My Shadow

The odd encounter with a stranger this past saturday afternoon has made a bit of a decision for me. Many years ago, I had a similiar situation that really affected me, so back we go, way back, back a couple of decades and then some. I was born in the town of Eagle River WI., though we lived outside a town called Phelps, as I search for some sort of roots in my life, I find myself going back to the beginning. My mom ran a cafe called, the phelps cafe, and my dad built houses for a man named John Volkman. My mom was pregnat with me about the same time as Judy Volkman, John's wife, and the Volkman's had a daughter named Jessica. We moved back south shortly after I was born, and on the few times we would go up camping, or to visit, I would hang out with Jessica. On the last time camping trip we took there, it would have been 1981, we spent much of a day at a rodeo and parade over in Michigan, as it was a short distance from Phelps. it started to rain in the late afternoon, so Jess and I were playing hide and seek with our collective brother's. after being found numerous times in the barn by the horses we decided to hide in the farm's bunkhouse. While we hid, we were holding ahnds, and right before her brother found us, she kissed my cheeck.

Life and distance kept us from visiting the Volkman's again until I was 14, Jessica and I were out walking again, and it was like ten years had not passed, she took my hand, led me to the bunkhouse, and asked me if I remembered the last time we were there, I had of course, and she went to the exact spot, and kissed me on the cheeck again, we walked and talked, holding hands, but soon it was time to go. I have not seen or heard from the Volkman family since, but often I find myself wondering what Jess is doing, she has been my muse for many, many years, and I have decided to find her, I do hope she is happily married with a good life, but if I don't find out, I will wonder, so last night, I looked her up on the net, and I think I will call, whenever I get the nerve. I know it is just the romantic in me, but if her my shadow be, then in time we shall see...