Thousand Word Excerpt of Novel Last Resort: By Bob Concordia


How we met was without question "Divine Providence." It was the most ironic scenario of any relationship I could ever have imagined anyone falling prey to. When I was a lifeguard in North Wildwood, New Jersey following high school, we would constantly engage all the girls that we met on the beach inviting them to our house parties and beach parties as a way of creating the wildest, most unforgettable, sensational summer that we could generate. At the time, I had a steady girlfriend at home that I had been involved for four years, but this unusual job at the beach was a separate reality of, "All is fair in love and war." So whatever happened that summer was uniquely different than our sacred relationships at home, and when the summer came to an end that was another world we had to reckon with.

By the end of the summer I was suffering the first experiences of sensory deprivation from having committed every imaginable, immorally unacceptable mortal sin I think I could have experienced at that time. I kept thinking God was going to come to Wildwood and burn the entire city like Sodom and Gomorrah for the way we were carrying on.

Well on this one spontaneous beach party with large numbers of young party girls from different sororities on the beach with us drinking, building fires, roasting hot dogs and hamburgers, and drinking like decadent Roman soldiers, I meandered upon this very attractive, light brown haired, very sexy, girl, asking her in an extremely sarcastic manner, "Is it true that my life guard buddy across the way Tom told me, "You wanted badly to meet me and dance with me." She was really cool, as she quickly said, "Oh honey, I've been waiting here all summer longing for you to just meander along and recognize me and ask me to jitterbug with you." We both laughed excitedly as a release of tension. Simultaneously, I became aware that there was a great song blaring away on someone's boom-box, the song with the greatest beat of the night that became our theme song for the summer, a song I will never forget, It's Better to Have and Don't Need, by Don Covey, how symbolically fitting. Without saying another word, I grabbed her by the hand tossed her out to where there was room to really express ourselves and I proceeded to throw her around with some wild moves and spins as though she were my Raggedy Ann Doll. She immediately laughed excitedly and she had this tremendous sense of unusual rhythm, as she was right with me on every spin and every turn. "She danced like a slithering, sensuous snake, as though we had been dancing all of our life together. Everyone immediately picked up on what a great click we were and how wildly sexy we were dancing together, as they formed a circle around us clapping and shouting all kinds of sexy phrases at us to egg us on. When the dance was over, we automatically hugged each other, with a spontaneous, heightened emotion of sensuous appeal, soaked with sweat, while trying to catch our breath at the same time. Suddenly, I got another spontaneous, overflow of powerful emotion grabbing her hand and running with her into the roaring surf, diving into the waves and crashing down with the powerful water rolling over us, as we were wildly making out, re-enacting that tumultuous love scene with Burt Lancaster and Debra Kerr in that Academy Award winning movie From Here to Eternity. I blatantly took her by storm, overwhelming her with my seasoned confidence from all of our escapades throughout the summer, not even giving her a chance to reject my desires.I must have re-enacted that love scene a thousand times that summer, but somehow this one was different. This one was from Heaven. The irony was, I didn't even know her name, but we were totally on fire. When we went back to the beach after our explosion of expression, I said,"Honey, I don't even know your name." She said, "Does it really matter? The girls and I decided not to be into names and places or contact information this weekend. I have a boyfriend at home that is separate from what I am doing down here with the girls this week. We are here to party, raise hell, drink, have a great time, leave it where it is, and not complicate our lives giving out information that could come back to bite us after our reckless weekend. We didn't want the inhibitions to control us. The girls and I made a pact that we would not divulge our real names or where we were from, as a form of protection from any reprisals that might come to be.The girls and I made a pact that we would not divulge our real names or where we were from, as a form of protection from any reprisals that might come to be. We are here for one thing FUN IN THE SUN. And when we made this pact that whatever name we give out is definitely not our real name. So be it. If that doesn't sit well with you, oh well, I guess you'll just have to move on down the beach looking for other cutesies."

Somehow, all summer, I had never run into anything like this, but I loved her creative spirit and bravado, and I wasn't about to "look a gift horse in the face."

"The girls and I are all calling one another by different names. It's our play for the day. They all have boyfriends at home also, but they want to see what it's like to live like the guys have been doing all of their lives, getting their reckless weekends and going home to the roost with their unforgettable experiences tucked away deep into their subconscious."