Edited by Barney R. This I only messed with a little, so all errors are still mine.

He wasn’t part of any of the good cliques, just a kid who loved and learned. He was a boy who became a man and found two great loves. One was untouchable, and the other delayed.

Jackson Wilson Mason was a good young man. He was 14 and an eighth grader at Allen P. Laval Middle school. He was the only son and he had two younger twin sisters that he loved.

He was not exceptionally handsome, but he was not ugly either. He was not a bully, but he did not run away from the bullies he met. He was not a jock; but he was on a Pop Warner football team. He was not a brain; but he worked hard and got good grades. He was not a social butterfly; he was just a good kid.

Jack, as everyone (including most of his teachers) called him, was surprisingly popular. He did not understand the social dynamics of the school groups, so he ignored them. He had a good word for everyone, even the bullies.

Jack had just the past summer discovered that he liked girls. Not that he didn’t like them before, but before they were just friends. He had never worried about ‘girl cooties’ like some of the other guys used to. Now they were GIRLS.

He especially liked Louisa Maria Consuela Lopez. She, as he was Jack, was Maria. She was in Jack’s homeroom and his English and History classes. She even sat next to him in English. Maria’s father was an accountant and her mother was the school’s vocal music teacher. That meant that Maria was in the school choir. She didn’t mind, in fact she had a clear melodic alto voice. She enjoyed singing. She also played the piano.

Maria was on the small side for an eighth grader, and Jack saw one of the ninth grade bullies harassing her in the corridor outside of the cafeteria during lunch period. He heard the bully telling Maria he was now her boyfriend and she was not to speak to any of the other boys or he (the bully) would beat the boy up.

Jack liked Maria, and she was a GIRL, and a pretty girl at that. He went up and touched Maria on the arm and said to her; “Maria, remember, you said we were going steady? Well if we’re going steady, and you’re my girlfriend, how about sitting with me at lunch?” Jack then held out his hand.

Leaving the bully standing with his mouth open, Maria quickly grabbed Jack’s hand and they walked into the cafeteria together. She whispered in Jack’s ear. “Thank you, that idiot scared me, I do not even know his name. He just came up to me and pulled me away from my friends.”

She continued; “Are you serious about me sitting with you at lunch? I would really like it. Can we sit with my friends; we always have one or two empty seats at our table?”

Jack was dumbfounded. He had only dreamed of this since school started this year. He had not even thought beyond getting Maria out of the bully’s vicinity. He could only nod; but he did it quite vigorously.

After they went through the hot food line, the bully was trying to block their way to the tables. He was standing in the area of the hot food line exit so after the couple got their lunch cards punched, he was waiting.

What happened next was seen by almost the entire student body and many of the teachers. The bully took a swing at Jack. When his fist got to where Jack was; he wasn’t. The bully found a lot of air; so much air that he twirled around in almost a complete circle. Jack had moved Maria to the side and ducked under the swing without missing a step.

Laughter erupted in the cafeteria. The bully got red in the face and charged Jack. Before he could get to Jack, two teachers grabbed the bully and frog marched him out of the cafeteria.

Maria and Jack were welcomed to the table of Maria’s friends and the lunch period was a continuous babble of the friends making lots of laughing comments about the bully and his actions.

From then on until she moved away the next summer, Jack and Maria were never very far apart. They rode the same bus so Jack would get off with Maria and walk her to her house and then walk the couple of blocks to his house.

Maria’s father took a job in a city on the other side of the state, so her family moved before the start of the next school year. Jack was sad to see his new girl friend leave.

When school started up again, now freshman Jack was invited to sit with the same bunch of girls that he had sat with last year. Allyison O’Rourke, one of the girls from the year before asked Jack and of course he said yes.

Ally, as everyone called her was a good looking red haired girl with more freckles then there were stars in the sky. Jack loved the freckles and teased Ally that some day he was going to count them. Ally would just blush and smile at Jack.

Because of Maria, and her mother, Jack had enrolled in the vocal music class and was asked to join the Junior Glee Club. Ally was in the group too. As his voice had changed, Jack became a strong and pleasing Baritone, so in the club he was next to Allyison, who was a Soprano. He was asked several times to be a soloist, and tried but could not get over the stage fright. He discovered a love of performing in a group though and continued all through his time in high school.

Besides lunch and music, they had a couple of other classes, math, and American Civics together. They were seated near each other, and as the classes were right after each other and right after lunch they walked to them together.

Jack started really liking Ally, and when the freshman spring dance was announced, he asked her to go with him. She told him she had already said she would go with a sophomore so she couldn’t go with Jack.

Jack was very disappointed, and stopped eating lunch with the group of Maria and Ally’s friends. He started to sit at a table by himself on the opposite side of the cafeteria.

Jack did not sit by himself for very many days. Soon all of the people from the former table, except Ally, were sitting with Jack. Ally seemed hurt, so Jack went and sat at her table. The others migrated back.

Then time came for the dance, Jack went stag. The sophomore came in with Ally. Once they were in the room, the jerk left Ally standing while he went and talked to his friends.

Jack decided that Ally needed someone to dance with. He walked over and asked her to dance. She accepted.

They danced for three straight dances, when her date arrived on the dance floor and spun Jack around. He told Jack to go away, Ally was his date.

Jack looked at him. The dancing around them stopped. Jack said; “If she is your date, why are you here now and not an hour ago when the dancing started. I saw you leave her at the door. You did not even have the courtesy to find her a seat at a table. Some date.”

There was some laughter in the group of dancers that stopped to listen. The guy took exception to the laughter and took a swing at Jack. This time he didn’t duck. He just reached up and grabbed the guys punching hand stopped the arc, and forced the guy’s arm to his side.

The laughter was long and loud then. The boy looked at Jack, at Ally, and at the crowd. “Come on bitch, you are my date, we are leaving.”

When he went to take Ally’s hand, she pulled it back and said; “You lost your date at the door when you came in and left me. I’m with a nice guy who has been a friend for almost two years. I’m not leaving.”

The ‘date’ looked around, saw that he had no support and left.

Jack never did get his name.

Jack and Ally were mostly inseparable for their high school years. When senior prom came around, the two lost their virginity together. They were seated next to each other for graduation ceremonies as they were seated by class standings. Ally was 25th and Jack was 26th of a class of 312.

Because Jack and Ally were good students they both planned to attend college together. It was not to be as Jack did not get enough scholarships to cover the cost of college. His family could not afford to help.

So when he graduated, he kissed Ally good bye, and joined the army. He was able to adapt well to military discipline. He was named honor graduate of his basic training company and was offered a chance to attend West Point. He saw that as his chance at a college education without student loan debt. He signed on the dotted line. When he graduated he signed up to take jump school.

He arrived at Fort Benning Ga. and was shown to Jump School, he signed in and as a butterbar 2nd Lt. was assigned a billet in the BOQ¹ and told where to report to, beginning the next Monday.

He thrived at jump school and after successfully completing the course was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg NC. He was involved in active combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He was one of the lucky ones, he was slightly wounded and was rotated back to the U.S. He was a successful Army officer and rose to the rank of Captain and when his West Point commitment was over. He resigned his commission. He was now a civilian, but subject to recall until he reached 50 years old.

His degree was in civil engineering, and he had no trouble finding a job with an engineering firm that had several contracts to build roads and bridges. The job took him all over the area and the six states around. He was on a job in Illinois when his father died.

He went home to assist his mother. He was the oldest child and his two sisters Jane and Judy were both married and had small children. They were also living out of state. Because of this Jack resigned his job and stayed to take his place as head of the family.

Jack now 29, found a job with the local county government in their road and bridge maintenance and repair department. When he was introduced to the rest of the department, he found Ally again. She was the accounting department director and her office was right across from Jack’s.

Jack and Ally reconnected, sort of. Ally introduced Jack to her husband. They all ended up being great friends.

Ally worked hard to introduce Jack to some of her divorced and unmarried girlfriends. Jack tried, but Ally ran out of friends before Jack found a soul mate.

When that soul mate finally showed up, Jack literally ran into her. He was shopping in the grocery store when he turned a corner into an aisle and ran into Maria’s cart.

Jack at first did not recognize her. After all it had been more than fifteen years since they went to school together. Maria recognized Jack first. She squealed and grabbed him in a hug and was laughed like a mad woman.

After Maria calmed down, she asked Jack for an opportunity to catch up. They finished shopping side by side. They agreed to meet at a local coffee shop for lunch.

At the meeting, the first thing Maria said was; “It’s Mrs. Camdon now. I was married for seven years, when he was killed in an auto accident. After he died I moved back here, as this was always the most comfortable place for me.”

Jack was very understanding and told Maria about his father’s death, his moving back to help his mother, and his new job with the county.

Maria laughed when Jack mentioned becoming reacquainted with Ally. She told Jack that she and Ally had been talking for several months. She told Jack about Ally’s frustration with her lack of success at finding a match for Jack.

Jack asked Maria to keep their meeting from Ally. He explained that he was invited for Sunday dinner with Ally and her husband. He said he was going to call Ally and see if he could bring a date, and the two of them would have a great ‘gotcha’ on their friend. Maria agreed.

They talk for over two hours, and other than deciding to going to Ally’s They just brought each other up to date. They exchanged phone numbers.

On arriving back to his mother’s, Jack called Ally and she sounded disappointed. She told him she had one last lady for Jack to meet. Then she added that Jack knew the lady.

Jack said he really wanted to bring the lady that he just met. Ally gave a big sigh, and said alright.

The meeting time was approaching when Jack picked up Maria. The two jokers decided to have Maria hiding behind Jack and when asked about his guest she would step out.

When the pair finally arrived, Ally looked at Jack, and not seeing his lady she asked, “Where is Maria?”