As they began their senior year, they both celebrated their eighteenth birthdays that were only one day apart. Nathan gave her a boxed set of Beatles CDs, and Colleen gave him a set of socket wrenches to work on his new car, a vintage Mustang convertible that was a gift from his parents.
Colleen and Nathan had been best friends since they were three years old, when the Bakers moved next door to the Quinns in a quiet neighborhood in the small city in Illinois where they lived. The Baker family consisted of Bob and Betty and their two children, Nathan and Susan, who were two years apart. Susan was the oldest. The Quinns were Mark and Mary and their three offspring, Kathleen, Rob and Colleen, who were also two years apart. Kathleen was the oldest, Colleen the youngest.
Colleen and Nathan were like two peas in a pod. Both were extremely precocious. They started walking at ten months, talking at a year old, and speaking in complete sentences before they were two.
She was a complete tomboy, matching Nathan stride for stride as they played. They climbed the oak tree in the Baker's yard, and pushed each other on the swings at the Quinn's. They talked Bob into building them a tree house in the giant oak. All four parents held their breath at the thought of them falling and injuring themselves, and were relieved to see them scampering up the rope ladder like a pair of monkeys.
The tree house was their fortress, their refuge. On warm summer nights they slept up there in the branches. They filled it with books; both of them were learning to read, sounding out words together. They both had library cards and carried home a fresh stack every Saturday morning.
Colleen was fascinated with dinosaurs, whales, jungle animals and almost anything in the natural world. She could proudly identify a Triceratops, a Velociraptor or a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Nathan was interested in space ships and anything to do with space travel, ships that traveled the oceans, and almost anything of a mechanical nature.
Colleen shared her DVDs of the whole Jurassic Park series and didn't even close her eyes during the really scary parts. Together they watched the Star Wars movies and the Star Trek Series, the original being their favorites. They adopted a stuffed Tribble as their official mascot.
They eschewed the normal childhood toys. Instead of blocks, they built things with Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. Colleen was never interested in dolls, and had a Barbie still in its unopened box gathering dust on a shelf in her closet. Instead, she enjoyed Nathan's Erector set, and they constructed an array of impressive machines.
When they weren't at Nathan's house, they were at Colleen's, along with Lucy, a two year old golden lab. Lucy technically belonged to the Bakers, but could be found at either house, depending on where the kids were. She wagged her whole body like she was hinged in the middle. Scratch her behind the ears, and she'd flop down on her back, hoping for a tummy rub. They played hard and usually got filthy dirty, especially after a mud puddle splashing contest. At the end of the day, Mary or Betty would strip off their dirty clothes and throw the kids in the bathtub together.
The school was close enough so they could walk. Lucy faithfully tagged along with them and curled up and slept under a bush until they got out at the end of the day.
School bored them to death. They were so intellectually advanced compared to the other kids, that they spent their days huddled together in a corner, chattering away like a pair of magpies.
Their teacher and the principal called all the parents together to discuss their children. The school wanted to send them to a psychologist to be tested for ADHD.
When she had finished her evaluation, Dr. Keegan called the parents back in to discuss her findings. "I don't see any signs of attention deficit. They are both totally aware of what goes on in the classroom. They're just so advanced for their age, they're just bored. Have you thought of letting them skip a grade or two and letting start in at maybe the second or third grade?"
Both sets of parents had discussed this, but decided they wanted the kids to be socially integrated with children their own age. It didn't work then, and never did, all the way through high school. They never knew what to say to the other kids. They we a pair of lone wolves, always preferring each other's company.
Nathan began taking piano lessons when he was five. He, in turn, taught Colleen. By the time they were eight, both could sight read anything. They could hear a piece and play it back by ear. Colleen developed an affinity for the guitar. As she grew older, her repertoire expanded. She moved from classical acoustic to rock, blues, and jazz. She particularly liked the twelve string and studied the old delta bluesmen, from Robert Johnson to Mississippi John Hurt. She could finger-pick and play the bottleneck with the best of them.
She collected the albums of Koerner, Ray and Glover who were part of early folk/blues explosion in the 1960's. The band featured Tony "Little Sun" Glover on harmonica, "Spider" John Koerner and Dave "Snaker Ray" on guitar and vocals. They inspired her to don a harmonica rack and add blues harp to her repertoire.
She put a pick-up on an acoustic guitar and accompanied Nathan in some jazz improvisations. They both had beautiful voices and harmonized well with each other. Colleen loved the vocalists of the sixties and seventies, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Carol King and Joni Mitchell.
She also liked country music, with a particular fondness for some of the early recording artists like Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, and Dottie West. Emmy Lou Harris was her idol. They both knew all the lyrics to Bob Dylan's songs.
Junior high provided Nathan and Colleen a whole new era of angst. Puberty hit kids of this age. Unfortunately, nobody matured at the same time. Colleen was skinny as a rail and her breasts failed to fill out like most of the other girls in her class. She wore a tee shirt under her clothes until she was fourteen, when her mother bought her a bra and insisted that she wear it. It was a padded A cup that she didn't begin to fill out. One morning she entered the bathroom just as Kathleen was coming out of the shower. She looked at her older sister's full, ripe breasts with envy. "Do you think mine will ever grow like yours?" she asked.
"Give it some time, sweetie. Some girls just take a little longer to develop."
"Well, if I was a joiner, I'd belong to the IBT club."
"What's the IBT club?"
"Itty Bitty Titties," she answered with a frown.
Nathan, on the other hand, shot up a foot. His voice deepened and peach fuzz appeared all over his face. Bob bought him a razor and taught him how to use it. He developed in other areas as well, growing man-sized equipment. He could tell, by comparing himself to other boys in the locker room, that he was larger than average. He soon discovered masturbation. Betty was amused the first time she washed his sheets.
Both the kids were ostracized and taunted for being different. Bob and Betty took Nathan to a martial arts studio, so he could stand up to a bully. Both of them were pacifists, but believed a person should be able to defend themselves. Bob had earned a third degree black belt in his twenties. He had never used it against another person, but he relished the discipline and grace that it gave him.
Mark and Mary were hesitant to let Colleen participate, but she was insistent, and the instructor convinced them that girls could use the training as well. Besides, Colleen had an enormous crush on Ralph Macchio and had watched The Karate Kid at least a dozen times.
