Dawn

When I got out of college, I got a job in Burlington, North Carolina. I lived in a trailer park for a couple of years. (I was flat broke when I got out of college and had to borrow $200 from my mother to live until my first paycheck.) One Friday, the owner of the trailer park knocked on my door. He told me I had to be out by Monday because he was converting my small trailer into an office. I had to scramble to find a new place to live.

I moved into an apartment building. The building had four apartments: two upstairs and two downstairs. I lived in an upstairs apartment. Across from me lived a contract engineer. He was in his 30s and lived by himself. Below him was Dawn’s apartment.

Dawn was an attractive woman in her early twenties. She had a very calm way about her. I’d call her very easy-going. I was in my early twenties. We were neighbors and acquaintances and that’s all.

One dreary and rainy Saturday morning, Dawn phoned me and suggested that we drive to the mountains. I had nothing planned so I said, “Let’s do it.” We got into my car and headed through the gloom and the rain toward the mountains of western North Carolina.

As my car climbed the mountain roads, going higher and higher, we broke through the clouds and found ourselves in sunshine. The view was spectacular. Below us was a sea of unbroken clouds, while here we were in sunlight and blue sky, and the day was suddenly beautiful. We drove that mountain road from town to town, stopping at roadside antique and curio shops designed to snag a few tourist dollars. I recall Dawn purchasing a little life-size wooden rabbit; she took it back to her apartment and painted it. What else she bought, I no longer remember. We spent the day in the sunshine, driving around and exploring and seeing places we had never seen and would never see again. It was so much fun. As the sun was setting we drove back down to the flatlands and headed east toward Burlington.

I liked Dawn; she was a nice person and she was pretty. I never thought of her as someone to romance and she never thought of me that way. We were just friends. However, if I could live those days over, I would put more energy into trying to develop something more than just friendship. I think a wiser man than me came along and got himself a terrific partner.