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OK, BOOMER
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS AUGUST 6th, 1967
The sun shone bright in a cloudless sky making everything pop into life like the image on a color tv. A red and white checkerboard picnic blanket was spread out on the green grass, and Karen Hicks sat on her side—her yellow skirt blossoming around her legs—as she stared lovingly into William Barclay’s pretty eyes. The two of them had been going steady for a couple months now, which, to a teenager was a lifetime. Back in the Spring, Will was just a cute boy who smiled at the right time and looked the right way at the drive-in, but now… now Will was Karen’s entire world. She was crazy about the guy, flat out head-over-heels, nothing is going to change my mind crazy about him. It was her sixteenth birthday today, and there was no place where she would rather be.
“Happy birthday,” William said with a voice as soft as his smile.
“You already said that,” Karen replied.
“So?” He asked. “Is there a limit on the number of birthdays I’m able to happy?”
Karen giggled. “As a matter of fact there is, and you reached your quota.”
“I did?”
“You did?”
“And what’s my quota?” William asked.
“Two per birthday,” Karen said matter-of-factly, “One in the morning and one in the evening time to go along with a kiss goodnight.”
“So I gotta wait until next year to wish it again?” he asked.
Karen blushed. “You going to be around for my next birthday?”
“I’m going to be around for all the birthdays,” He leaned in and kissed her and Karen smiled brighter than that technicolor sun. When the kiss was done, William leaned back and brushed some hair out of Karen’s face. “Does that scare you? The idea of me being around that long? The idea of being stuck with me?”
“Why would it scare me?” Karen asked.
“I don’t know,” he rolled over onto his back and looked up at the blue sky, “We’re young. Lots of folks would think it’s a foolish thing to do to paint out the path of your life when you’re so young.”
“My parents got married when they were fifteen.” Karen played with one of the buttons on William’s shirt. “By their pace I’m already behind the eightball.”
“Don’t expect me to pull out a ring right here and now and ask you to be my wife, Karen Hicks,” he said with a smile. “If I gotta wait a-whole-nother year to wish you happy birthday again you gotta wait for a ring.”
“Stop it,” Karen laughed and gave Will a little shove. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”
“Oh yeah?” William grinned. “That’s alright, I only want to be as funny as you think I am.”
William put his arm around Karen and she rested her head on his chest, her golden curls bleeding into the sunlight that bleached his copper shirt. For a little while the two of them just lay there, enjoying the sun and the quiet and the shadow of an occasional bird flying high overhead. William’s heart thumped in his chest against Karen’s ear and the percussion soothed her. Her heart synched up with his and beat at the same pace beneath her breast. They were in unison, connected by love in that moment that felt like it could stretch on forever.
“I’m not scared of anything,” Karen said after the lingering quiet.
“Nothing?”
Karen shook her head. “Nothing.”
“You’re braver than me,” William grinned, “I’ll give you that. I’m scared of loads.”
“Like what?” Karen asked.
“Well, aliens, to start,” he pointed up to the sky. “You can laugh but I’m serious. Little green men coming down here in their pods with their laser beams. ‘Take me to your leader,’ you really trust Johnson to be able to handle that? Get out of here. We’d be toast.” Karen giggled a little and William smiled along with her. He waited for the laughter to die and the smile to fade before adding, “I am afraid of that actually, of the people in charge, of the people pulling the strings. I’m afraid of this damn war. It’s been going on since middle school and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to end any time soon. People keep dying over there and I’m afraid that it won’t be over until it’s my turn to go and die for no reason.”
Karen adjusted herself to get a better look at him. Will tugged grass up from the dirt and tossed it toward his shoe aimlessly. He shared something, he made himself vulnerable, and it was hard to tell if he did it on purpose or if it slipped through. But there he was, raw and out there for Karen to see, and Karen sucked in a deep breath and threw herself out there, too.
“Maybe I spoke too soon,” Karen said.
William looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “Maybe there is something I’m afraid of. Maybe I’m afraid of what the future looks like. I read books about what the past was like as if it’s going to crack some code and answer things for me, like I can look at my parents and see what’s waiting for me ahead. A house, kids, hell, maybe even a job, the world’s changing quick, but I don’t like not knowing a thing. I like living it, I like the moment, I like having something I can hold on to. I like this birthday,” Karen put her hand on William’s chest. “I like having it with you, but I don’t like not knowing what my next one will be like. I don’t like not knowing if I’ll ever hear another ‘happy birthday’ from you again.”
William sat up some and looked Karen in the eyes. He took her by the hand and squeezed her fingers as they were both out there, raw for one another.
“I love you, Karen Hicks,” he said softly.
She smiled and said back, “I love you too, William Barclay.”
“Happy birthday,” he said, and before Karen could get her laugh or her protest out, he leaned in and kissed her again, smashing their lips together as they rolled on through the technicolor grass, leaving their fears behind on the blanket.
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