that nite

It Was Love

1thatnite1 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:40:51 +0000

I remember that night…It was the last night when I believed that the world was governed by the rules and morals that parents and schools and churches try to impart on us as we grow. I sat in my metallic blue firebird outside an empty movie theatre. The film had been good. I was happy. A temperate February wind whipped Shelly’s clothes around her slender body revealing some very pleasant curves as she stood outside my car door. I was surprised…pleasantly surprised. I didn’t realize that someone so slender could possess those curves. Damn! Now, the wind was warmer than most February winds, but this was Minnesota. She soon stood shivering. Shelly had something that she wanted to tell me. Tears filled her eyes as she confessed how lonely her life had become. Her hair looked so soft. Even now, I can almost smell her shampoo. I would have expected her hair to tangle and snarl against the wind, but her long hair moved in one fluid motion with the wind. She was married. She was getting a divorce, but she was still married. A person doesn’t date a married woman…let alone perform any type of action that would make more than adequate use of those beautiful, sweet curves. I believed that within my soul. It was just a rule. It was who I was. Of course, we had just been to dinner and a movie, but I didn’t call it a date. We had been doing this for the past month. I was naïve. Just because a person doesn’t call any particular activity a date…doesn’t mean that a person isn’t on a date. My rules had blinded me to the most amazing experience. I was falling in love, and she was falling in love too. I invited her into my car as a friend, and I comforted her as best I could. I should have invited her into my car and leaned in to sample her pink lips. It would have been a true, beautiful expression of our belief in one another. For a brief time, we were each other’s Santa Claus. Oh, Shelly, we would have been such a pair. John Greenleaf Whittier was correct, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”

Heart on Sleeve
Minnesota

SUBMISSIONS

1thatnite1 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:30:43 +0000

Email submissions to:
rememberthatnite@gmail.com

Party Lovers

1thatnite1 — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:46:11 +0000

The night I met you, fiance. I kept asking a mutual friend to make you come to a party. You took off work early to show up. You didn’t say much at first, but I couldn’t help think you had come to see me too, since our friend expressed my interest in meeting you. I showed you around the house, even though you had been to that house before. We stayed downstairs where it was quiet. You sat as close as you could get to me and I wanted to melt into you, but was cautious incase you had the wrong intentions. You didn’t. I was hooked. The best part of that night was talking to you about everything. And the fact that you asked me about myself and actually cared. Looking back, I can appreciate that more than you’ll ever know. Ten years later, you still place a hand on my back, an arm around my waist, or your knee to my knee whenever possible, and you take more of an interest than ever before. We’ve definitely had our bad times, but we’ve loved each other enough to make it over the mountains of issues and grow together. I can’t wait to call you my husband. And it’s all because of that night at that party. It was my best night, so far, though I’m sure we’ll top it soon.

Head Over Heels
Virginia

Hanging with the Big Boys

1thatnite1 — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:49:05 +0000

I’m pretty shy by nature, so it wasn’t until the end of the semester that I went out and partied with my coeds. Of course they weren’t aware that I’d drank on an empty stomach, nor did I know it would be a problem, since I hadn’t partied a lot before. It wasn’t a problem until I left. On my way home, I was sitting at a red light and that knotted feeling you get in your stomach right before you hurl came on. I knew it was coming, but was scared shitless to open my door because that late at night – really morning – there were no other cars on the road. A cop could have come out of anywhere, so there was no effing way I was barfing in the road and drawing attention to myself, so I fought it. The light turned green and I had to drive. I kept trying to swallow what was coming up, but eventually there was no way to hold back. I cupped my hand over my mouth and caught the first bit, but then it just kept coming and coming. I threw up on my steering wheel, on my dash, and all down my clothes. It was effing gross! P.s. if you feel sick pull over. That smell lasts forever in your car.

Hot Stank Car
North Carolina

Good Vibrations

1thatnite1 — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:39:09 +0000

I had recently separated from my husband that was cheating on me. I had no interest to start seeing anyone, I had enough of men thank-you-very-much, but I was feeling the need, if you get what I’m saying. So, I did what any woman with three kids would do and used plastic. Safe and easy. Problem was, it wasn’t an actual ‘personal massager’. It was a real massager, like for your back. As in it isn’t supposed to get wet. Which of course causes problems when you have moist areas. Right as things were going the way they should, a spark fired from it and shocked/burned me in a very delicate area. I chucked that thing across the room and needless to say had a very upsetting night, keeping it a secret…until now.

Tensed & Frustrated
VA Beach, Virginia

Joy Ride

1thatnite1 — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:27:06 +0000

The night I was driving and masturbating and a cop pulled me over. That was my most embarrassing night.

John Doe
Wyoming

loss

1thatnite1 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:00:09 +0000

one night i remeber is the night my dad passed away . he was 73 years old and had alot of heath problems he was always going in and out of the hospital so the night he passed i got a phone call saying he was on the way to the hospital again and me and my mom and brothers went up there to see him they put us in the chapel becuase there was no waitting room on the floor he was going to but they chouldnt tell us anything about what was wrong with him we was sittting there talking about all the thing he did in his life to make us smile .We was so happy talking about the funny thing he did to make us smile.Until the doctor came in and told us he didnt make it we thought it was going to be like the other time he whould come home.Life is too short to waste it way i just wanted everyone to remeber that . And talk to your loved one every day becuase you never know when it your last day or theres.

Daddy’s Girl
Arkansas

Starlit nite on the Red

1thatnite1 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:55:06 +0000

I pulled my parent’s Buick into the ill used boat launch of a sleepy tributary of the Red River, returning to a party that had moved on in my absence. The embers of its fire still glowed, but the ceremony was over. The set had been burned, a ritual giving valedictory to friendships that shouldn’t have been. It would be awhile yet before our disparate natures drove us apart. On that night around that fire, the foxes and hounds danced together in primordial celebration.

If I could will myself back to that evening, I would step out of the car and breath deep the warm air while cherishing the roar of the thousands of frogs mating nearby. I would creep to the fire, and steal some ash.

No.

If I could will myself back to that night, I would do much more. I would stay at the party and protest. I would argue that tonight should not be an end. I would stand near or on the ashes hoping the fire’s glow would cast its magic into my speech. I would attempt to stop the rotation of the earth.

The earth did rotate. One by one, my friends realized their true nature and departed. I, however, did not. Some other magic must have been disbursed while I was absent. If I could will myself back to that night, I think I would take most of that magic. The world is very lonely if you never change.

I backed out of the boat launch and drove home. My spirit was alive with hope, love, and potential. The world loomed, but like the soul survivor of a horror film, it would be awhile before I realized it.

Valedictorian
North Dakota

Going to the chapel

1thatnite1 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:49:54 +0000

Remember that night you broke off our engagement? You went out to dinner with your friends and came back saying that getting married isn’t the best idea. Of course, I asked what had changed and all you could say was that your friends reminded you that you never really wanted to get married ever and that the behavior was so unlike you, you just weren’t built that way. I was upset and angry that you could base such an important decision about us on the opinions of your friends and so I questioned your love. You got so angry that you literally ran out of the room. I chased after you but you were very fast so I wandered around campus, looking for you. About an hour goes by and you finally answer you phone, telling me you are in the chapel. I find you, sitting alone. We start to talk and you tell me you love me. I ask if we are breaking up and you say, ‘Oh no, baby, of course not.’ Then, you ask me what my least favorite food is. I am confused and do not understand so you ask again. I say corn. The words that followed out of your lovely mouth were, ‘If I ever really break up with you, I’ll serve you corn, that way you’ll know it’s real.’

And now, I am alone every night, never having received my corn…

Red Flag
Austin, Texas