Three Kisses

                    Three Kisses
                    by H. Linn Murphy

    My first kiss with Jamie Spindrift,the chocolate-haired rock star stud every girl was after, was about on par with the Hindenburg disaster. I don't know if he was put up to it, or just insane. We were standing in the hall after Math and he looked deeply into my eyes. We both went in for the kill, and then I sneezed.

    My head flung back, my eyes shut, and then I head-butted him so hard in the nose that blood came gushing out like Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone. I found out later from my friend Jackie in Homeroom, that I had broken his nose. I was certain it was curtains for my kissing career. After all, who wants to kiss a girl who maims you for life and sneezes in your face? I might as well put on a wimple and join a convent.

    My second kiss with Jamie was little better. I had to applaud his chutzpa for being willing to take a second chance. That dare from his friends must have been a doozy. I was so petrified that I'd do some kind of hideous reprise that my kiss ranked somewhere next to that kiss your mom gives you right between when she hands you your tray of chicken noodle soup and crackers; and when she pats you on the head and tells you to get some sleep so you'll feel better tomorrow.

    Grandma June gives better pecks on the cheek when she asks if you've started liking boys yet. I was certain I'd be utterly dateless until the next ice age when everybody heard about my lack of kissing skill. I might as well buy stock in Ben and Jerry's and a box-full of cats.

    But somehow the planets must have aligned correctly or something. Number three kiss shot me into orbit. I had just seen Jamie go down the hall with that skank Mitzi Banner. I thought  he was about the lowest scum in the pond if he was going to drag around with her. I went to the bathroom to have a short meltdown when Mitzi came in telling everybody Jamie Spindrift was a putz for turning her down for the Winter Formal. When I came out of the bathroom, there he was, right there like an ambush—but a fantastic ambush.

    “Hey, Chesin, did you finish your Geometry homework?” he asked.
    But I heard, “Will you go with me to the Winter Formal?”
    “YES! I'd love to!” I said, because I was temporarily an idiot and in need of duct tape.
    The look on his face was like my little brother's look when he finally found his MP3 player in that dump of his after three months of looking—more than a little confused, but overjoyed.

    And then I, Beckah Chesin, was in his arms! And he was saying he'd loved me since seventh grade when he saw me trying desperately to climb the stupid rope in gym class. Funny how I only remember falling on my butt over and over and how much it hurt. He remembered me getting up and trying it until I finally made it. I told him how ridiculous that was until he stopped my words with his lips.

    Suddenly there were parades with one hundred and six piece bands. Lions roared in the zoo. Flowers bloomed and meteors fell out of the sky. I wondered why I'd never kissed him before. That was all before my head blew apart into bazillions of heart-shaped pieces and rainbows flickered behind my eyes. And then I was drowning in luscious blue velvet and his mint-flavored toothpaste with a touch of Proactive.

    I could feel him smile as we rose to the surface for air, two fish rising to the same mayfly. “You were worth the wait, Beckah Chesin,” he whispered. He kissed my cheeks and my knees stopped holding my body up. I nearly hit the floor but Jamie made a lucky save. “Where are you going?”
    “Well I was thinking of visiting Australia but my mom is expecting me for dinner.”
    “Ha ha.”
    “You can laugh when I've just learned to walk on air?”
    “Apparently.” He kissed me again, effectively ruining my prospects for walking to class, let alone home from school.
    “I hate to think how much practice it took you to get this good at kissing,” I told him, worried that I'd start drooling or something equally idiotic.
    “No practice. I'm just gifted. Now shut up and make me glad I'm going to be late for English.”

    And that's how I flunked my Geometry test for the only time, for which I'll be forever grateful the rest of my life.

Of Grace and Chocolate Book Review

I just finished a great book. OF GRACE AND CHOCOLATE by Krista Lynne Jensen pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting something of the consistency of whipped cream when I thumbed it off the shelf in my local bookstore. Not that fluffy isn't a good read.

But this book had some steak.

This a story about Jillian Parrish, a publishing assistant who likes things nice and smooth. She, like many publishing employees, hopes to get her own book published. On the way to the editor's desk, she comes up against a speed bump in the form of Scott Gentry, a guy from her past who has come back to haunt her.

But he has no idea who she is.

He wants a date in the worst way, something she's not willing to provide, since he broke her heart and disappeared into the woodwork.

After squeaking her book in just under the deadline she goes home to pickle herself in a hot bath with a great read, but on the way inside she finds a rather uncomfortable new addition to her home: a runaway sister and her baby girl.

Jill goes all out to try and help Evie pick up the shattered pieces of what life she had scraped up. Unfortunately little sister Everlisse disappeared with the morning shadows, leaving Jill with a baby she was unequipped to handle.

Jill comes home to find her home ransacked and everything broken. Apparently little sis has some fairly dangerous acquaintances who are bent on finding her at all costs. Luckily good friends ride to the girls' rescue and set the ball rolling to find her runaway sister. They offer Jill a haven at their beach house.

Who walks down the beach toward her as she tries to fish the pieces of her life from the whirlpool? The one guy she's not dying to see. Somehow they navigate through the shoals of their rocky re-start to find a safer haven. They think. Scott loves Shiloh and seems to know what to do about almost everything. They go in search of the little one's runaway mother.

 When they finally catch up to the elusive Evie, sheet lightning strikes and life will never be the same.

The whole book is a hurricane of past storms coming back to whip around them, mixed with grace and a little chocolate.

I really enjoyed this slightly gritty offering. This is what real life looks like when you're looking for tomorrow. It was well written and poignant.

The Madness Begins

Wow. It's roomy in here. And it echoes. I'll add furniture later. Welcome to my chambers.