One Kiss Was All It Took

The following happened in a foreign land when I was young. My family had a business, her family was tied to the diplomatic corp. She had a birthday party, a boy girl birthday party and everyone in our class was invited, all 23 of us, 17 girls and six boys. She was so beautiful to me, poised, her hair blonde, on her shoulders, her dress so grownup. We behaved ourselves, no one was going to misbehave in that house, the Marines were around just in case.

She asked me to help her so we went down to kitchen together. The kitchen was empty, and we stood there and it happened, I kissed her on the lips. She pointed her finger at me, shook it, she said "I guess that makes me your girlfriend?' We went back to the party with the tray of hors-d'œuvres. She stood and announced to the class, she had that posture bred into diplomats, that she was my girlfriend.

The rest of the evening she looked after me, served me dinner and told the maid she would do it. My guy friends asked me what happened, I told them it was only a kiss. But in that house, that family, it was a lot more than that. Once kissed she was taken. Her father invited me into the den, den in those days in diplomat houses was a dark paneled smoking room, with a huge desk. He told me to sit, my ass puckered, he pushed a hunting knife across the desk, 'if you hurt my girl I'll cut your balls off'.

I never dated another girl, they were stationed there till we finished high school. We got married in a great big wedding, we left for college and a life of our own. One kiss sealed the deal.