Unforgettable

  Breathing far too heavily and getting my head dizzy. That's something I did often this summer.

  As I lay on the lumpy beach of Newport with no sunscreen and no sunglasses I thought of how to stop the time. Freeze it right there. Maybe if I held still for long enough..there...frozen. But the heat made it hard for anything to freeze. I sat up and picked up my drawing pad. That summer I had planned to draw a lot. Anything picture worthy could be drawn. Of course later on, after a few failed attempts, I realized that I am not quite qualified for spontaneous drawing. But at that moment since freezing time was not an option I decided to capture it. And so I drew. I drew the over sized umbrellas and the over sized hats and over sized sunglasses that old ladies wore. Well atleast I tried.
  As I was putting away my stuff and preparing to lay down again a man walking out of the water caught my attention. For no good reason really. He wasn't my age, or even good looking. None of that. I mean I guess he could have been an attractive man if he still had his youth. I guess it was just his red and unnecessarily tight swimsuit that caught my attention, or maybe his very red skin. It was obvious that he had spent much time at the beach trying to get a tan and well, the results weren't that good. When he got closer I realized that maybe I had been staring for too long, because apparantly I had drawn attention too and he was looking straight at me. But what I didn't expect was the following:
"Hi"
"Hi..."
"Whatchu drawin' there?"
"Um.."
"It's Pretty, like yourself"
"Thank you"
"Are you from here?"
"No. Just visiting a friend"
"What's your name?"
"Nadine"
"Nice to meet you Nadine" 
   And he winks at me. He winks at me? Was that a flirt? He's probably as old as my dad! He probably has a wife! He's probably filthy rich...
Okay, it wasn't the first time I had gotten a compliment from a guy but never from a guy that old. And I have to shamefully admit I felt a bit flattered. I felt like in the movies, as I often do. I was a beautiful young tourist and he was, well, old and rich. The plot speaks for itself. My mind was browsing hard for a good background song for the moment as I lay there with a grin on my face. And I hit play : "Unforgettable - Nat King Cole"