The Story of Norah Pratt

The Story of Norah Pratt


I can remember the first time I ever saw her. She stood there so beautiful in the morning sun. I'd never believed in love at first sight, although it became clear that there was something to it. She was perfect. If I'd tried to create the perfect girl for me, then she'd have no doubt looked similar to the girl who was next door to me. My friend Teddy lived there, and I had to be at two-a-days that morning at the football field. I'd later tell Teddy I was running late for practice and couldn't speak to her. The truth was I was a bit shy to approach such a perfect female. Later that afternoon I went over there to see Teddy.

"Who was that girl I saw in your driveway earlier?" I eventually asked him. There had been a plan to not just get right to that question. There had also been a second part to that plan - Not to let him know how attracted to her I was.

"She's my cousin from Illinois." That was also where Teddy had come from. He moved to our school in the fourth grade.

"I think she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." Part two of the plan had failed. She'd been on my mind since I first saw her. All through practice that morning I'd been thinking of her. I practically went straight to his house afterward. Beside going to my house to eat, and clean up a bit, I'd gone right next door.

"You really think she's beautiful?" Teddy asked. My next response had to be put in the right words. There were a lot of feelings on the line. What if he didn't want me liking his cousin?

"Yes. I definitely think she is." I had owned it. There was no reason to hide it. Other guys were going to see her, and they were not going to care if I liked her. It was better for me that he knew and that I had the chance to meet her first. To my surprise it didn't seem to upset Teddy at all. He liked the idea and introduced us.

---

I stood alone outside while he went inside to get her. When they came outside she had a smile on her face. That alone made me nervous, because maybe she thought I looked funny or meeting me was a joke. Never in a million years did I realize she was as nervous as I was. The only thing I could see was an amazing girl walking right at me. Her long brown hair looked soft, her narrow face punctuated her baby blue eyes. She was a small girl at about one hundred and ten pounds, but she had nice perky breast. There was nothing about her that I didn't find totally attractive. Her shirt was tied up around her stomach, and her hips swayed as she walked toward me. It felt like I was frozen in place. I hoped I'd be able to speak.
"Hey, my name is Steve." I spoke first, and it sounded sure and confident.
"My name is Norah," she replied so soft and gentle, yet there was an excitement in her voice as well. From that point words could have been hard to come by. Teddy took control of the uncertain situation.
"Perhaps we should take Norah for a walk around town." His suggestion was more than I could've came up with. It also sounded like a good idea. Arlee, Alabama wasn't a very big town, however it would give me a chance to get to know Norah. We walked her around the small dead town and showed her the hot spots, the swimming pool, the play ground, the game room in the back of the video store, and even showed her an alleged haunted house. Surprisingly she liked the places we'd taken her. She'd liked everything we showed her, and wanted to go back before she went back to Illinois. I'd found out she was staying for one month. It seemed like long enough at the time. There was no question about it - I intended on getting to know her as good as I could in that month.
My friend Teddy was a very intelligent guy. I couldn't count how many times he helped me study for tests, or just help me with my homework in general. He could also be a spoiled brat. I knew that spending a little time alone with Norah would be almost impossible. Teddy wasn't going to allow it. He figured if he introduced us it gave him a built in pass to hang around. There wasn't much going on, and if she hadn't come down to Alabama, then he and I would have been hanging out. I'd stop by after morning football practice. Then we'd hang out all day after that.
I think I knew after our third day together that I was in love with her. There were things that told me she felt something too. It had to be that first kiss that confirmed it for both of us. The kiss was incredible. I'd kissed girls before, but there was something magical that happened when my lips touched Norah's.

"I want to kiss you." I told her. The thought had crossed my mind several times, but finally my mouth spoke for my heart.
"OK, then do it," she replied. I didn't hesitate one bit as I moved in. Her lips were soft. The kiss tasted like her fruit flavored lip gloss. There was no lingering doubt that I was in love.

---

One month had never passed by so quickly. When it was over I knew we both felt something for each other. She would go home to tell her friends about the guy she met, while I hung around people who knew what I'd lost. They saw a love sick puppy just trying to make it. Teddy knew what I was going through. He'd been right with us the whole time and he saw us fall in love. We were teenagers. My parents would say too young to know real love. Whereas that might have been true in some cases, it was dead wrong in my situation. A friend of mine Stan, he couldn't believe that a person could be that in love with someone without having sex. Obviously he was wrong, because I knew I loved her. It seemed like I'd never see her again. At that point I wasn't sure I ever would.
I'd gone back to the life I knew. There was school and football and friends, but none of it seemed like what it had been before Norah came along. The only thing I really wanted was to see her again. There was a level of regret about not having sex with her, although I saw her as a queen, and she would have had to tell me she wanted it. My view on the sexual experience was dirty back then. I didn't realize it was something special. I had no idea that a stronger bond could be made by sharing an intimate moment. She wanted it to happen, and I never knew it. There was a level of respect that I thought I was giving her. I'm not sure I did the right thing, although at the time it felt right and respectful. If I had it to do all over again, would I have done it any different? I've always asked myself that very thing.

Everyone around me knew how bad I missed Norah. She made me feel alive in ways I never had before. It seemed like I could be a new person. I had talked to other girls before, and there had been a couple who I thought I might be in love with. It always hurt when the relationship ended, but none of them were like Norah. In some weird way I felt like she needed me. Teddy's older brother Chris was happy she went home. He didn't want her involved with me, or so I thought that was the case. In a small town everyone knows each other. There was a chance Chris had heard some things about me. Maybe he didn't think a good girl like her should be with a guy like me. He didn't know me like Teddy did. When me and Teddy first started hanging out Chris thought I'd get his brother in trouble. He did not trust me one bit.
I wasn't like the other kids in the neighborhood. They were out there running the streets looking for trouble. I won't say I never got wrapped up. I'll just say I picked my spots carefully. Teddy kept me out of trouble in a lot of ways. He wasn't looking for trouble. I wasn't looking for it, but you are a product of where you come from. My family had been known to raise a little hell. I think everyone just assumed I too was like the rest of them. In many ways I was different, and in other ways I wasn't. There was one way out of there. I had to do good in the classroom and on the football field. Maybe that would get me into a good college and then out of Arlee. Those other guys weren't going anywhere. If they left town, then they'd only end up in some other small town. They were the environment.
As the summer ended I went back to school. I was struggling to keep my grades up. The eleventh grade was tough. Teddy was there as usual to help me with my homework, but between practice and his homework, he just ended up doing mine for me. I wasn't learning the material. When the test results came back I failed, but when the report cards came out I had a C-average. The papers that were handed back to me had the failing grade on them, but the grade that went down in the book was whatever I needed to maintain eligibility. Again I was being stereotyped. They didn't think I could make the grades to play. It may just be that I couldn't make them, but I truly thought I had been. Something changed again when I found out what was going on. I appreciated the help with the grades, but it hurt to find out I wasn't doing it on my own. I had lost my starting position on the football team, and was being asked to change positions all together. Things seemed to be falling apart.

---

My friends were all driving cars. I not only wasn't, but wouldn't be anytime soon. My parents couldn't afford to buy me a car. With football taking up my time after school I couldn't get a job. When I looked around I saw the things I didn't have. I never looked at what I did have. There was a coach who cared enough to get me help with my grades, and he'd asked me to change positions because of my size. He knew I wanted to play past high school. I took everything the wrong way. My heart had been broken. The pieces hadn't been put back together. When I told my coach I wasn't going to play football anymore it was tough. It might have been the hardest thing I'd ever had to do to that point in my life. It was the beginning of the end for me.
I quit football, I quit school, and I went out to find me a job. There had been other guys I knew who quit school. They were doing good. One of them made more money than either of my parents did at their jobs. I didn't have any real concept of money. The only thing I knew was that I didn't have any. It didn't work out like I thought it would. There were no good jobs for a seventeen year old. It was clear that I had made the wrong decision to quit school. Immediately I didn't feel like I could go back. I tried to make the best out of it. I ended up hanging out late, and doing things I shouldn't have. Things I wouldn't have done when it all mattered. There I was with the other deadbeats, drinking, doing drugs, and having sex with neighborhood tramps.

"She's coming back." Teddy said, as he ran upon me in the streets. "She told me to tell you she's coming back." He was out of breath from running me down.
"Norah? She's coming back?" I couldn't believe my ears. It didn't seem like it could be possible. I had already convinced myself that she'd never be back for more than a visit.
"Her mom and step dad are splitting up, and her mother is moving down her with us."
"They're going to live with you?"
"For a little while, just until they get there own place. I've got to get back home Steve, I just wanted to tell you." He said, and then turned back toward his house. "All right, thanks Teddy. I'll see you later."

I was excited about her coming back. It was what I had wanted for almost a year. My life had seemed to fall apart at the seams, but it felt like things might change. The thoughts made me realize how far I had fallen. I had lost everything. It was thought like that, that made me question whether I was deserving of such a girl now. I had been screwing around with sluts. I hadn't been involved with a real lady since Norah had gone back home. There was no real reason a decent woman would want a guy like me. I had become what I despise, a deadbeat loser. She might have been coming back, but that didn't mean all would be the same. This time she'd be going to school. Her life would be right there where mine had been.
She could have come back to a senior boyfriend who played on the football team. Instead she had a two-bit loser who was less promising than before. I didn't feel like I could go back to school, and I definitely couldn't play football for the age eligibility. If I couldn't play football, then I wasn't going back to school. I figured I'd get my GED and get it on my terms. It really didn't matter whether you had a diploma or GED, if you didn't have direction then you weren't going anywhere. I truly didn't know what I wanted to do. There was also a lot of doubt that I'd ever get my GED. My parents didn't think I'd ever pursue the night classes seriously, and there was a part of me that questioned it too. At the time I was working and didn't take the night classes.
---

Norah had to be shocked upon her return. I was no longer the guy she fell for one year earlier. She seemed like the same girl to me. Maybe I should have noticed the changes in her. She still seemed to have feeling for me, and I know I did for her. It must be why I never noticed the change. Because I would have still loved her no matter what. We seemed to just pick up where we left off the summer before. There was more kissing, and it had led to the brink of sex more than once. She wanted to go all the way. I did too, but I wanted it to be something special. The handful of chances we had were all outside. I wanted to lay her down and make love to her. She just wanted to lose her virginity to me. I wasn't a virgin anymore so I wanted to make her first time as wonderful as I could.
Through the summer we got close, but never actually had sex. There was a level of intimacy in what we did that was greater than any of the sex I'd had. She meant something to me that no other girl had, and that made everything we did better.
"I want to make love to you. Not outside like this, but inside the house. I don't just want to have sex with you; I want to make passionate love to you." I had told her. This was on a night when we almost went all the way. The summer night was hot in Alabama, but not as hot as we were.
I thought she had understood what I meant about making it special. The only reason we didn't do it that night was because we didn't have a condom, and I didn't push it to go without one. Norah would later say.

---

School was about to start back. I was worried that Norah would find someone else. Some nights I'd just think about what I could have been. She could have had a good thing. One night at a party Norah went to a party with her cousin, and she kissed a guy behind my back.
"I can't believe you cheated on me."
"I didn't mean to." She said. "It was one of those things that just happens."
"I'm not sure it's going to work out." I explained. "I'm the only guy you've ever known here. You're about to start school and you'll meet people, and soon you'll tell me how it's not going to work out." It hurt me to say that. I wanted her like an addict wants drugs, but she was only to be mine if she wanted it that way. That night she would have me, but the door I opened was never closed. She had her cousin Chris tell me how much she loved me. I had tried to keep our relationship away from Chris, but obviously Norah hadn't. I hadn't told her that he didn't trust me. She looked up to her older cousin. I'd have never said anything about him. He just didn't know me, but what little he did told him I wasn't a bad guy.
That night I had forgiven Norah for the kiss. We made out under the stars, and again were just inches from full penetration. Again we didn't have a condom, but we weren't going to let that stop us. We had started to do it, and then realized that we were not alone. Her older brother Chuck and Teddy were out there too. They hadn't caught us in the act, however they'd gotten close. That night had been the night it happened. It had been in the process of happening. The passion we'd felt that night ended; it ended just as quickly as our mood for sex did, upon being discovered in the backyard.
Norah figured out she did need room to grow. I figured she finally realized that I was nothing. That I'd likely never be anything, and it was time to move on. I would learn later it wasn't how she felt at all. Part of me was glad I didn't have to worry about her anymore, but the part of me that loved her always would. She needed to spread her wings and fly. I just didn't want to be there to see it. My parents were discussing a move, which at first I was against. Soon I knew if I didn't get away for Arlee, then Norah's wing spreading would be right under my nose. It was a small town...a very small town. For one year I moved away.

---

I might not have noticed the change in her the first year we were separated, but I did when we lost that second year. She had grown into who she was going to be. Not totally, but she knew what the score was by that point. I still loved her, but didn't say anything to her about it. She was no longer a virgin, but that didn't matter to me. I had liked the fact that she hadn't been touched sexually, but the fact that she had been didn't change anything. I still loved her, but I didn't live in Arlee anymore, and I wasn't around her on a regular basis. The second time I saw her (which was about four months after I moved back) I told her I loved her. She felt the same way and we began talking on the phone. It was obvious to both of us that the flame was still burning.
Things were different for me by then. I was a single man with a car, money, and different women every weekend. At that point I wasn't looking for a commitment. Still I talked to her. Things were not going so good for her. They'd moved into the projects, and she hated it there. She knew if she'd stayed with me that things would have been different. I couldn't assure her that anything would've been better, but I truly thought it would. We were made for each other, she said that, and I agreed then as I do now. I believed it so much that I thought we'd be together no matter how long it took. With that in mind I didn't rush to get back with her. When I did finally call her the phone had been disconnected. She eventually called me.
Norah was seeing someone. Would she have left him if I told her I wanted to get back together? I have always wondered, because I never told her how much I loved her. She didn't know I still loved her then like I always had, and like I always would. It appeared to be over between us. That was the last time I'd ever hear from her again. I wanted to tell her I loved her before we hung up the phone, but I couldn't pull the trigger. She seemed so much happier than she had been in the projects. There was a happiness in her voice that had been there when we first met. Part of me hoped it would work out. She wanted to be in love again. I just wished it had of been us. We had something between us that would never die.

---

By the time that I found out Norah was missing her body had been discovered in a plow field. Several eye witnesses reported seeing her get into a blue/gray truck. It appeared to them that she was hitchhiking toward Huntsville. The truck stopped and she got in. That was the last time she was ever seen alive. The truck has never been found, but the investigation is still ongoing fifteen years later.

Impressum

Texte: © John Reeves
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 17.02.2012

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This story is dedicated to my wife. The same lady that thought I could only write horror.