Excellent She Came, I Saw and Was Conquered The Conquest by Tom Horonzy Precious Memory contest entry

Memories come a dime a dozen,  but there are a few that etch indelibly.  One of mine began in January nineteen sixty-two.  It lingers today as fresh as a newly blossomed daisy.   I was fourteen, a freshman in a new school.   Our family had moved midterm from Jersey to Pa..  Anyway, I ended up sitting at a table  nearest the girl's side of the cafeteria,  separated by a two-foot thick vertical column.  The two genders were segregated.  This was a catholic school.   Catty-cornered from me  was the cutest girl in the whole world.  Chris was the first girl I ever noticed differently.  I think because I was the sole boy  in a clan of six kids. Girls at the time were icky!   Her flaxen hair radiated sunbeams  that poured through the skylight.  She had a warm smile and an inviting laugh.  I felt to be in the presence of an angel.  I said the same to my new friend Jack,  who just happened to be, unknowingly, her brother.  That's how I came to know her name.    It took me a week to say "Hi."  I wouldn't be the same thereafter for three-plus years. If I had been a dog,  when she responded alike,  my tail would have wagged at red-line rpms.  My palms got sweaty.  I spilled my drink, then blushed,  yet didn't care, for at that moment,  I had died and entered heaven.    I became more enamored, entranced,  and inappropriately captivated at that second  which lasted until graduation three years later. Maybe Thumper felt alike meeting Miss Bunny?    I wish I could tell tales of success,  but instead confess we never held hands,  went on a date or shared a kiss.  I worshipped from afar,  even while knowing she had a beau who was older and owned a car.    She never rejected my advances  nor accepted them.  I believe she only thought me a friend  until my senior year  when on Valentine's Day,  she coyly lifted the hem of her uniform,  showing the lowest portion of bloomers  that were spotted candy-red hearts,  causing me to enter cardiac arrest.   Sixty years later, I confess  Christine opened my heart, mind, and spirit  giving clarity  Lord Tennyson's words:  "Tis better to have loved and lost  Than never to have loved at all."   Author Notes I graduated at seventeen. Never had a car. Never had a date. I entered the service, before ever being kissed until when laying sick an unfamiliar face visited and left me with a kiss. It wasn't Chris! The picture is my wife, who I met in college. I was twenty-seven. She had a like effect on me, as did my teen angel, but all the things I missed back then happened eventually. I originally released this in story form until a reviewer was kind and told me the contest was to be poetic; therefore this finished work is as expected.

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