Woodrow Bailey

“Puberty’s Pride Destroys Innocence”

    Chris and Tammy laugh as they walk up the block. I can feel Regina looking back, but I block them out for interrupting my prison sentence. I stop for a moment to walk out to watch them walk off. Regina had on a white tank top and shorts, which were lime green. They probably headed somewhere to hang out as I returned to continue my session with that paintbrush. Life reflects on what you can or cannot do. 

     On the first day, by 7 am, Chris, Tammie, and I walked down Harcourt Avenue to Jefferson as we crossed the street heading into Dorsey High School. It was a new year with everyone in new gear. Buddies approached me, asking what happened to me over the summer. I had little to offer but vowed to be out of the comedy business, and I was serious about my senior year. The first bell rang at 8 am. I was heading towards the C building when a vapor of voice rang out.

    “Bailey, come here…now!”

     Crusty Mr. Gordon, the Audio/Visual teacher, yelled out as his toasty coffee breath was not on my radar this early on the first day. He wore a wrinkled tan shirt with equally wrinkled tan pants, his white man comb-over, and his brown broom mustache.

    “Return to nutrition to set up a camera in the modern dance room. I can’t trust the rest of those clowns to do it right.”

    He turned around to head into his class; I breathed a sigh as a rite of passage and went to my first two classes. I listened to human noise, and my interest was to be anywhere else but in class. I daydreamed about having a special moment for my 17th birthday. Nutrition started at 10 am. After dumping my books in my locker, I did what I was asked. I went to get the camera equipment as dudes asked where it was going. I said nothing, as I wanted to get this over with. I drowned out the mix of black asphalt, students, heavy sun, and noise. 

     I arrived at the western side of the school, to the modern dance room. The glassy hardwood floors were slick as I walked in. The off-white walls kept the heat down as I moved to a corner to set up the camera, fumbling to get it right.

     A voice rose out of this chaos I was dealing with.

    “Hi, Woody.”

    Regina stood in the middle of the floor at a wide angle in a light pink leotard with white ballerina shoes. Her figure stopped me in a freeze frame as she radiated long, flowing black hair, cocoa-colored eyes, and a glistening smile. She turned to go towards the mirror as her timeless hourglass shape duplicated in the mirror. My eyes blinked as shutters to validate what I was seeing. She walked towards me, and my heart jumped out of my chest. 

    “Happy birthday.”

     She leaned into me, but I was a zombie of fear. She wrapped her arms around my waist as my hands asked my brain what to do. Her silky black hair touched my hands, and I shivered a bit; I wrapped my hands around her back. I looked into her eyes as I searched for her soul. Her lips touched mine as revelation started as she began to kiss me. I was a complete amateur, but I closed my eyes to take in the yellows and oranges of this moment. The red passion fired up as I started to rub her soft arms, which felt like clouds. My hands were learning, too, as they floated to her back. I commanded my hands not to touch her ass, for I was trying to be respectful, but passion is a cruel player; as I grabbed her ass, the intensity increased. Our tongues explored each other’s mouths as I was a bit of a character following the lead. At that moment, I stepped away to see the aura in clear view. It didn’t seem like that could happen to me.  

    The mirrors offered a 360-degree view of that magical moment as I hoped it would last forever. I wasn’t worried about who saw us or when. The bolts of this physical affair and the sheer heat of this juncture made my psyche go wild. Regina’s body had melted into mines. 

    My mind zoomed in on the sound of a bell ending nutrition. The reality was slowly wavering as an ocean of consciousness washed up. 

    A thumping of feet started hitting my ears as I knew that sound. I opened my eyes to investigate Regina’s as I had never experienced that level of connection. The euphoria captivated all I thought I knew about girls, but this was a young woman. As she stepped away, I released her from my grip, and every mirror highlighted her body. Her gleaming smile was hypnotizing my soul. 

    In reality, male students were never supposed to be in the modern dance room, as many have tried, but all have failed. I shook my head to wake up as Regina sashayed away with a mid-shot of her behind a half wall. She winked at me, but the Gestapo’s booming feet closed in. A crisis-level panic set in as somebody set up the camera. I wasn’t thinking, but I was out of bounds. As I ran towards the side door, I could only look back at Regina one more time. 

    I quickly opened the door but didn’t realize I was in another no-fly zone—the girl’s locker room. Always quickly, I shot down to the last shower stall. The gray darkness could offer cover, but I heard the clicking of a yardstick on the concrete. The musky odor of not being cleaned with a deep-rooted slime of green germs was on the shower walls as I tried to avoid ruining my new school clothes. My nose took in all these toxicants as it protested this infusion of dirty air. 

    Ms. Lee was a sawed-off Caucasian five-foot two-inch tower of terror. Her sun-dried skin, heavy saddle bag hips, and blonde Moe haircut struck fear like a knife. I listened, hoping she would not inspect every crevice of the locker room. 

            My mind replayed a warning from Pop saying any infraction would send me back to Louisiana to finish High School and attend college there since Grandpa Henry would pay for me to go to LSU. That’s a Hell I had to think about as I laid out prayer one. The passing bell rang for the third period, and to keep piling mess on my plate, I’d miss the first class of AP English. I had never missed a class on purpose. 

    11:15 am. As the entire period passed, I was too scared to walk out on faith. I heard voices of females coming into the locker room, the constant chatter of things I shouldn’t be attending, and the horror of seeing naked young women. The situation would be a Godsend of a moment in different times, but my life as I knew it was on the line. The shower stall was a safe harbor for the moment.

           I heard the shower water next to the last one, so a drip started in the previous shower. My brand-new gear was getting wet, and that was a scene that no camera should shoot. There was a security mirror above the shower as I saw myself. If that female looked up, I was dead; if she screamed, I was over; and if Ms. Lee rampaged in, I was finished. No class could solve my problem. The white steam of the hot water cut off my little air, and the situation’s mathematics was brutal.  

    The locker room cleared out, so I must make a move. My second prayer was I could get out unnoticed. I decided to wait because a sixth sense told me to wait as the fourth period was a wash at noon. Ms. Lee was back patrolling with the crisp tap of the yardstick. She had popped many a football player or trickster who tried to peak at the modern dancers drooling over dancers’ bodies. She came to the front door with a “whack,” sending them unfulfilled.

   My situation couldn’t get any worse, could it? 

   I heard Regina’s voice for some reason. I was unconscious or dreaming.  

           “Ms. Lee, I think I left my soap in the shower. I’ll grab it. Just a moment.”

   That was a prayer I didn’t place. I stayed still as a corpse until I saw those cocoa-colored eyes in the darkness with that glistening smile. She floated towards me as I was wet from head to toe. A soft kiss on my lips as she grabbed my right hand. That touch calmed me as she put her index finger to her lips as a warning. Despite the darkness, I could see her hourglass silhouette as time stood still. 

   “Let’s go… Let’s go, and do I smell something?”

   “I don’t, Ms. Lee…it always stinks here.”

    That command barked out as Regina faded away. It took every molecule not to walk out with her and the hell with Ms. Lee and Pop’s proclamation. Then common sense punched me in the temple as I sheltered in place. The nightmare of quietness lingered as it was now 1 pm, so there went lunch. A decision had to be made, but a distinct tuning of muffled radio came into my hearing.

   A jingle of keys bounced off the walls as a song became clear.

   “The first time I saw you, baby, I knew right away I wanted you for my lady; I had to rush right over to you and ask you if you feel the same way, too.”

   A burst of Lysol hits my nose as a shadowy figure appears, singing along. 

   “I wanna be in two places at the same time, inside you and inside your mind…”

   “That’s right. That’s the jam right there.”

    I realized it was Mr. Banks, the guru of Dorsey High, a street gruff, dark, six-foot African American man of pride with his dingy green coveralls, wild-looking salt and pepper hair, and a toothpick out the right side of his mouth. Prayers answered. I pop out of the shower, startling him as he’s by the opening of the shower.

   “Damn it, so quit it. Who is that anyway? Come here out of that darkness.”

    I walked over feeling like a dish rag needing to be rung out. 

    “What the Hell you doing in here, Bailey? You are the last person I would suspect in here. Damn, first day of school too.”

   “Long story.”

   “No shit.”

   “Can you let me out of here?”

    “Sure, but you owe me a story. You are good at telling them, too. You know, one day, I bet you be a writer like that Alex Hailey who wrote Roots. You just as smart as him.” 

    Mr. Banks and I walked towards the back door. I was one of the few students who would talk to him. Most thought he was a creep, but he was Dorsey High School. He gave me a towel to dry off what dignity I had left as the door opened to sunlight, which bathed my spirit. I shook his hand as he chuckled off.

    “I can’t wait to hear this one.” 

    I could only sit on a bench now, being fifth period and nearly 2 pm. Let the sun dry some of my emotions out. I had a lot to think about as this window to adulthood opened. This life movie would not get a sequel.