Chapter 1: Brent Remembers

Sherry was his first crush. Brent had been attracted to her since they were kids. Unfortunately, they only saw each other once a year at "Grandma and Grandpa's" house. But that all changed during the extended weekend her family visited his family's house during spring break.

Although Sherry came into his life when they both were 11 years old, that was five years ago. They both were now sixteen. Spring break was just starting and Brent was standing in his driveway waiting for her and her family to arrive. It was 1981, nearly 5 years since he had first met Sherry. As he stood there, he reminisced about their "relationship" the past five years. He remembered how he felt the first summer they met just before sixth grade. It was a wonderful time. At that time he had just started to find an interest in girls. The fact that this coincided with when he met Sherry could be considered a good thing, or perhaps a bad thing

As he continued to think back five years, he remembered everything leading up to the first time he met her at his grandparents' house. He had just climbed out of the station wagon following an 8 Hour drive from Chicago to Columbus. He gave his grandmother a hug and she started to talk about what was for dinner. Of course, food always dominated her conversations. That wasn't so bad as far as he was concerned. Of course he loved his grandmother to death; but the meals he ate while visiting was one of many things that he appreciated about visiting.

It looked like his family was the first to arrive this time. His dad had two younger brothers. The first behind him, Dale, was happily married to his aunt Patty and had a one-year-old daughter. His other uncle, Wayne, had been happily married a few years ago. Now however, he was divorced and always dating different women. So it was no surprise when his grandmother said that Wayne was bringing Vicki & Sherry at around five o'clock.

"He's dating two women now?" Brent said with a smile, even though there was perhaps a chance his joke was not a joke at all. But Grandma quickly laughed and he realized his uncle had not gone that far.

"The woman he's dating has a daughter," she corrected him, "her name is Sherry." Brent did not think much of it. In fact his first question was related to her mother.

"What's his girlfriend's name?" Brent asked.

"Vicki", his grandmother replied.

As he was thinking back to that specific day, he could not remember what happened leading up to five o'clock. However, he remembered when he saw Sherry for the first time. He could remember what she looked like as she got out of the car his uncle drove up the driveway. She was cute. At that age he had just recently started to make those judgments in his mind about girls. Many new phrases had come into his head. "She is cute", "I like her smile", even "Wow! Those jeans are tight". As Sherry got out of the car that first time five years ago, "she is cute" was just about the right sentiment. I mean, this was his "cousin", right?

Many of the details related to that first meeting were somewhat foggy at this point. Nevertheless, he remembered vividly that by the end of that visit the statement "she is cute" would no longer suffice. He knew there was something special about Sherry. Even that soon, he started to make those distinctions in his own mind.

"Should I be thinking this way about her?" He thought to himself. It just wasn't fair. Feelings like this about girls were completely new no matter whom they related to. Now he was experiencing them about his new "cousin". He quickly eased his nervousness by correcting himself in his mind. She was not his cousin. They were not related at all. If, and that's a big "if", her mom and Wayne ever get married, then she would become his STEP cousin. To him, this justified the crush that he already had on this girl. He did not want to admit it was a crush. But at the very least she had a hold of at least a piece of his heart.