While I was working at McDonald's as the night watchman/maintenance dude, the carnival rolled into town in the plaza behind us. I had become familiar with the "carnies" as they are called through my years at our local county fair. I however, had not become familiar with Tara! I DID have a Mustang Cobra at this point though! One night after work I decided to hit the local carnival. Hell, what else did I have to do?
SO against the grain of my inner being, I actually went up and talked to a stranger! A girl even! Tara and I hit it off from the word go, even though I don't believe "go" was ever said.
Tara was shorter than I by about a foot. Long blonde hair, a bit overweight, but she had all the right curves in all the right places. She would meet me at my beach job ( I STILL do not know what she did for a living!!!) and we would sit and chat. Nothing every really happened with her, but it was certainly nice to know someone from the south was interested in me. We went fishing, we seemed to have muttled our way though our teenage years with each other as friends,
It was at this point that I turned in my first application as a firefighter. Cape Coral FL was hiring, and I wanted to be a part of it! Even though at this point I had not a flipping clue what "it" was.
It's also at this point in my life that the turbo Mustang I just bought became important, Dad and I spent HOURS on this car until we learned that blah blah blah. We got it running HARD CORE!
Tara had lost interest in me at this point, but had also taught me so much about I don't have to be alone, and this GIRL wants to be with me. Curvy, soft and she smelled good. I can't blame her at all, she was willing to teach, I was worried about the car. Retrospect, dummy me. DUMMY me!
So here I am a few months later. I have the world by the ass, although I didn't know it at the time, and Dad comes into the garage.
Junior, we have to talk. "We're moving back to Ohio son."
Ahhhhh shit Dad. Shit. Dad? SHIT! Really? Gulf Coast Florida, 17 years old, Killer Mustang, making money, and I know about girls now. We work on boats for fun, we go fishing 40 feet from our house. I don't know what's going on on your end, but life is GRAND on mine!!!!
When are we leaving Pop? How can I help?
Tara was already gone, no more making my own food at McDonald's, no more beach. No more bikinis. No more anything I had grown into an adult as, and grown to love.
Point the Orange Mustang north. And at that exact moment, my Flo-Rida life was over.
