The Greatest Kiss

Stories are meant to be told and also meant to be read. I love to listen to great stories. I thought I would write them down now so if anything were to ever to happen to me maybe one day Royann could share them with our kids and have a great laugh. Royann has taken a fill in position with a couple of vet clinics around Mississippi and sometimes it leaves me home alone. Tonight happens to be one of those nights. I am a very traditional person. As you read this blog of stories you will come to find that out. There are things that I do day in and day out that are traditional to me. One is hard to do when my wife is away. Ever since she found out she was pregnant with our first child, I go in each night and kiss my wife and rub on her belly. (Royann goes to bed before me a lot of times while I work on a computer business.) Also I say a prayer with my wife for our future child with my hand on her belly. I don't pray that he or she is successful, rich, smart, healthy, or a good athlete like most parents would hope for. I am not saying those things are important so please don't take it in the wrong way. I have a unmoving faith that those things will be taken care of by God. The one thing I do pray for is his or her salvation. I pray that our child becomes a Christian and he becomes a miracle worker for God here on earth. I end the tradition every night with talking to my wife's belly to our child and telling him or her funny stories about Royann and I and kissing Royann's belly. I know what you are thinking is this the greatest kiss the story was named after and the answer is no.

While thinking about my tradition I thought of another kiss that happened in my life. It was my first kiss. First kisses are long not forgotten by anyone. They are major moments that live with us forever even if we can't stand that person it was with. It always brings a smile to our face thinking of it. Mine was on July 2, 1989. I had gone with my Aunt and Uncle to my cousin's all-star baseball game. In the previous year of playing on these fields I was named league MVP, all-star myself, recorded the most home runs as a hitter and most strikeouts by a pitcher ever to hit or pitch in Holmes County. I was sort of a big man you could say. I was respected by old and young and male and female. I walked with a strut with my held high. When I showed up to this game a year later it was no different from when I was playing. Young does were running everywhere and everyone knew who the head buck was. I sat in the small bleachers away from the main stands where the parents sat where the teenagers were. Just breaking into the teen years I was cool enough at the time to hang with the fourteen and fifteen year olds. I had played with most of them and they knew and respected me for what I did on the field. As I sat down to watch the game I scoped out the women around me without them knowing I was looking. I gauged them and it was the same old women. Out of the corner of my eye I caught the most beautiful specimen a thirteen old had ever seen. She had blond hair with perfect bangs, short shorts, and was the most well endowed thirteen year old I had ever seen. She was a friend of a friend, which worked perfectly in my favor. I knew she would introduce us and talk me up before hand. I was in. I had never been nervous like this in my whole life. I think I even used my real name Bradley because I didn't want the name Rocky to scare her off. We talked the whole game sitting right there on the hill above the field. I don't think I saw a single pitch. The night and the game flew by. The only way I or her knew the game was over is because they started turning the lights off above the field. After the game she asked me to walk me to her friends mother's car. My strut turned into a limp. As we reached her ride and looked behind us at the darkness of the field that was once lit up and the droves of fans walking up to their own cars, I did what any nervous boy would do. I played the small talk card. We were just telling each other our deepest secrets not five minutes ago and I go to the small talk card. I use the small talk to avoid the inevitable, but it didn't work. She wrapped her arms around my neck and moved in. I remember thinking in the milliseconds before her lips met mine, I had never kissed a girl. I didn't know how to do it. I remember thinking do I turn right or turn left or go for the straight on kiss? I had overheard one time my brother saying something about the tongue, but I remember thinking that sounded both gross and dangerous. What if the woman bit it? What did you do with the tongue anyway? I knew I had seen a lot of people kiss on TV on the one channel we did get back then. I had seen wedding kisses. I had seen my Mom and Dad kiss. I did what any naive, country raised boy could do. I decided to go with the TV kiss,closed mouth but with fish motions. Almost like I was chewing a piece of food with my lips. I remember her tongue trying to cross the goal line, but I held it off with my tight lips motion. Wow! This girl was experienced I remember thinking. Just as I finished the kiss my little cousin "The Brat" we used to call her snuck around the car this girl had me pushed up against. She started screaming "Rocky is kissing a girl" over and over. So a lot of people became a part of my moment that night. She quickly said goodbye and jumped into the cranked car we were standing by. I don't know if it was the kiss or the gas fumes from the car that had me on cloud nine, but I could barely stand on my weak knees.

The ride home all I could think about was I didn't get her number or even her last name. Which it didn't matter anyway. We weren't allowed to make long distance phone calls. I knew she lived in Kosciusko and that was long distance from Tchula. Sorry kids no area calling back then. The game was the talk of the car for my uncle and cousin and my bratty little cousin just kept saying "Rocky was kissing! Shame! Shame! Shame!". I talked of this moment a lot with my cousins and friends and knew I would never see this girl again. I was in love. The next weekend as we gathered with family at my family's annual "Family Reunion" at Holmes County State Park. I got my wish. It was a big day in the park for a lot of families having their reunion. There was a tin cover roof every 100 feet with different families all gathering for their different respective families. Most other families we knew because they gathered on the same as the Killebrews each year. With the smell of fried chicken in the air and old people saying, "you are getting so big", I went through the story of that faithful night with my cousins. Just as I was finishing the story, I saw her. It was almost like God had answered my prayers. She was making her way down the hill to her families spot. She glowed like a angel. Her blond hair shining and tossing in the wind. I turned to my cousins and said there she is. It was almost like I was living in a dream. I swear I could hear a slow love song playing in my head as she walked down the hill. Is this really happening I remember thinking? Could her family and my family be in the same park on the same day? They were. She made her way down the hill to all the sectioned spots to where all the different families were gathered. The only problem was she came straight to my family's spot. I treaded lightly to get back to parents car without being noticed. I was only noticed by my cousins and their roaring laughter making fun of me for kissing my cousin. I had kissed my fifth or seventh cousin. It didn't matter to me. We were fruit of the same family tree even if she was an extended branch. I know what you are thinking, Is this the greatest kiss I have ever shared? NO!!!! Let me say NO one more time!!!

Right now that honor belongs to my wife and not because she is the worlds greatest kisser. If she is not she is real close. I think the greatest kiss for me and my wife has not even not taken place yet. It comes in five to six months. I think that honor will belong to the first kiss we lay on our first child's forehead. I think it will be the greatest kiss and if not I know it will be in the top two anyway.

I love you Royann and I miss you and baby Leflore tonight.