Laura

"Do you like Laura?" the girl had asked me.

"I don't even know her." That was my answer at the age of ten, before attention to nuance and hidden meanings meant anything to young boys.

I don't even remember what Laura looked like. She may have been pretty. But perhaps I should have yes. I realize now that she must have sent her friend over to ask me that important question while she waited for the answer.

It never occurred to me why I was being asked such a ridiculous question tha thad nothing to do with anything. There I was, enjoying my afternoon at camp, playing with friends when a girl I don't know comes up to me and asks me if I like a girl that I don't know.

It makes a person wonder how many lost opportunities lie in their past, past and gone because he was too dense to realize what they were.