Tommy and Penny walked to the boardwalk for lunch she didn’t know what she wanted. There was too much to choose from and she was afraid he wouldn’t have enough money.
She told him she would just have whatever he had.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded.
She sat at a picnic table and when he returned he had a vanilla milkshake, a chocolate milkshake and he told her to pick. He had two burgers, two sets of French fries, two hotdogs, and two bags of potato chips.
“Tommy! What will we do with all this food?”
“Eat it. If we’re hungry afterward we’ll get more.”
“Tommy,” she said in a hushed voice, “did you steal this?”
He shook his head without taking offense to the accusation.
“Where did you get enough money for all this?” This was the most magnificent feast of fast food Penny had ever seen.
“I bought it. Don’t worry, Penny, as long as you’re with me you’ll have everything you’ll ever need.”
He didn’t realize the implications of the promise at the time.
They ate and ate and ate some more. Penny got sick and they walked back to the park and lay on the grass for a long while. When Penny felt better they got ice cream cones. Tommy held her hair while she threw up into a bush. Then they indulged again, this time they got the biggest brightest bag of candy Penny had ever seen and they ate them all the way back to the library. She was delirious when she reached her bicycle and too woozy to drive. He pushed her bicycle as they walked back to her house. It was getting late when they arrived. The station wagon was parked in the driveway and she didn’t know what time it was but she expected that her parents were sitting at the table for their dinner.
“Thank you for everything,” Penny said and took her bicycle back from him. “It was a really great day, really-really great. I hope you had an okay birthday.”
He nodded and she thought he may have murmured the word “Perfect.”
They both paused. She was still only eleven and he didn’t know the rules but rules had never stopped him before. She was tingling with nervousness.
He leaned in swiftly and stole a kiss. Penny was dazed. Tommy stood there still, just on the other side of her bicycle.
Penny didn’t hear the door open. Penny didn’t hear them call her name. Penny didn’t realize what was happening until Tommy was shooed away from her. Her bicycle fell to the ground in slow motion as she was ushered inside by her entire family.
They yelled and complained and prayed and her mother cried. Penny threw up. They prayed more. They asked questions, so many questions.
“What did he do to you?”
Penny threw up.
She was aware of what was happening and aware that her family were angry, disappointed, concerned; but it was all happening around her and not to her. It was a silent movie playing out in black and white around her.
When she finally spoke, they all stopped. Everything was still as she said: “I had the best day.”
The words hung in the air.
Her mother cried.
Her father prayed.
Her sister scolded her.
“Boys like that are nothing but trouble. His whole family is trouble. Penny, he’s going to ruin your life.”
Maybe Tommy would ruin her life but years later as Penny died and her life flashed before her eyes all those best moments whizzed by. She knew then that without Tommy she would be watching a blank reel. Although without Tommy she may have had more pages in her story.
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