A month ago I met a girl I knew way back in grade school. I hadn't seen her since that last day at school, 45 years ago, and she's still as pretty as ever. We were friends back then with the same group of kids, and we used to go to the same parties. We'd play spin the bottle, and I always tried to have the bottle land on her so that I could give her a kiss. (Yeah, I can hear you laughing, but this was back in the early 60's.) I always wanted her to be my girlfriend, but I was too scared to ask. And then she met an older boy from another school and went steady with him.

We talked for a while, reminiscing about the old times, and I finally told her how I really felt about her back when we were young. She got sort of sentimental, and told me that she wished she had known. She told me that she had liked me a lot back then, but since I didn't tell her how I felt, she thought that I really didn't like her that much.

She wondered how things might have turned out differently if we had gotten together. Her first husband had beat her, and the man that she was married to now wasn't much better. He did abuse her, but she didn't think that he loved her that much either.

We traded phone numbers, I asked her if she ever had any free time. She told me that she could always make time for me. I'm happily married to a wonderful gal, but now I wonder how my life would have turned out if I had told my friend how I felt about her back then. I want to call her, but just like all of those years ago, I'm afraid to. Any suggestions out there??