Chapter 1

Within the last two years, Bobbie had often secretly entered the cement-blocks warehouse that held the machinery. The dry cleaning business actually consisted of two separate buildings connected by a wide passageway. One of the buildings, the one that was situated with its façade on Reilly Street, was a wooden construction and it was much older than the other block structure in the back.

The cement blocks building was located just behind the older wooden one and a part of its back wall was right next along the fence in the back yard where Bobbie lived.

This building held the dry cleaning machinery and it was also used to store repair parts, chemicals and most of the different garments to be cleaned and pressed. On one side of that building there was a large metal door that would allow the only truck of the company to enter and unload its daily collection of clothing from around town.

The office, the bookkeeping and much of the freshly cleaned garments were kept in the wooden structure in front of the larger cement block building.

Mr. Steven, the owner of the small dry cleaning business, was assisted by his wife working with him in the office during the day. While she took care of the bookkeeping as well as the clients that came in to pick their freshly dry-cleaned clothing, the company's two permanent employees would be busy with the cleaning and pressing of the clothing items inside the blocks building.

Most of the time, during the day at least, Mr. Steven was on the road in his truck collecting the different items to be clean from his regular clients.

In the wall, about twelve feet further from the large metal door and almost completely hidden by tall bushes, was a small square door which at one time had been used to unload the truck. It seemed rather more of a hole than a door since its dimensions were three feet to a side and it was placed at waist height. It had soon been discovered, once the building had been built, that the small door was not very practical, especially in wintertime.

So Mr. Steven had condemn it and to replace it he had built the larger door through which he could drive his truck inside the building and unload his collection of clothing while inside the warehouse.

Even though the small door was no longer used, it was still there and only a lock prevented anyone from opening it and getting inside the building. But since it was well hidden by the overgrowth along the length of the fence, Mr. Steven had simply forgotten about it.

The lock had been broken a few years earlier by Bobbie and his two friends when they had been looking for a place to smoke in peace without being discovered. Bobbie had only been thirteen then and now two years later, he still went inside the cement blocks building, sometimes to smoke and sometimes just to think while hiding from his parents.

In those days, it was not proper in Lakeview for someone to smoke before the age of eighteen, and to make matters worst, neither of Bobbie's parents smoked. Therefore it was extremely important for him that no one should catch him smoking and this is the reason that when he felt an urge to smoke and when he knew that the warehouse was empty, he went there to smoke.

Discipline and the moral values of the citizens of Lakeview were not as loose as they are today, this plus the fact that his parents were very strict in matters of church values made things even harder for Bobbie.

It should be mentioned here that Lakeview, being a town of just over five thousands souls and situated far from all the big centres - the closest large town was Bridgetown which was over a hundred miles away - made it a special place in its own category. Worst still, Lakeview was almost a completely all-Catholic community and most of the town activities were either directly or indirectly under the control and leadership of the Catholic Church.

In the town itself, the church was by far the tallest building while the presbytery standing next to it, was the second most impressive structure with its three stories in height. All the activities of the community were therefore totally under the control of the two dozens or so priests, not to mention the many nuns and Christian brothers that made up a large portion of the teaching staff of the town two schools.

So one had to be on his guard as to what one did and what one said in Lakeview, and this was even more so for the young people of Bobbie's age. To be caught smoking at fifteen was almost unthinkable. So whenever he felt an urge to have a puff or two Bobbie had to make sure that no adult would see him.

As for going out with girls or kissing before one was of age - at least eighteen - was worst even. To kiss a girl in the heat of passion was considered a great sin, it was also a lack of respect for the girl as well as for her parents. Of course, every adult in Lakeview was a potential spy and once an unbecoming action or conduct was reported to the proper authorities, in this case it could be a teacher or a priest, it was only a matter of hours before the offender's parents were informed of the bad deed.

I you were living in Lakeview in those days, you had to comply with the code of ethic of the majority or live elsewhere. Shorts - for girls or boys - were tolerated only on the beach, while on the town streets, girls wearing slacks or jeans were frown upon.

Obedience to the authorities was a must at all time. Of course the highest of these authorities were the priests then the many brothers and nuns. The child's parents came only after these in degrees of importance. Bobbie still remembered - from the days he was only twelve - the Mitchell's, a family that had come from Pine Valley to live in Lakeview.

They were not catholic, but since they had been living on a farm a few miles outside of the town, the head of the parish priests hadn't made too much of a fuss when they had moved in. But when Nancy Bolden turned out to be pregnant from the eldest of the Mitchell's sons, it made a big scandal and the whole town talked of nothing else for a few weeks. Soon after it became common knowledge about Nance's condition, the Mitchell's had to move to another town since no one in Lakeview would dare do business or talk to them. As for Nancy Bolden, she was never seen after that, even if her family did remained in Lakeview.

Now that school was over for the summer and that Bobbie's two friends had found themselves a job, - Jack was working at Paul's Market while Rodney was helping his father with his plumbing business - most of the time he was alone and on that warm early summer evening he had gone for a smoke in the cool and quiet interior of the warehouse just at the end of the back yard of his house.

He was stretched on the wooden boxes that held the metal containers in which the chemicals were stored. He was smoking or course and just relaxing when all of a sudden the large metal door began to slide aside.

He hurriedly put out his cigarette and he hid himself behind the single row of boxes. A few seconds late, he heard then saw Mr. Steven's small truck being driven inside the warehouse.

This was a change in Mr. Steven's habits. Usually his panel truck would remain at the back of his house until early morning when he would unload it in the warehouse.

Next there was the sound of voices as the lights were turned on. After that he heard the thunderous closing of the large warehouse door sliding shut. He could tell that one of the voices was that of a female, and a young one at that. Bobbie then heard giggling from the female voice and at the same time he thought that he could detect a lot of nervousness in the manner in which she often laugh. He then became very curious as to whom the owner of the girl voice could be.

Bobbie was now trap inside the warehouse, he knew that he wouldn't be able to leave from his hiding place until the lights were off and Mr. Steven and the young girl were gone. But he was in no particular hurry and since it was just about seven in the evening, he still had a couple of hours ahead of him before he was expected home.

He thus made himself as comfortable as possible where he was behind the large boxes and he sat on the cement floor in such a way as to be able to see what was going on through the space of two adjacent boxes. He watched Mr. Steven returning to the van after having closed the sliding door and then from the other side he saw a shy-looking young girl slowly walking toward him.

Yes he new her, she was Linda Parker. Her father was working at the bank and she had a brother that was about Bobbie's age and two sisters who were older than she was. Linda was a little less than a year younger than her brother who was fifteen just like Bobbie.

He had always though of her as being somewhat plain even though she did have a pleasant enough face. She was quite tall for her age too and furthermore she had a body that did shown promises of being athletic in a few years. At that moment she was wearing a knees-length brown skirt that hung loosely around her already rather womanly hips. A yellow blouse with short sleeves was tucked inside her skirt at the waist.

Like most girls of those days, she was wearing ankles length, white cotton socks with blue and white shoes, which were in fashion at the time. While Mr. Steven got busy opening the back doors of the van, she just stood next to him as if she didn't know what to do exactly. Once both doors were wide opened, he turned and walked toward a cart, - it had a horizontal bar running parallel to it which was about five feet high - which was in a corner, he then rolled it back near the back of the van.

For the next minute or so, Bobbie heard him explaining to Linda what she was to do with the clothing and how to separate the different garments. He then got inside the back of the van and he proceeded to pass the different items to Linda.

At that moment it occurred to Bobbie that Linda must have been hired for the summer to help him. How odd, he told himself. Why hire a girl when there were many boys that would have been more than happy to work for him. Not that Bobbie would have wanted the job, his father had enough money and there were no need for him to work during the summer, beside he didn't feel very enthusiasm about working when there was no school.

Once the van was empty of its content, about fifteen minutes later, Mr. Steven got out and he and Linda began to talk. Bobbie heard him make a few jokes about some of the odd looking pieces of clothing hanging on the bar of the cart and they also talked about other frivolous matters. From their conversation, Bobbie was able to learn that indeed Linda had been hired to take care of Mrs. Steven's two-year-old baby during the afternoon while she was working with her husband. When Linda wouldn't be taking care of the baby she would be helping him in the warehouse.

It took them another fifteen minutes to tag and sort everything once it was hanging on the support of the rack. As they did so Mr. Steven made more jokes and sometimes Bobbie watched him place his hand on Linda's shoulder just like a father would do to his son or daughter. But she was not his daughter and somehow Bobbie knew that Linda's parents wouldn't approve of his familiarities with their daughter.

At last everything was tagged and registered properly and they got ready to leave by mean of the side entrance and thus leaving the van inside the warehouse. But before he opened the smaller side door, so as to exit the warehouse, Bobbie saw him take Linda's hand in his own hand. He then brought it to his mouth and he pressed his lips to it in a most gallant gesture while he said something to her that Bobbie could not quite make out.