I think every segment of our little high school was in attendance at the dance. There were band members, cheerleaders, majorettes, athletes and non-athletes, scholarly and non-scholarly. I enjoyed watching students and classmates having fun. For me, it was a better part of education and the process of trying to grow up, mature, and fit in.

I saw my cousin Jackie dancing with his girlfriend Hope. The lights in the cafeteria had been dimmed for the occasion, but I could see some of my teammates and their dates. Rodney was with his girlfriend Susan White, a cheerleader from Beaver. Frankie was with his girlfriend Susan Sarver, another Beaver girl. Al was with Jan Greer, a pretty Graham cheerleader. James was with Sandy Francis and I was happy for him, but so envious. I didn’t see Chuck, Ray, or Robin, but it was early and I would probably see them before the night was over.

I saw our other cheerleaders within a few moments of being there. Frankie Angles and her date whom I didn’t know. Judy Waggoner and her boyfriend Hunce Bourne, a tremendous football player and punter for the Graham state championship football team. Susie Murphy, Lizzie Metcalfe, and Kay Hagy were there as well.

Barbara, one of the sweetest and nicest girls I met while in school, was there with the always talkative Karen (a.k.a. Zeke), Sara, Brenda, Kitty Lou, Zella, Kathy, Kay, Janice, Pat, and Jennifer. I liked them all because they were friendly to me. I would have been thrilled to have dated any one of them. I just didn’t have anything to offer.

The music kept playing. The Beatles, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, The Four Seasons, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and most of what was known as the Motown sound could be heard as the records played on. I was watching all of the different ways that the couples danced to the same tune and wondering why I couldn’t dance. Some of them looked pretty smooth whether it was a slow dance or a fast dance. Some of them didn’t. A few danced like their shoestrings were tied together when they did a fast dance and slow dancing they looked like they were propping each other up to keep from falling. At least they were on the floor having a good time. I had danced in the locker room once when only James was there. He said I looked like an orangutan that was stuck in a barbed wire fence and was having trouble getting out. I gave up on dancing, again.

The Drifters had just started singing “Up on the Roof” when I felt the need to go to the restroom.

I tapped Preston on the shoulder and told him, “If any of the good looking ladies want to know where I am, tell them I will be back shortly.”

He said, “I will hold your place and relay the message if I have time. I’m pretty busy myself.”

When I returned to the cafeteria and was working my way back to the group I had been standing with, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I was a bit more than surprised when I turned around and saw a very pretty girl in a red Debonair jacket smiling up at me. I certainly had no trouble recognizing her. I had seen her often for the last four or five years when I went to my cousin Jackie’s house. She was his neighbor and lived across the street. She had changed a lot since the first time I saw her a few years ago.

I had also seen her daily in the halls and cafeteria of the high school and at ball games. We would say “hi” to each other on occasion. I could never remember her being this close to my face. I was looking into the sparkling, almond brown eyes of a beautiful dark haired young woman, not the girl I had known previously as Jackie’s neighbor. When she spoke, I saw white teeth and soft lips lightly polished with reddish lipstick that I wished I could take from hers with my own. She said in a voice that I had never heard, “Hi Charlie.” I was in a dire need of something to prevent tetanus. I had suddenly developed a serious case of lockjaw. Not because I had stepped on a rusty nail, but because I was looking into the eyes of a beautiful girl who had spoken my name and I had no idea how to respond.

I looked at her for what seemed a long time, almost staring, before I could manage to say anything. Instead of saying “hello” or “hi” I just said, “Ann,” as if it were a question, and I guess it was. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her and any prospect of me being cool had evaporated. It was if I was seeing her for the first time. I knew it wasn’t, but somewhere along the line I missed her transformation from a girl to a young woman. I was mesmerized.

She seemed oblivious to my being lost in space and asked, “Did Jackie and Hope come to the dance?”

“Yes.”

“Have you seen them?”

“I saw them dancing a while ago”

An Otis Redding song started playing called “These Arms of Mine.” As fuzzy as my mind had become, I knew it would be a slow dance. I was still staring almost open mouthed when Ann asked, “Would you like to dance with me?” I looked behind me to see who she was talking to. She put her hand on my shoulder and placed her face only inches from mine and said, “I am asking you, Charles.”

“Oh, who, you are asking me?” I stammered.

I was shocked, and thought, “I would like to dance with anybody, especially you.” The only thing I could say was, “I can’t dance.”