Meeting Again Pt. 01

I watched Edda Tompkin drive away with a heavy heart. She and I had grown up together, we'd been each other's best friend and now she was off to college while I stayed in our small burg of a town going to work for the railroad.

We'd met in second grade, dad and I moved in across the street from she and her mom, it was on that warm autumn Saturday afternoon I stood on my front porch looking at her standing on hers and waved tentatively the way kids will do to test the waters. Edda smiled and gave me a similar wave, it was the beginning of a friendship that through the years would be tested time and again, but never broken. With my brown paper bag lunch, fifteen cents in my pocket for milk, and a pat on my back from dad I stepped into a new world.

Standing on the sidewalk in front of my house was a skinny girl with strawberry blonde hair, freckles all over her face and a smile as big as life itself. A friend on my first day at a new school, I suddenly felt less out of place.

"Hi, my names Edda, it's Scandinavian because my Gram's from Iceland and I'm named after her."

"I'm Edward, I like to be called Ed and I have no idea why they named me Edward."

A friendship was solidified with two sentences and neither of us were aware of it at the time. Edda made sure I was included in all the normal class doing's until I knew enough kids on my own to find my spot in the pecking order. Adults, especially the teachers, will tell you there's no pecking order in school, but they're the only ones who espouse such drivel, every kid knows where they do and don't fit. The smart one's learn to exist within their so called *group*, the others are typically described as outcasts, kids that never seem to fit in anywhere, and every school has them, nowhere is exempt from this sad but basic truth.

I didn't fit in with Edda's group, she wasn't in with what was considered the *cool* kids, generally those with a little more money than the rest of us and of course always the newest and hippest new trend in clothing or anything else. They were also the most pernicious, arrogant and snotty people you will ever encounter. Edda was the group just below them, they were cool but still friendly to others, you would be tolerated and even allowed to hang with them if you persisted, but you were never welcomed in so to speak.

Me, I was just another geeky kid who hung out with other non-descript and un-influential kids of all walks of life. Edda would always smile and greet me, sometimes we'd talk at recess or lunch, but eventually she'd drift back to her small collection of silly giggling cute as can be friends. However, every morning and every afternoon she was mine and mine alone. We walked the half mile to school and home every day, it was only she and I, no one ever tried to walk with us and we never invited any other's.

I had no mom and she had no dad so I think we sort of adopted the other, and their respective parent. All I knew as a boy was that mom had left, all Edda knew as a girl is that her parents were divorced and her dad lived someplace in another country. She'd never met him that she could recall, I'd never met my mom that I knew of, well, beyond a baby. My dad worked for the railroad on track maintenance, those were the days before they had the machines now which will do what used to be hard manual labor. Dad wasn't a large man, but he was rock solid, and in spite of his physical bulk, he was never mean or abusive toward me.

If I'd done wrong and needed to be punished or corrected he always had me go to my room for an hour, I didn't realize until later in life it was so he had time to settle down and deal with things properly instead of in anger. Edda and I would play after school and weekends, we'd made a secret pact we vowed never to reveal to anyone else. I would play dolls with her and pretend married if she would play trucks and police/bad guy with me. She had a little play house in her back yard where we'd have *tea and crumpets* as we called it. It was really some apple juice and a few cookies we'd absconded when her mom wasn't looking.

Edda wore dresses or skirts all the time except in summer when she wore shorts, I never saw her in long pants until we were in seventh grade. When she and I would play trucks or cowboy games she would reach under her dress, grab the back hem and pull it up, then tuck it into the waistband like a pair of pants. We always played house in her backyard and trucks in mine. Without realizing it we were forming a bond that lasted throughout our entire lives. By sixth grade Edda had begun to change physically and physiologically, she wasn't as excited to play house any longer, and trucks or cowboys was unheard of.

I asked my dad about it, he smiled and told me she was growing up, I'd follow in a year or two just because boys generally matured a little later than girls. I was confused, that evening dad and I had *THE TALK*, he explained how girls matured and had menstrual cycles they called a period, that I'd soon notice pubic hair on my body and that my penis would start to feel different when I saw pretty girls. That soon Edda would begin growing breasts, if she hadn't started having periods she would soon and if I noticed subtle changes I was to be a proper gentleman and not pester her about things. Just be a gentleman and make sure she was okay.

The summer between sixth and seventh grade opened new doors for Edda and me. I was beginning puberty about the same time Edda was starting her cycles and growing breasts. It all came about quite innocently, one day she was running around playing street hockey with me and it seemed the next day she had little bumps on her chest. Her flat hips began to take shape and her little girl looks began to disappear. We spent a lot of evening's that summer either on my front porch swing or hers. The gang down the block would play hide and seek until 9 when everyone had to go in, we seldom participated, our fun was being with the other listening to the transistor radio.

On one of the evenings I mentioned I noticed she was sporting a bra. She blushed and said I wasn't supposed to speak of such things to a girl.

"Well Edda how can I not notice you're growing boobs? You look so beautiful all the time. I know I'm not your boyfriend but I still wanna hang out with you this year. Can we do that?"

"Who else would I hang out with silly, you're my best friend. Besides, the only boy I might want to go out with is Johnny Lavey and he's already going out with Esmerelda that Spanish girl, he doesn't even know I exist."

My heart was temporarily deflated, but then who was I to think I would ever be in her group of friends. As long as we walked together before and after school and sat on our front porch's I was content just to have Edda in my life. The next four years were basically a repeat of each other, we still walked together, I carried her books, she was always polite to me and never made me feel unwanted even when she was with her group. I bulked a little through puberty, nothing worth writing home about as they say, she never did grow much in the breast department, they remained small, her hips flared slightly and her butt stuck out deliciously. I loved her long hair and the freckles softened with time, our conversations became deeper and more reflective of who we were becoming within.

By our senior year she was dating Dave Wanish, the football star, somehow it didn't add up in my eyes. Sitting on the porch during one of our many nightly visits I asked her about it, wondering if she was comfortable dating the guy who could have any girl he wanted. She jabbed me in the ribs and told me I was jealous that someone other than me thought she was pretty. Following a short pause, I spoke.

"I may be jealous you're not sitting on the porch with me when you're out with him, but Edda I think he wants one thing from you, and then he'll dump you."

"Dave isn't like that, see you're making up stories."

"Of course he's like that, I hear those guys in the locker room. Why do you think he stopped dating Cindy and asked you out? Because you're a virgin and she no longer is. Edda he only wants to screw you and then he'll brag about it after he's done with you."

She didn't want to believe me and after a few minutes headed across the street for home. That Saturday night I was standing back from the curtains as I watched Dave pick her up. I had gotten into the habit of sitting on the porch swing in the dark until she came home from her dates, rain, snow, hot, cold, didn't matter, I would wait until she was inside before I went to bed.

Her mom and my dad would go out for the occasional fish fry and a few beers, but it never amounted to anything, they were simply two people enjoying the company of another mature person. This Saturday night was different, dad and Mrs. Tompkin were going to a dance at the FW to help raise funds for the Lions Club. I'd been invited, but declined thinking Edda might need me later on, call it intuition or whatever else you'd like. Sitting on the porch I was startled when Dave's car came speeding down our block just after nine. He slammed on the brakes screeching his tires as Edda jumped from the passenger door and didn't run to her house, instead she ran to me on the porch.

There was just enough late evening light left to see me clearly as she launched herself into my side sobbing, holding onto my arm, then putting it over her shoulders. Dave had spun around at the end of our dead end street, as he shot by my house he flipped us the bird and screamed *prick teaser*. It took me ten minutes to calm her down enough to talk, I didn't press, I waited until she was ready to speak.

"Eddy, you were right, he only wanted to pop my cherry. When I said I'd let him feel me above the waist he laughed at me and told me he wouldn't waste his time trying to find my tits, but if I gave him a blow job he'd keep me as his girlfriend. I screamed at him to take me home, I knew you'd be here on the porch like you are every time I go out, I just wanted to be by you."

"I always sit in the shadows how did you know I wait for you to come home?"

"I was standing at the front window once and noticed you get up, then go inside, after that I always watched until you went in. Ed, will you be honest with me about something?" I nodded my head. "Do you think my boobs are too small?"

"That's not a very fair question Edda. First, you're my best friend, I like everything about you and I'd never say anything to hurt you. Second, I really, really, REALLY, like small boobs. I'm not trying to be gross, but little boobs like yours make me hard. Sometimes when I see you I have to look away, especially when you wear those saggy tops and bend forward so I can see your pretty bras, and three weeks ago when you came over to borrow eggs in just a tee and no bra, I almost couldn't walk I was so hard."

She pushed back slightly looking into my eyes to see if I was being a smart ass, determining I wasn't she leaned upward and softly kissed my lips. My dick was saying to rip her clothes off and fuck her hard right on the porch, my mind was telling me to listen to dads words ... be a gentleman. Assessing the situation and reaching the conclusion I wasn't leading her on or teasing she kissed me again, a longer softer kiss.

"Ed, now that we're 18 and about to graduate, would you want to feel my boobs? I don't think I would mind that at all."

As she unbuttoned her blouse I was slack jawed, heart pounding, it was difficult breathing, my hands were vividly trembling. I'd dreamed of this, in fact I'd pounded my pud a few times imagining what was about to happen. With the blouse unbuttoned but not pulled out of the waist on her skirt she took my right hand and put it on her tiny left breast, kissed my ear and whispered.

"Push my bra up on both sides, then you can feel me bare."

I could put nearly her entire tit in the palm of my hand and I loved it.

With her face alongside my neck she continued to instruct me. "Squeeze them gently, fold them softly like you would bread dough, mmmmm, now pull them out with your fingers stopping at my nipples. Oh my God Eddy, pull on my nipples a little and slightly pinch them."

As I followed her instructions her body stiffened and I felt her quiver. Not knowing what had happened I stopped, "No, don't stop, do that some more, and Eddy, you could suck them if you wanted to." She then shocked the hell out of me.

"Are my boobs making you hard like you said?" I nodded emphatically, she surprised me again. "Can I touch it through your pants?"

I simply moaned and melted as she softly stroked my cock up and down. I begged her to stop or I'd cum, she smiled, stuck the other nipple in my mouth and stroked harder.

I pulled back, "Please Edda, don't make me cream in my underwear, it'll be a huge mess."

She unzipped my pants, pulled it out and proceeded to give me the first hand job I'd ever had by someone else. When I came, she put her skirt over the top of it and caught the entire load, telling me she'd soak it right away and her mom would think she started her period. When I asked if she had done that before she told me no, she just seemed to know what to do. Putting myself back inside my jeans, Edda pulled her bra down and was buttoning her blouse as dad's car came around the corner stopping in front of Edda's house.

We thought we were back far enough not to be seen, but apparently not, her mom waved, said hi kids, and told Edda not to be out too late. Dad walked up the porch steps, gave us a quizzical look and went inside.

"He knows doesn't he Ed? Did you see how he looked at us?"

"He doesn't know, that was his *why are you up so late* look. Believe me, he has no clue."

You might think at this juncture of the story the doors of sexual activity not only flew open but ramped up as well, we never did go any further than me sucking her breasts, fingering her pussy a little and her giving me a few hand jobs through the summer before she left for college. As her car slowly went out of sight my heart sank, who would I hang out with now? Who would I sit on the porch swing with? School for me was boring, I didn't apply myself and as a result my GPA was anything but stellar. It was good enough to get me into college, but I wasn't interested, instead I went into Burlington Northern's engineers study program with a few favors called in by the old man.

The school Edda attended was over a thousand miles away, we talked on the phone a few times and tried a relatively new thing called texting, somehow we never seemed to connect. She was home for Christmas the first year, we went out several times, but not partaking of our earlier activities. It was strictly platonic, just as it had been for years until Dave tried to screw her. She was there, but she wasn't at the same time, aloof is the word that comes to mind, not arrogant or dismissive, simply not in the same space I existed.

I graduated Engineering school near the top of my class and was immediately hired onto what is called a crew by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line. There was no terminal in our small town, however, BNSF had a large yard in a small city seventeen miles away, it was the yard my dad worked out of, and now it would be me as well. My schedules generally ran two twelve hour days and then a 24 hour resting period before the next two day run. We could travel eleven hours and fifty nine minutes before we had to stop and rest eight hours outside the train.

Our trip would usually be about three hundred miles to what was known as an *away* city where we'd disembark, be put up in a motel and then replace a crew on a train headed back to our *home * city the following day. My life was filled with work while Edda's was filled with school as far as I knew. I'd have supper with Mrs. Tompkin's every five to six weeks, she'd always talk about how Edda told her to say hi for her and she might come home at such and such a time. She never did, and deep down I don't think I actually expected her to, it was just talk, empty hopes.

With my schedule being different from dad's I bought a late model F-150 to travel back and forth. I hate the idea of owing anybody money and since I was living at home paying dad something for rent, I plowed every extra dollar I didn't use for expenses and a little pocket money into paying off that truck. It was free and clear in less than eighteen months, from that point on I intended to stick all the money I could in the bank and let it accrue. I was 23, life was busy but good when my world was shattered on two different fronts.

The first being that I came home to a Realtors for sale sign in the front yard. With the advent of the newer track maintenance machines the rail crews were going further and further from home and being gone longer each time. Dad had been offered a foreman position out of the Omaha office, which meant his ten or twelve hour days doing hard physical labor would be in the past. After more than twenty years humping the rails he deserved it. He was moving right away and told me I could live in the house until it sold.

The second slap to the side of the head was Edda coming home, to get married to a short pompous arrogant pissant name Dante. He was a little black man who'd pulled himself from the ghetto and to his credit went onto college followed by dental school. I didn't care what color his skin was, hell ... men are men and women are women regardless of skin pigmentation. What did surprise me was that he's everything Edda never was, brash, impertinent, braggadocious, cocky and downright difficult to be around. His mouth never seemed to stop.

Edda and I were sitting on my front porch swing the second night she was home, just talking, reminiscing, catching up. I mentioned as short as Dante was, he must need a stool to see into people's mouths. She elbowed me in the ribs as we chuckled, her telling me to behave, he was sweet once you got to know him. She slid her hand over mine and staring straight ahead asked.

"Ever find that small titted girl you dreamed of?"

Without missing a beat, I responded, "Nope, she went to college, met some guy with short man syndrome and is getting married on Saturday."

A tear ran down her cheek, "Did you really love me that much Ed?"

"I did Edda, and still do. But you're betrothed and there's no way to back up water that's already gone over the dam. I'm happy for you, and I'm sad for you. My heart's desire is that he makes you happy, sadly something inside says he won't. I sure hope he's bigger in other areas than his general stature."

She giggled, "I haven't let him in my panties, I told him not a chance until that ring is on my finger. I have given him a few hand jobs, he's nowhere near your league, it'll be enough though."

The conversation ended there, we sat silently for close to a half hour when loud mouth burst out the front door calling her name. "I'm over here at Eddy's, come sit with us."

Once up the steps his eyes saw our hands together and he started to get all puffy chested. Doing that ghetto shit where he was grabbing his crotch, swaying side to side, talking trash about some white boy tryin to hit on his woman. Edda stood, put her hand on his shoulder and told him to knock it off.

"I've known Eddy since we were eight, I'm marrying you, not him asshole. We were simply remembering our childhood days, Jesus Dante, grow up, you promised you wouldn't act like this."

She turned toward me, leaned down, kissed my cheek and bid me goodnight. I didn't see her again until the wedding, she looked radiant, Dante was being a model groom from what I could tell, that is until later in the evening when I went to piss. Behind me was Dante, taking hold of my arm.

"Listen Dante, unless you intend for me to turn around and piss all over your shoes you need to let go of my arm. Didn't anybody ever tell you not to mess with somebody while they're pissing?"