Oklahoma Wind, a novel by M. B. Baldwin. (continued) Chapter Two .

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If you have any comments or questions about this story please visit our forum. http://pub2.bravenet.com/forum/161188529 OKLAHOMA WIND CHAPTER TWO Paul Carey was one of the boys who liked Dory but was not in the group. He was younger than she by two years. They had met at a Family Picnic given by the Ladies Auxiliary, to which both their mothers belonged. Paul had been nine years old then. They got along fairly well when they were introduced to each other by their parents. “I think this whole picnic idea is really stupid,” Dory had said to him after they got away from the adults. She really resented anything she had to do with her parents, but she did such things because she was too young to argue, the same reason she behaved for company. “Me, too.” Paul agreed with her because he didn’t know what else to say. “They expect us to get along really good,” Dory said, “just because our moms are best friends.” She sounded unexcited by the idea. “Yup,” said Paul, hands in his pockets as they walked around the picnic grounds together. It was his reply to most any comment that she made. “Hey, I like you, Kid,” said Dory suddenly, swatting him gently on the back of the head. “You’re real easy to get along with.” “Yup,” Paul answered, and the two of them laughed. Then they went to join the other children in a game. Several years passed. In school, though they were in different classes, they occasionally had a smile and a wave to exchange in the halls. They were buddies. After while, however, their greetings were exchanged less often, but only because Dory became less friendly for no apparent reason. She became furtive about saying hello and sometimes gave no sign whatsoever that she knew Paul. Paul still watched her carefully every time their paths crossed. He noticed that if she was with her friends she seemed happy, but alone she would always appear a bit blue. One day, he overheard his mother speaking to Mrs. Palmer on the phone: “Really, JoAnne, I’m sure she’ll be all right. Try to remember how it was when we were growing up…Yes, I know, I only have a son, not a daughter, but kids will still be kids, Jo. I’m sure I’ll have to deal with the same sort of thing you do in just a couple years, maybe more so because he’s a boy, too…She’ll just have to learn for herself, Jo, that’s all. In time, she’ll see that she can’t really be happy that way. It might hurt a little to find out, but sometimes a child just has to get hurt for herself to really learn….” Not wanting to be rude, Paul stopped listening, but he had heard enough to know that Dory was having problems. He hurt for her, but he wasn’t sure exactly why he hurt. There were stories going around at school about Dory’s friends. The kids were saying terrible things. Paul didn’t get involved in the gossip, but some of it drifted his way. The stories he heard brought to his mind the conversation he and his father had had when Paul was ten years old. Mr. Carey had hemmed and hawed a great deal as he had tried to explain a few things about life. Now, because of that conversation, Paul understood the things the kids said about Dory. Paul’s father had told him that when he fell in love with someone, he would want very much to share intimacies with her. He had told Paul that without love, intimacies could become very crude and selfish. Paul knew that Dory could not possibly be in love with all the people about whom stories were being told. Maybe she didn’t even really love that guy, Jerry, the one who was supposed to be her boyfriend. Jerry probably didn’t love her, either. To Paul, that seemed a good explanation for Dory’s unhappiness. That was all fairly simple for Paul to figure out, but he was experiencing some pretty strange things in his own life. He didn’t connect his father’s talk to his own feelings. Instead, he felt a sort of shame about what was happening to him. Surely, nothing like it had ever happened to anyone. His shame, however, was combined with an undeniable feeling of pleasure, and he could not stop wanting the pleasure. Paul’s body behaved in ways that he did not understand. He would wake in the middle of the night, thinking of Dory, breathing hard, perspiring, and feeling guilty. At the same time, he would feel good all over. Paul wondered why Dory suddenly had this effect on him after so many years. He was convinced, lately, that she was the most beautiful girl in the world. In fact, he taught himself to deal with the guilt so that he could savor the fantasies. However, his thoughts of her were not just physical. Her radiant personality filled his mind. He thought about the way she used to say hello and smile at him, as if she really liked him, even though he was younger than she was. Eventually, Paul thought about Dory so much that he believed he was in love with her. His conviction was so deep that he allowed no other girls or women to enter his fantasies. That would have been unfaithful, and he couldn’t imagine cheating on her. Someday, he planned, he was going to marry her. To be continued... Copyright, M. B. Baldwin, All Rights Reserved.