dale remembered that he had a relative that worked in a bar in the next town. That town was up the hill side a few miles. We decided to go to the bar and pick up a few six-packs of beer. During the drive and somewhere in my flirting, I had decided to sit on Dale’s lap while he drove. There were no cars on the road, so we felt safe. I handled the steering wheel, he handled the gas. It reminded me of the time when I was very small, when I sat on my Daddy’s lap and he would let me drive. Of course then he never took his hands completely off the steering wheel, and he could see the road over my head. Dale didn’t have that luxury. While going up the hill, I saw a pair of eyes in the road, and then I realized it was a deer. I panicked. I couldn’t say a word to tell Dale to hit the brakes, and he couldn’t see the deer. At the last possible second, Dale saw the deer and hit the brakes hard. The resulting situation was no damage to the deer, no damage to the car, but physical pain where the lowest part of the steering wheel met my body. I was in deep pain and decided never to drive again sitting on someone lap.

When we arrived at the town, my sister informed us that she had to make a phone call to our mother. It was almost 10 p.m. and she was going to ask permission to stay out since she was with me. She made the phone call but she didn’t ask my mother for permission to stay out. Instead she told my mother that she would be home in 10 minutes. At the time she made the call, we were 60 minutes from home.

Since Linda and I were of age, we would enter the bar and get 4 six-packs for the rest of us. We were going to tell the story that our parents sent us on this errand. Linda and I went into the bar to get the beer. We were nervous, and I am sure that the bartender knew that something was up but he sold us the beer anyway. Now where could we go to drink the beer? We were, at least, smart enough not to drink and drive. We drove into the hills, looking for a spot that was not near any houses. We found a field, stopped and started our own little party in the car. Before long we were laughing and having a good time. The boys were making animal sounds that made everyone laugh so hard that it hurt. After the beer was gone, we all left the car to make a “pit stop”. During this “pit stop”, one of the boys found a pond. He came back all excited because he thought that it would a good night for a swim.

I didn’t want to go for a swim. No one had brought a swim suit, it was too cold for a swim, and I wasn’t that drunk to take off my clothes for a dip in the pond.
The other four decided that they would go for the swim. They left the car happy and laughing leaving Dale and me alone in the car. Since we were alone, we started kissing, just like any young couple would do. Before long, the four returned, but not laughing this time. They had decided that it was too cold to take off their clothes so the jumped into the pond with their clothes on. They forgot that once the clothes got wet, there would be no way to keep warm.

Dale started the car, started the heater at full blast and down the hill side we went; destination home or anywhere where the kids in the back seat could get warm. During the long ride down the winding hill side, the headlights went out. The moon had come out from behind the clouds, so we had some light. We were all afraid of running into a deer again... There was no place to stop, so we just prayed that we would get home safety. The kids in the back just wanted to get warm. The headlight came back on, so off we went. Then the headlight went off again. This off and on cycle continued all the way home. Dale figured that was a short somewhere in the circuit and soon we all felt like it was normal for the headlights to go on and off.

During this ride, someone started talking about marriage. Before long it was decided that we would all drive to Maryland and get married. I had no intention of getting married, but it was decided that we would go. On the way to the Thruway, (toll expressway of NYS), we stopped a full service gas station. I should mention that this particular gas station was 3 miles from Dale’s house and 5 miles from my house. The attendant looked at the headlights and said he would repair them. During the repair, the attendant couldn’t help to notice four teenagers soak and wet and shivering like crazy. He gave them two blankets to wrap around them. Dale informed him we were on our way to Maryland State to get married. The attendant said to keep the blankets as our first wedding present.

We were on the road again, with the headlight fixed, the heat on high, and the two wet couples snuggled in their blankets. The only problem was that the blankets smelled of gasoline. The heat and moisture sent the gasoline fumes into the car. We had to open the windows to let the fumes out, but at the same time the kids were cold again. We were in a ‘catch-22’. The kids froze with the blankets off and froze with the blankets on. We got on the Thruway, and I got very tired. I laid my head in Dale’s lap and started to drift off. I had no intentions of getting married but I would worry about how to get out of it later. Little did I know that things were going to change again.

The headlight started to go on and off again. The attendant had not fixed the problem. Now going down an expressway at 60 mph is not something you want to do when the headlights are off. Dale exited the expressway at the next exit that he came to. Carefully driving to avoid the police, he took the back roads all the way to his house. Now everyone was tired and just wanted to go home. I picked up my car at Dale’s house and headed for home. It was 3 a.m. and remembers that my sister had told our mom that she would be home at 10 p.m. and that she was with me. My mother is like any other mother, she worries. The result of that worry is that she was out looking for us. In the country side near my home there was a place where two roads intersect and it is very flat. A driver can see another car a mile away from either road. As I was traveling, I saw a car coming towards me. I told me sister that I think it is Mom. She said it can’t be Mom, she is home sleeping. I wagered with my sister that if the car turned left at the intersection, it was Mom. The car did turn left and it was Mom.

When we all arrived met at the house, my sister, in a panic, informed our mother that it was my fault and we were late because we had been on our way to Maryland to get married. She was grounded and I left for college the next day.

The lesson of this story is: It doesn’t matter that you think that you are indestructible; the truth is that you are just lucky this time.