First Kiss

I used to see her every day.  She was always on her own, either scooting about on her BMX bike or sitting in the field picking daisies to make a chain for her wrist.  Her name was Brenda. 

Even now I love the name Brenda.  I can still see her face in my mind all these years on.  She had blonde curly hair down past her shoulders.  Her eyes were blue and always sparkling.  We were both in P.7 at Carnhill Primary School.  I was in Mr. Carlin’s class; Brenda was in the classroom next to me. 

At break-time she could be found playing football with the boys.  She was a ‘tom-boy’, but to me she was the most beautiful girl in the whole school – in the whole of the Carnhill Estate even.  

Christmas came and my parents eventually bought me a BMX bike.  It was silver and red with pegs on the back.  It was a ‘belter’.

 I sped off that morning down the hill towards the square that Brenda lived in.  I must have circled that square a hundred times and ridden up and down all the lanes and alleys waiting for my love to show up.

She was with her friends when I saw her. My heart sank!  How could I approach her with all those other girls around her?  So, there I was, bunny-hopping up and down off the kerbs, trying to look cool, when she moved away from the crowd and began to approach me.  I skidded to a halt beside her.

‘Did you get that for Christmas?’ she asked.

Jesus, even her voice was beautiful.

We agreed to go for a ride together.  We cycled up through Carnhill, up the Steelstown Road and into the back of the old supermarket that had been burned to the ground a few months before.  We sat on the grass and talked about our bikes, about school, and all the other things we’d been given for Christmas. 

I don’t remember how we started kissing but I do remember how soft and sweet her lips were.  I remember the beautiful scent of her mouth and how I never wanted the kiss to end. 

That was my first ‘real’ kiss.  It was my first feeling of love.  Brenda and I remained friends for months and shared many more of those heavenly kisses until her family had to move away. 

She took my heart with her.