Mimi was sixteen years old.

A sophomore, cute as a button, and like many of her peers at St Patrick’s High in Halifax, a daily reminder for most every male teacher in the school, that their best years have sadly passed now into ancient history. It wasn’t that she tried to be sexy in any way, just that she had no idea how not to be.

Standing barely five-four in bare feet, her slim body and still developing breasts proclaimed her youth. Blonde hair cascaded way past her shoulders and framed an alert little face that required but the least make-up to highlight her pretty features.

You couldn’t say she was innocence personified however, despite what the visuals would suggest. Nothing serious though – just that she had a penchant (like so many other girls her age) to read naughty stories on the internet. Probably nothing wrong with that when you think about it – it’s a worldwide pastime – especially for curious little schoolgirls!

Of late she had been reading avidly. One particular author had attracted her attention the last few months by virtue of the fact that many of his stories involved teenage girls graphically mis-behaving – either by intent or unplanned circumstance. Either way, her parents would have been shocked senseless had they known just what road their daughter’s fingers had travelled in recent times.

In a moment of self-assertive bravado, she had even emailed the author telling him how she had enjoyed his tales of erotic fantasy if not aggravated sexual dysfunctionality. Imagining herself in the fictional girls’ dilemma, was usually sufficient to precipitate a really good night’s sleep!

Upon receiving a reply from the author however, she was not too sure how to react. That his words flattered her, as regards a photograph she had sent of herself, was not in doubt but she harbored still a vague and wholly understandable concern that she was corresponding with a man more than three times her own age. It aroused her as much as it provoked her insecurity.

It was a week later that she first “saw” the man.

Sitting at her desk while the teacher was droning on about the American Civil War, her vision wandered to the nearby window and the sports oval across the way from the science labs. A man was standing there almost alongside the track. Too far for her to take-in specific detail, it seemed to Mimi that he was looking towards the main classroom block. He was wearing what at that distance, appeared to be a full length coat and holding some sort of brief-case in his right hand. She could not determine any of the man’s facial features but adjudged his age to be at least in his late forties to early fifties. For no reason that she could nominate, there was a comforting familiarity about his aspect.

“Is there something more interesting outside than in here Mimi?” the teacher was calling out to her, bemused by the student’s obvious inattention.

“No Mr. Cramer ... sorry,” she replied meekly.

When next she glanced outside, the figure was gone.

She was still recalling the image of the man standing there, even as the school bus wound its way north on Dubrack street. Alighting at her stop near Knightsbridge Drive she half expected to see him waiting for her and was almost disappointed when she reached her home in Trailwood Place a few minutes later.

“You seem very distracted Mimi?” her mother said after she had ambled inside and walked around the kitchen a couple of times, “Is everything Ok at school?”

“No, I’m fine mom,” the girl replied. “Think I’ll go upstairs and make a start on my homework.”

“Well something must be wrong then,” she smiled at her daughter. “When was the last time you did that without being coerced?”

The girl shook her head and headed off to her room.

Not ten minutes into her ancient history assignment and she realized her concentration lay elsewhere. Her bookmarked websites were after all but a click away!

Locating that which she desired, she stared at the screen. A “new story” had been posted. It concerned the plight of a young female hitchhiker who having thumbed the totally wrong vehicle that evening, was now paying the price for her lack of caution, just a short distance away from the deserted highway. The girl’s humiliation at the hands of the two men was graphically described and although played-out under circumstances clearly abhorrent to any female in the real world, it had the effect on Mimi of escalating arousal. At the point the victim found herself restrained in the dust with nothing left but her skimpy panties for modesty, Mimi’s hand was well up beneath her dress following a (now) very familiar scenario.

“What would it feel like?” she wondered silently.

Shortly afterwards, following the enervating warmth that was now engulfing her lower body, she stretched out on the bed, hugging a pillow for added comfort. At least three boys from school she knew wanted to go out with her, but she needed something emotionally that she recognized instinctively a teenage boy could never give her. It was so hard being sixteen!

The next few days passed uneventfully. It was the following Saturday morning and being a warm summer day, Mimi had opted to take a stroll in Tremont Park, a green and altogether charming little oasis that at its extreme south-west corner, shared a common boundary with her own house. Towards the center of the park a small pond was home to a family of ducks and ducklings. It was to this spot that the girl was making her way slowly, having at that moment nothing of any consequence occupying her mind.

Sitting thus on the low brick wall that skirted the pond, she gazed into the distance. A few families with young children were taking advantage of the warm weather enjoying a picnic lunch. Three teenage boys were playing frisbee-golf the far side of the pond where the grass stretched almost towards the northern boundary of the park. Older couples walked arm in arm along the neat pathways - but it wasn’t these things suddenly held her attention.

Far to her right near the small grove of trees, stood a shadowy figure - one that she instantly recognized. Wearing still that full length coat and carrying the same brief-case, he was yet too distant for her to make out any physical details. Even as she squinted in his direction, her hand over her eyes shielding the sun’s glare, a young mother pushing her stroller, temporarily obscured her view. An instant later when she had passed, the man was gone.

Mimi leaped-up from the wall and walked briskly towards the trees where she had seen him – surely she had seen him?

No trace of the man was to be found and she covered the entire area. She could not understand how he could have walked in any direction without her seeing him. All she knew with total conviction is that he had been looking at her and that he meant her no harm. Walking home, she felt an overwhelming sense of disappointment and worse, it was nothing she could ever talk about to anyone – her sanity would forever be in doubt!

Keeping noticeably quiet that night, she excused herself from watching a movie with the family, on the grounds of having a truck-load of study to catch-up on, with end-of-term exams looming. More than once she glanced out of her bedroom window, on the off-chance the man was again keeping watch – maybe from within the confines of their large garden this time. “Am I completely crazy after all?” she pondered.

She was no nearer an answer to that question when she fell asleep an hour or so later.

The following school day was memorable for its strangeness. Her desk was not as she had left it, way nearer the window and with several text books stacked up inside she could not recall ever reading. Mr. Cramer even looked different with a broader smile than she was accustomed to seeing and somehow with more hair. She wondered if he had invested in a cheap toupee.

She saw the man twice more – once in the distance near the playing field again and later in the afternoon in the corridor right by the sports lockers. As before, whenever she approached, he simply disappeared. She decided that the only way to handle the situation was to do nothing whatsoever and allow him to make the next move ... if indeed there was ever to be a next move!

The bus seemed to navigate Dubrack Street at breakneck speed that afternoon and alighting at her stop she looked back at the row of seats stretching towards the rear. Not a school-kid could be seen.

Letting herself in the back door, she walked straight to the kitchen. To her great surprise both her mom and dad were seated at the table drinking freshly brewed coffee.

“Go upstairs sweetheart,” her father smiled at her, “He’s waiting for you.” Her mother looked up from the cup she was holding. “Hurry along Mimi, he’s come such a long way to see you.”

Placing her backpack on the kitchen table she made her way to the staircase. The day had been weird enough already, what was one more little eccentricity?

Pushing open her bedroom door, she could see the man standing near her work desk. His briefcase was on the far chair. He smiled at her.

“Hello Mimi, we have an appointment I believe?”

The girl stared uncomprehendingly, yet with a sense of expectancy.The man was quite obviously middle aged although something about him transcended any birth certificate. He was someone she could trust, maybe even love. It all just made no sense.

As he discarded his outer coat she was able to study him for the first time. Of average height and solid build, he wore clothes that none might call fashionable though on him they looked right. Clean shaven with thinning hair that seemed somehow so totally unimportant, he looked at her through kindly hazel-colored eyes that put her completely at ease. He was generations of knowledge and understanding and he had come for her as deep-down she had always known he would.

Holding his arms out to her, she was never going to resist her fate.

Far taller than Mimi, his arms encircled her waist as he drew her to him. His kiss was both gentle and passionate. For some reason she felt like crying but instead just looked up at him, her lips trembling noticeably, yet eager for more prolonged contact. The man smiled as with his right hand he caressed her neck and shoulders, the sensation of his hand running through her hair both soothing and ultimately arousing. She felt the blush rising in her cheeks but was powerless to halt proceedings even had she wanted to.

Fully aware that her breasts must be prominently displayed in the top she was wearing, she was curiously lacking any degree of embarrassment, but rather wanting him to see and admire her feminine birthright.

Her eyes were now closed as the man kissed her deeper. But for his arms around her, she may not have been able to remain overly steady on her feet. The hand that had been caressing the nape of her neck was charting a new course and having descended past her waist, was now lightly brushing against the curve of her bottom. As she felt the man’s hand smoothing across both rear cheeks she gave a small gasp, no male previously having ever attempted to feel her up in quite so forward a manner. It felt deliciously sexy.