Tommy Blakely was sitting at the diner having a soda one hot summer day. He often came to this diner because he liked watching the nearby river, but today it was just too hot to be sitting outside. As he sat there on the counter close to the register, a young girl came into the diner.

Tommy thought she was attractive; five foot, three inches tall, blond hair, and green eyes. He hadn’t seen her around and that was strange. Tommy thought he knew most of the kids in the small midwestern town of Hardin, and missing someone who looked like this girl was highly unlikely!

He sat there watching the girl as she sat down at a booth. The waitress came over and handed the girl a menu. When she thanked the waitress Tommy thought she had a very soft and sweet voice. The waitress left and the young girl began looking over the menu.

Suddenly, she put the menu down. She looked dejected as she sat there at the table. The waitress came back and Tommy overheard them talking.

“So have you decided what you’d like sweetie?” the waitress asked.

“Well, I was going to order some lunch, but I didn’t bring enough money. I guess I’ll just have a soda,” she said sadly.

Tommy saw an opportunity to be a good neighbor and introduce himself to this pretty young girl. He got up and walked over to the two women.

“Excuse me. I’m sorry but I overheard you talking. I’d be happy to buy you lunch if you’d like to sit and talk for a bit,” he said.

The waitress smiled and took a step back to give the two kids some room. She wanted to see if Tommy’s smooth operating would pay off!

“Well ... yes I’d like that. Thank you. My name is Rebekah Miles,” the girl said.

“My name is Tommy Blakely. Nice to meet you,” he said.

With the offer made and accepted, the waitress stepped forward again. “Okay you two, what will you have?” she asked.

Tommy looked at the menu. “We’ll have two doublecheeseburgers, two large fries, and two large sodas,” he said. He looked at Rebekah and she just smiled, blushing a bit and looking at him with her head lowered.

The waitress smiled too. “I’ll get your order in right away,” she said, touching Tommy on the arm and giving him a congratulatory wink.

While they waited for their lunch, Tommy and Rebekah got acquainted. “So, I haven’t see you around here before. Did you just move in or something?” Tommy started.

“No, we are just here for a revival meeting this week,” she said.

“A revival meeting?” Tommy asked quizzically.

“Yes. My father is Dr. Phillip Miles, the evangelist. My whole family is in town this week so he can preach at the revival meeting and share his message with your fine town,” she explained.

“I see,” Tommy said. The two continued to talk as they ate and got to know each other better. They really seemed to hit it off and enjoyed their lunch with each other. Tommy found out that Rebekah helped with her father’s work by singing as her mother accompanied her on the piano and singing as well. Rebekah found out Tommy worked at the local garage, helping to work on cars and working in the front office.

Rebekah really had taken a shine to Tommy. She thought he was handsome, funny, and very sweet. However, traveling as she did with her family didn’t lend itself to making many friends. So Rebekah decided that she needed to move fast if she wanted to get to know Tommy as much as she wanted – she didn’t have time to waste on being coy and demure.

They finished their lunch and Tommy asked Rebekah where she and her family were staying.

“We have a room at the Sandlewood Inn over on 20th Avenue,” she said.

“20th Avenue – that’s an awful long walk from here! You have to let me take you back to your motel,” Tommy said, fishing in his pocket for the keys to his car.

“That would be nice. I took the bus over here, but riding back with a friend would be even better,” she said, looking up at him with her head lowered.

So Tommy offered Rebekah his arm, and they walked up to the register and he paid the bill for lunch, then they left to go to his car.

“This is your car?” she said, as they got to his red 1970 Boss Mustang.

“Yeah it’s kind of a project car. I’ve been working on fixing it up for a couple years now. I got it as a rusty old heap at a junkyard about two and a half years ago. I work on it in my spare time, and have got it looking pretty good finally,” he said.

“You certainly have!” Rebekah said, running her fingers over the curve of the rear wheelwell. “It’s beautiful!”

“Thanks,” he said, opening the door for her. He helped her into the car, then went around and got in himself. He started the car up with a menacing rumble and they started for her motel.

It was about a 15 minute drive across town from the diner, but as they pulled into the parking lot of the motel, Rebekah put her hand on Tommy’s right thigh.

“Tommy, I don’t really want to go back to that boring motel room so soon. Would you mind if we went for a drive or something? I so rarely get to look around at the towns we go through so fast,” she said.

“No, I don’t have anything to do today. We could drive around a bit if you like,” Tommy said.

“Thank you. Traveling around the country is nice, but if you are never able to see any of it, it doesn’t really matter,” Rebekah said. So Tommy put the car back in gear and pulled back out of the parking lot.

“So where would you like to go? What do you want to see?” Tommy asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. I just like being outdoors and not cooped up in that motel room. I heard some people at the store yesterday talking about a park just outside of town? I guess the river runs next to it or something?”

“Oh yeah, Burris Park. Yeah I know the place well. It’s a popular recreation area for the town. Want to go there?” Tommy asked.

“Yes, it sounded lovely,” Rebekah said. So Tommy headed for Burris Park and about 15 minutes later they were passing through the gate to the park.

“So do you want to see the river, the park, or the lake?” Tommy said, “There’s a lot to do here if you like the outdoors.”

“Well, I don’t know. You’re driving, surprise me!” she said.

“Okay,” he said. He followed the road until he had to turn onto a gravel road. A couple minutes later they pulled into a gravel parking area next to the river. Rebekah noticed that in front of the parking area was a paved bike trail that ran along the river bank.

Tommy got out of the car and then helped Rebekah out. “Want to walk for a bit?” he said. She smiled in agreement, so the two young people walked down the bike path a couple hundred yards until they reached a small clearing in the trees.

The grass was very green and there was a park bench there that overlooked the river. They sat down on the bench and watched the river go by. It was a lovely day, and the river cooled the air off so it wasn’t so hot as well.

Tommy and Rebekah sat there, an uncomfortable silence building as both tried to find something to say to continue the conversation.

“So how long has your family been traveling like this?” Tommy said, trying to make small talk.

“We have been moving around like this for about six years now,” she said.

“I’ll bet you have seen a lot of neat places in your travels,” Tommy said.

“Tommy, could we please not talk about traveling or my family business or things like that? I hear about it all the time. I just want to enjoy being here with you,” she said, looking at him.

“Okay ... what would you like to...” he started.

“Tommy can I ask you something?” she asked, turning to him and taking his hands.

“Sure, um ... I guess. What is it?”

“Would you kiss me?” she asked sweetly. Tommy couldn’t believe his ears!

“What?” he asked.

“I have never done this before, but I really like you, Tommy. Please kiss me!” she said.

Tommy didn’t need to be asked a third time. He reached over and pulled her to him, kissing her long and deep. Her lips tasted sweeter than anything he had ever known before.

Tommy put his arms around the young girl as their kiss deepened. She opened her mouth and his tongue went inside to search hers out. She moaned into his mouth softly as she felt him taking control. Her moan encouraged him to make his next move.

Still kissing her passionately, his hand began to slowly wander from her shoulder down her arm to just above her elbow. Summoning up his courage, he moved it from her arm to gingerly brush across her breast.

He fully expected to be slapped or at the very least for her to be mad at him and want to go home immediately. But instead, she reached up and put her hand over his, pressing in and signalling that she wanted him to continue. Pleasantly surprised, he groped her breast a bit harder, eliciting another moan from Rebekah as she parted her legs absently.

Rebekah broke their kiss temporarily as she unbuttoned her sweater-vest and removed it, laying it over the back of the bench neatly. Then she removed the red collar decoration and the top button of her white blouse.

When Tommy realized what she was doing, he reached up and stopped her. She looked up at him and he smiled, then he took over unbuttoning her blouse one button at a time while watching her to see how far he would be allowed to go.

Rebekah watched Tommy as well, her soft green eyes searching for a reaction from him, wondering what he was thinking about her. Did he like what he was unwrapping? Did he think bad of her for letting him do this to her? She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she wanted it as much as he did, if not more.

Tommy was on the third button of her blouse, working from the top down, when Rebekah stopped him taking hold of his hands.

“Are you sure we are alone, Tommy? Are you sure no one will come by and see us?” she said, worried they would be found out.

“Well, this isn’t a very populated part of the trails around here. Most people go around the lake when they come here. But if you are really worried about it, there is a small clearing back further into the woods a bit we could go just to be sure,” he said.

“Yes, that would be better. I don’t want anyone to catch us,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll tell you what. You wait right here and I’ll go back to the car – I have a blanket in the trunk I keep in case of emergencies. This isn’t really an emergency, but it’s really important!” he said.

Rebekah giggled, “Okay, I’ll wait here.”

Tommy left the girl with a kiss and went back to get the blanket. When he got back to Rebekah, she was still sitting on the bench with her hands folded in her lap. She smiled as he got closer. “Welcome back,” she said as he pulled her to her feet.

“Thanks. Now let’s take this party someplace private shall we?” he said. Rebekah giggled and nodded her head demurely. The pair walked into the woods about 100 yards to a small grassy clearing. Rebekah noticed a circular burn on the ground – obviously this place had been used for a camp or party in the past. She looked back and saw that they were well out of sight from the bike trail too.

“Is this private enough?” he asked her.

“If we won’t be disturbed or found out, it’s perfect!” she said, smiling coquettishly.

Tommy laid the blanket out on a soft grassy area and the two young people sat down on it.

Tommy laid Rebekah down on the blanket and laid down next to her, propped up on one elbow. He softly stroked her cheek and traced his finger around the outline of her lips. She parted her lips as his finger brushed across them.