This is a sequel to
The Back of Paradise.
It is taking place in the Bronx in 1973. The Paradise Theater still exists, but it is now used as a church. There is a consensual spanking in this, but also a suggestion -- or a promise really -- that she is going to switch it around and give it to him too eventually.
All of the characters in this are over eighteen. That was also the minimum drinking age in New York State at the time.
*******
My high school graduation was in the venerable Loew's Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse. I had been in there a few times earlier to see afternoon movies when the 4,000 seat venue was virtually empty.
But something else significant had recently happened in there. A few weeks earlier I had been picked up by a girl from my physics class at my high school, Bronx Science. I had seen this girl, Lynn Kepler, for a while but we had said nothing to each other before. Meanwhile, I was an eighteen-year-old virgin pining away for a girl named Miriam who was seated next to me in the same class.
This Miriam couldn't stand me as far as I knew, but I was stuck with her. The teacher was one of those old-school guys who had to have everyone seated in alphabetical order. Obviously, it made it easier for him to take attendance in his Delaney book. It is was hell for me however because I was trapped with Miriam by my side for all of that time.
I don't know what it is about a young person's mind that creates these absurd obsessions. Years later the movie
Say Anything
would examine the phenomenon. But while the film had a happy ending, in reality such situations usually didn't end well at all. Meanwhile, there were four hundred other girls in my senior class whom I was completely ignoring.
One of them was Lynn Kepler, who was sitting in a row behind me, bidding her time perhaps. Or maybe she just made an impulsive decision. In any case, in the very last weeks of our time in high school, she came right up to me at my bus stop. "We should both go somewhere together, I mean right now."
I didn't know that girls could initiate dates or why she had picked me at the very end of our time in high school. But it was my job as the male to choose something, so I said we should see
Soylent Green
at the Paradise Theater.
Except, we never actually saw the movie. Our time was spent in one of the back rows of the nearly empty theater. We indulged in some very heavy petting. A more accurate term would be "mutual masturbation." We fondled each other's genitals until we both had orgasms. Lynn was particularly impressed when I ejaculated while sitting in my seat. "Man, that really looks great," she said while witnessing my spurts going up and out.
After that, we had lost track of the movie, so we left and had a late lunch. And just like that, in less than an hour, I had landed my first girlfriend, or maybe she had landed me. And she was a very pleasing girlfriend who enjoyed having sex with me.
Then it was soon graduation day, and the class of '73 gathered on the sidewalk in front of the same theater on a warm, overcast morning. I was wearing my one sport coat, a horrible blue polyester number that I was too young to be embarrassed about. One of my acquaintances, a guy named Jeff whom I had known since junior high, was going on about the
Jesus Christ Superstar
album.
Then who should walk up but my long-term love object Miriam Dubinsky. She didn't have a guy with her, I noted. She was a short girl with dark blonde hair. On this day, she looked very virginal in her short white dress, white stockings, and white shoes. Now that I think about it, she probably was indeed a virgin although she sometimes dropped hints that she wasn't.
I had no idea why she choose my little group of people to chat with. It certainly couldn't have been because of my presence. But sometimes I thought she knew what I was thinking and she enjoyed putting on an unobtainable femme fatale act. At that point, I was simply glad that I didn't have to be concerned with her any longer.
Then Lynn came gliding up. She was taller than Miriam, and her dark hair was pinned up. As for her clothes, in contrast with Miriam, her short dress was black, and her nylons and shoes were dark.
At first, she just came up to me and stood there. She looked great, and she knew it. I was trying not to gawk at her, but it was hard to avoid doing that. Finally, she said, "So, how do I look? Pretty good, right?"
I wanted to play it cool. "You certainly look noticeable."
"Just noticeable? Would it kill you to give me a compliment?"
"That was a compliment."
She laughed, and then she put her arms around me and kissed me warmly. When we pulled back, I noticed that Jeff and Miriam were looking at us. Miriam had an odd expression like perhaps she was a bit dismayed. I was feeling rather cocky, so I thought,
yeah baby, I know you're surprised, but I can get a really nice chick if I try.
We stepped away from the others and then Lynn briefly pointed her thumb at the building. "That's sort of our theater, isn't it? I mean, we had a pretty hot time in the back row."
"We still haven't seen
Soylent Green
yet."
"Maybe we should come back here this summer for something."
I dared say, "You know, when it's so empty, I think we could pull off intercourse in there."
"Oh really, and how do you propose to do that?"
I had thought it through. "You could get down on your hands and knees on the floor. Then you'd stick your ass up and I'd kneel behind you -- I'd take you from behind, in other words."
"Great, I'd have to be down there with two generations of spilled sodas and other crap on the floor."
"I'd make it worth your while Lynn, I promise."
"You certainly have a good imagination, I can see that. You almost have me sold on the idea now."
In a short while, it was time to enter the Paradise. I couldn't sit with Lynn, but I'd meet her immediately afterwards. I knew my dad was supposed to attend too, but he wasn't there to see me enter.
1973 was the last year the place was still in its original 1929 configuration of almost 4,000 seats, including those in the balcony. The interior was of some kind of Italian Baroque or Venetian design, but most patrons probably thought of it as merely "fancy."
It was a strange place to watch a movie on a weekday afternoon when perhaps twenty people would be seated in the huge auditorium. I remember seeing
Serpico
and
The New Centurions
under such conditions. Later, of course, Lynn and I had put on our own show in the back, a production perhaps called
Let's Feel Up Each Other Up Until We Both Come.
It was definitely more fun to create our own "content" as compared to whatever Hollywood had to offer.
I hardly remember what my boring high school commencement had to offer. At the end, we were let out through the fire exits at the back to Creston Avenue. I finally caught up with my dad, and then soon after that Lynn appeared.