I remember my first
love. We attended the same high school. He was so handsome and all the girls wanted him. I knew he liked me too because he would stand under the tree near the canteen and stare at me every time when I went for lunch and he would stand near the school gate when it was time to go home,
but he would never say a word to me. He was in the upper school so he graduated
before me and I never saw him again. Every now and again I would think about
him and wondered what ever happened to him. I guess it was never meant to be. Oh well, let me get back to Charmaine. Charmaine was very infatuated with Carlton, or as she wrote, “I
am so in love
with Carlton!” She did not know what to do about the feelings that she was
having for this boy. One thing she was certain of was that she could never ever mention his name to
Grandpa Wharbucks. When Carlton first came to stay on the estate he thought he
could go wherever he wanted to on the estate, until Stanley Wharbucks found him in
his garage! Carlton somehow found his way to the main house one day. The doors
of the garage, which was at the side of the house, were wide opened and Stanley
Wharbuck’s driver was washing the Jaguar. Fascinated at the sight of the car
Carlton went into the garage to get a closer look at it. He began asking the driver
questions about the car and before the driver could respond to the first question Carlton had opened the
door of the car and slid behind the steering wheel. The driver was dumbfounded
and just as he was about to say something the voice of Stanley Wharbucks
thundered from the door of the garage, “Get the hell out of my vehicle! Who do
you think you are!” In his haste to get
out of the car Carlton fell to the ground. “I am sorry Sir, I was just admiring
the dashboard,” said Carlton. “As long as you are on this property don’t you
ever come near my car or my house!” said Stanley Wharbucks. When Carlton stood
to his feet and saw Charmaine looking at him, he hung down his head in shame
and walked out of the garage. Stanley Wharbucks turned to Charmaine and said, “I don’t want that young man hanging around here,
he’s to stay where his uncle is, how dare he come up here and sit in my car? I
have been watching him because I think he’s a little bit too forward!” It was
obvious that her grandfather was still angry so Charmaine said nothing. He told her that if Carlton ever became overly friendly with her she
was to tell him so that he could kick him off the property. Charmaine still said
nothing, she just nodded her head and went inside the house to her room and took up her diary and began to
write. Boy did she write! It was Carlton this and Carlton that. Charmaine would be called a stalker today the way she recorded his every move!
She wrote down what he wore, how he combed his hair, who he spoke with and what he did daily. Oh Lord, she had it
bad! Pretty soon the summer was over and Carlton had to return to Kingston to his parents. The morning he left Charmaine did not leave the main house. It was that time of
the month for her and she was experiencing some terrible menstrual cramps. The concoction
that she usually took to ease her pain was finished and she did not want to go
and get some more from Florence because it meant that she would have to pass
Carlton uncle’s house. She definitely did not want Carlton to see her when she
was so distressed. She could see the estate’s gate from her window so she saw
when he left with his uncle. Poor Charmaine, she cried so hard because she had
no idea if she would ever see Carlton again. When she went by Florence later in
the day and she asked her why she looked so sad Charmaine said it was because
of the cramps she was having. Anyway, as she wrote in her diary, Florence
always said, ‘what is to be, will be’ so, if it was the will of God for her to
see Carlton again then she would see him again. I looked at the clock, it was
almost midnight so I turned off the light and went to bed. I was not sleeping that long before I was awoken by the ferocious barking of the dogs. It sounded as if they were
chasing someone! I jumped out of my bed and hit the switch for the floodlights
that were strategically placed in the trees around the house. When the lights
came on I could clearly hear someone scrambling to get on top of the house. I put on my bed robe
and was reaching for my firearm that I kept under my mattress when I heard Maud
screaming. I rushed outside.
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