They was really something. Back then they was. Like flowers when they first open themselves to the sun and all bright and new and smiling. Like flowers to be plucked is what Kenny said and he licked his fingers and put his hand down the front of his pants fiddling with his dick. I told him he was a fucking eejit and I punched his arm and put a little sharpness into the punch, more than usual.
Bridie, was the pretty one, I reckon, and Kristin was always in her shadow. But back then they was always together and so it was like they both turned heads and seeing ‘em they was both pretty. They dressed the same – or something the same. Like they’d rung each other up and agreed what the colour for the day would be. They always looked like they belonged, is what I mean.
Kenny complained that I’d punched him for real and that it fucking hurt and that there was no need for that. I said he should have a little more respect and he could see then what was what – thought he could at least. He thought I had a thing for one of the girls and he guessed it was Bridie – cos didn’t everyone have a thing for Bridie? Kenny’s hands down his pants and he was imagining it was Bridie touching his dick and only Bridie and not ever imagining it could be Kristen.
And then doesn’t life turn on its head and surprise you sometimes?
We was up at the park this one evening and the sun was just going down and the shadows was running all ways and running dark, and the air was hot and breathless still and the burr-saw of grasshoppers calling. It must’ve been a Friday or a Saturday, cos there was music leaking out though the open door of the pub on the hill and drifting down to where we was, and we had bottles of cheap wine, and Bridie and Kristen was dancing on the grass where it said to keep off. It was summer and the girls was wearing summer dresses, all light and floaty, and thin straps slipping off their shoulders, and when they spun on their heels the dresses flew out from them and lifted so you could see their underwear.
I wanted it to be Bridie I ended up with, but that night it was Kristen. We got to talking and then dancing and all the stars were out and the world was tilting. Kristen took my hand and she put it on her hip and she pulled me to her, pressing herself against me. I forgot where I was and I kissed her.
Like I said, they was really something and everybody thought so, and they all thought Bridie was the one,and I did too, but Kirsten was something, also. She tasted of melon and strawberries in her kisses and she smelled of cucumber and green tea. And the things that she whispered to me on that dizzy night, well they filled me up and it was like we was the only two in the whole world, Just me and Kristen and the music palying through us; and Kenny caught my eye and he looked at me funny and he licked his fingers like before and put his hands back down the front of his pants and laughed.
She’s different now, Kristen is. Different and yet somehow the same. Got a few years on her these days and a few extra pounds, too, and she wears her shoes flat and she cuts her hair a lot shorter. But seeing her dancing – and she does sometimes, on the grass in the yard out back and the house lit up like a Fairground ride and music hanging in the air and stars all aglitter in the sky – and seeing her dancing it is just like we are back in the park on that first night with Kenny looking at us and showing no respect and Kristen calls me to her and I go – again and again I go and I reckon I always will.
And Bridie? Well, she left town – years back and Kristen don’t hear from her ‘cept maybe at Christmas when a card comes through the door and we try to decipher the post mark and guess where she is now and she says she’s thinking of Kristen and remembering how it used to be.
Patricia Ann McNair 
They was really something. Back then they was. Like flowers when they first open themselves to the sun and all bright and new and smiling. Like flowers to be plucked is what Kenny said and he licked his fingers and put his hand down the front of his pants fiddling with his dick. I told him he was a fucking eejit and I punched his arm and put a little sharpness into the punch, more than usual.
Bridie, was the pretty one, I reckon, and Kristin was always in her shadow. But back then they was always together and so it was like they both turned heads and seeing ‘em they was both pretty. They dressed the same – or something the same. Like they’d rung each other up and agreed what the colour for the day would be. They always looked like they belonged, is what I mean.
Kenny complained that I’d punched him for real and that it fucking hurt and that there was no need for that. I said he should have a little more respect and he could see then what was what – thought he could at least. He thought I had a thing for one of the girls and he guessed it was Bridie – cos didn’t everyone have a thing for Bridie? Kenny’s hands down his pants and he was imagining it was Bridie touching his dick and only Bridie and not ever imagining it could be Kristen.
And then doesn’t life turn on its head and surprise you sometimes?
We was up at the park this one evening and the sun was just going down and the shadows was running all ways and running dark, and the air was hot and breathless still and the burr-saw of grasshoppers calling. It must’ve been a Friday or a Saturday, cos there was music leaking out though the open door of the pub on the hill and drifting down to where we was, and we had bottles of cheap wine, and Bridie and Kristen was dancing on the grass where it said to keep off. It was summer and the girls was wearing summer dresses, all light and floaty, and thin straps slipping off their shoulders, and when they spun on their heels the dresses flew out from them and lifted so you could see their underwear.
I wanted it to be Bridie I ended up with, but that night it was Kristen. We got to talking and then dancing and all the stars were out and the world was tilting. Kristen took my hand and she put it on her hip and she pulled me to her, pressing herself against me. I forgot where I was and I kissed her.
Like I said, they was really something and everybody thought so, and they all thought Bridie was the one,and I did too, but Kirsten was something, also. She tasted of melon and strawberries in her kisses and she smelled of cucumber and green tea. And the things that she whispered to me on that dizzy night, well they filled me up and it was like we was the only two in the whole world, Just me and Kristen and the music palying through us; and Kenny caught my eye and he looked at me funny and he licked his fingers like before and put his hands back down the front of his pants and laughed.
She’s different now, Kristen is. Different and yet somehow the same. Got a few years on her these days and a few extra pounds, too, and she wears her shoes flat and she cuts her hair a lot shorter. But seeing her dancing – and she does sometimes, on the grass in the yard out back and the house lit up like a Fairground ride and music hanging in the air and stars all aglitter in the sky – and seeing her dancing it is just like we are back in the park on that first night with Kenny looking at us and showing no respect and Kristen calls me to her and I go – again and again I go and I reckon I always will.
And Bridie? Well, she left town – years back and Kristen don’t hear from her ‘cept maybe at Christmas when a card comes through the door and we try to decipher the post mark and guess where she is now and she says she’s thinking of Kristen and remembering how it used to be.