Prince Charming

My thots tonight go back fifty two years to my first date.

It all began when I was eight years old.

I went next door to the people I called Aunt Jo and Uncle Ralph.  They had company.  I walked into the living room and there was a man with the whitest hair, the brightest eyes and pinkest skin I had ever seen.  He was gorgeous by my childish standards and his smile lit up my whole world.

I was in love!  I called him Uncle Mack and we had a pact.  When I turned twelve he promised to take me to dinner and dancing.  In the meantime, although his visits were few and far between he always brought me some little trinket like a dollar bill folded into a ring. Those were the treasures of my childhood.

Finally the day came when I was twelve.  By then I was self conscious and aware that he was a very handsome grown up and I was an awkward little girl.  He wasn't there long, but he did take me to dinner and it was magical.  I don't even remember what I wore, except for my first heels.  They were tiny inch and a half spikes.  But I do remember his eyes sparkling in the candlelight, the beautiful way he made me feel.

I didn't see him again until my wedding day eight years later when he gave me his mother's silverware and disappeared forever more.  The only picture I have ever had of him was taken that day.  He is the man sitting in the back of the room with his head turned away from the camera.

Years later I learned he worked for the CIA.  He was supposedly retired when his daughter disappeared and he went undercover to find her.  He never reappeared.  His visits were always so far apart that I didn't notice until it was way too late to even think about finding him, but I suppose that might have been impossible anyway.

He was the real Prince Charming of my childhood.