Summer 1971: Final Slice

When I said goodbye to Angela, she thanked me once again for coming. She had told me that they had bought a place in Florida when they retired and had been coming back up to their Lake George place just for the summers, since she hated winter up here. She was now going to move down to Florida full time, with no relatives of hers left up here.

"Down there, I can swim all the time!" Angela said, and I resisted the urge to ask her if she wore a bathing suit these days.

"You know, if you want you could stick around until everybody goes, Davy" Angela said with a familiar glint in her eye.

"Dom, you know that he wouldn't mind" Angela winked as she continued. "Just so long as we kept the lid of the casket up so he could see."

Angela was only kidding. That is, I think she was kidding. We exchanged addresses and hugged once more at the door.

"We had one hell of a summer, didn't we Davy? Angela whispered in my ear.

"I never had a better one" I told her, and truer words had never crossed my lips.

We exchanged Christmas cards for a few years afterward, and Angela always told me to come down to visit. One year she added a note that I should bring my wife and we could really relive old times. That one took some fancy explaining on my part.

The cards stopped a couple of years ago. I could find out what happened, and maybe I should, but I've resisted the urge because I fear the logical answer. I'd rather keep her alive in my mind, just the way she was.

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davidwatts