The One Who Got Away

I was singing 2nd tenor in the choir. And a while after my neck brace was off, I was frequently walked to my next class by a beautiful young girl, Cindy B. She was the sister of Lanex, who had been one of my friends during my first enrollment at LC3 and had been part of our expedition to get Hendrix tickets for his first Cleveland Show. Lanex was very nice, but as usual, with my interests, in a long-term relationship with someone else. So no, not an option either then nor in this iteration of school life.

Cindy was mesmerized by my voice and confessed to having a crush on me. This was her first year at Community, having graduated from Elyria High in the spring of the previous year (she was 18, I was 22). We were pretty much inseparable for the next year or so, though we never consummated our professed ‘love’ for each other… I used to hang out at her house with her and her sisters, Lanex, Judi, and her oldest sister, who’s name I don’t recall as she was seldom there. Cindy had been in the previous year’s Miss Ohio Pageant, being a runner up to the reigning Miss Ohio, Betty W., who was also a close friend of Cindy. We used to do charity performances at senior homes and Red Cross events, like when Guy and I played for Volunteens. As Miss Talent Ohio, Cindy was asked to perform on a local TV show… I don’t remember the name. She asked me to accompany her. One song that she liked and I could play reasonably well was Lenord Cohen’s Susanne. The day of the performance, we set up in the studio, and the host was constantly trying to get a date with Cindy the whole time we were there, even when she explained to him that I was her boyfriend. We played the piece, and it was well received. It was a little strange for me in that it was the first time in years that I did not sing but just played the accompaniment. But that was fine; Cindy was quite happy with the performance.

In the spring of the year, the theater group put on the musical Apple Tree, based on Mark Twain’s short stories of Adam and Eve in Eve’s Diaries. I auditioned and got the part of the snake. I had two solos and several dialogs with Eve, but only a couple of lines with Adam. I accompanied myself with my guitar for both of my solos. The play was a success, and Cindy was in the audience all three nights of the performance. I used to have tapes of the show that she had recorded for me from the audience. Her laughter throughout the show was musical, intoxicating.

The guy who played Adam (don’t remember his name) fancied himself a ladies’ man and was always trying to get Cindy to go out with him. He was taking Korean Karate in a class at the college and tried to impress both Cindy and me with what a great ‘physical specimen’ he was. I went to his class and found the instructor to be an old one of mine, Lyn Jackson, Moo Duc Kwan instructor. I had studied with him a bit right after high school, just to broaden my skill set. Lyn invited me to join the class. I did for a couple of quarters. Lyn awarded me a green belt as soon as I started, while our ‘friend’, Adam, was still only a white belt… several grades of difference in Moo Duc Kwan. If I remember properly, the belt order was white, yellow, orange, green, purple, red, and black. I was awarded purple before I dropped the class. Mr. ‘ladies man’ pretty much left us alone after that, except when he thought I wasn’t around and could get some private time with Cindy.

The end: I was ready to settle down into a more permanent relationship. She was not. Cindy’s parents convinced her to transfer to Heidelberg University in Tiffin, OH, where her sister, Lanex, was completing her degree. She agreed, applied, and was accepted. We spent many of our remaining times together discussing and arguing about it. It’s not that I didn’t trust her, but I had recently lived in a college town and that lifestyle. And I knew that once she left for Heidelberg, I’d seldom see her. And I didn’t trust any of the guys she’d be exposed to there. So, the last time we discussed/argued about it, I ended it and walked away. I was sick and tired of the women in my life exerting their power over me to force my compliance to their wishes, regardless of mine. Yes, I let my stupid ego cut me off from the only person who had expressed any love for me to that point. I never saw her again, though she did communicate with my brother, Chris, a couple of times. He always had a crush on her, too.

To be Continued

–LE