Some Marine...
My stories are in the form of a memoir. The tales are first of growing up in my parent's guesthouse, then progress to the time when I was an hotelier and culminating with me as sailing ship captain. I have collected them in a series of volumes entitled The Intimate Intercourse of a Hedonistic Hotelier, A Memoir. This Story is from Volume II, The College Years 1969-1973, Mmmm, Mmmm, Good!
Memory, however, is a faulty device, as any trial lawyer will tell you. No two witnesses to any incident relate the same series of events. Memories are colored by experience and imagination. I have been blessed with a surfeit of both.
As I write this memoir at the start of my eighth decade of life, I find the memories of some of the events related have dimmed. I find though, as I continue to write, many of the memories burst forth like a climatic crescendo in a welcoming grotto of pleasure.
Though these stories are, for the most part true; I freely admit that some of the stories are "more true" than others. I can say, however, that all the stories are based on true events. I have changed the names of the participants to obscure their identity and to give them plausible deniability, if they so choose.
*****
The phone rang at the Captain Joseph Baker Guesthouse, where I was working over the holidays. The hostess answered and said it was for me. It was Jane McAlpine, the somewhat attractive but spacy blond daughter of my parent's friends Les and Margaret McAlpine. It was near the end of winter break and she was heading back to campus and looking for a ride.
"Jacques could we get a ride up to Prettyport, Doug's car is in the shop." Jane asked in her slightly nasal voice.
"Sure, I'm heading up about four on Sunday," I said. I was attending Whatcom State College. I came home every weekend to work for my parents to make money for my college. Also to have sex with Heather who was a senior at Swifton High School, except for the fact that I was currently on a sex hiatus from Heather, as she had found out I had had sex with another girl last summer.
"Great, there will be three of us, Doug, me and his little sister Dru. Pick us up at Les and Margaret's." I always thought it was odd that she called her parents by their first names, but they were from California, so that must have been the California way.
When I got to the McAlpine's, Jane, Doug and a cute girl were waiting for me. Dru was about 5'1" and well-formed. She had medium length, straight light brown hair with an ever so slight wave. She had the sweetest smile with mischievous dimples and a twinkle in her eye.
We loaded everyone in the VW microbus and off we went. Jane was in the front seat and Doug and Dru in the back. I had taken out the middle seat so I could carry more stuff. The VW was pretty noisy so it wasn't conducive to conversation for anyone except for the one in the front.
Jane said, "Dru is going to stay with us for several months in Prettyport. Dru doesn't have any friends in the Ferndale area; if you have the time perhaps you could show her around."
I thought this was a strange request, why couldn't they show her around? But she was a pretty little thing, so why not. When I dropped them off at Prettyport College, I asked for the phone number so I could give Dru a call.
The next day I called. The phone was in the Student Lounge of the residence apartment complex of Prettyport College. The student who answered the phone went up to Doug and Jane's dorm room where Dru was staying. A few minutes later Dru answered.
"This is Dru Marquis."
"Hi Dru. Jacques Lith, here. Would you like to come out to 'Guide Meridian Hall' with me?" I asked.
'Guide Meridian Hall' was what Alan Silver and I call the house we lived in outside of Ferndale. It was on a road called the Guide Meridian. Freshmen were supposed to live on campus unless you lived with a close relative. Alan's sister had just gotten a job in Swifton; so her house in Ferndale was vacant and we got a good deal to stay there. His mother was a distant relative of my dad... if you went back to the revolutionary war. That was close enough for us.
"Sure," she said confidently.
