text: We were both young when I first saw her. I was bumming around the shops with a friend and she was selling Donuts. “She’s super cute!” I say. “What? She’s like fourteen man. What is wrong with you?” Jeremy replies. “No way she’s that young, she’s at least sixteen.” “Are you kidding me? There is no way she is sixteen. I tell you what lets go ask her. If she’s under sixteen you have to shout me a milkshake. If she’s older I pay.” “You’re on mate.” I lock eyes with her as Jeremy and I walk to the counter. “C-c-c-” I begin to stutter. “Can we get two milkshakes?” Jeremy orders for me. She smiles and says “Sure, chocolate ok?” “Yeah” I answer. I stare awe-struck as she whips up our drinks. Passing us over the cups she says “That’ll be $12.50” “Sure, but first how old are you?” Jeremy asks. “Oh umm, I’m seventeen.” She says. Jeremy pays for the drinks. As we walk off he yells to her “My mate thinks your super cute! Next time he sees you he’s going to ask for your number!” My face turned instant red. “That’d be good” She giggles in reply. Jeremy and I walk away. He’s keen to get to EB Games and see if they have the new Call of Duty out yet. As we get to the front of the store I stop and say “Mate, what the fuck am I doing? I’ve got to go get her number!” “Yeah you do, now go get it!” Jeremy says. I take a single huge breath and storm my way back to Donut King. There’s a huge line of customers. I walk right passed them to the counter. She is still serving. “Hi, uh, can I get your number?” I stutter. “Umm, I’m kinda busy right now, can you come back in five minutes.” “Sure, yeah, ok” I wander off in a daze. Taking a seat in the food court I glance down at my watch. 7:38. Five minutes OK. The seconds hand of my watch takes it’s sweet time clicking around the face. The butterflies in my stomach are fluttering so hard I begin to worry they might fly off with me. 7:43 GO TIME! I rush back over to her. The line of customers has dwindled. She’s making an ice cream sundae for some primary school kids. “Hey. It’s been five minutes...” “Can you give me a minute? I need to finish this up.” My stomach drops. I stand watching her while she works. The kids get there sundaes, she walks over to the counter. She scribbles something on a piece of receipt paper and heads back over to me. “Here you go, now go on get. I need to work.” I look at the paper ‘Mary 0401 113 301’ I couldn’t believe my luck. I blurt out “I’m Will by the way!” before fleeing to find Jeremy. Our first date is typical for kids our age. We meet up and grab a train all the way into the city. I don’t take a single breath the whole train ride. She tells me about her life. She takes care to explain that although she is Australian she has a strong connection with her parents home country. We watch a movie in the city. It’s some stupid comedy. If I had known then how impeccable her taste in film was I would have put more thought into what we watched. After the movie we head back to the train when I bump into a friend from work. We greet each other. He introduces me to his date, a cute girl named Stacey, I go to introduce him to... Shit! What’s her name. My mind freezes. Here I am with the most gorgeous girl to ever talk to me and I can’t even remember her name. After a mortified pause she introduces herself and shakes her head at me. I apologise a thousand times on the train ride home. Back at the station her friend picks her up, leaving me with the shortest goodbye in the history of dating. Second date, dinner and a walk around the South Bank Park. Things go better. We are both chatting and laughing the whole time. Ten minutes into our walk through the park I take her hand. We both go silent and walk for a while. I can feel her blushing. The conversation picks back up as we begin making our way down the river. She is teaching me why Stanley Kubrick is best director of all time. A crazy idea strikes me. It’s a gamble that could go very wrong. But I have always loved risk. I pull her hand across and touch it to my bum. Letting her hand go I step away and say “Whoa! You’re cute but I’m not that type of boy!” She bursts out laughing and calls me an idiot. I shoot her a smile wider than my face and throw my arm over her shoulders. We continue through the park. Third date, I pick her up in my car. A new Subaru liberty, it costs more than I can afford (I’ll sell it before the year is out). We’ve been messaging each other non-stop since out last date and I’ve discovered she can’t ice-skate. Tonight we will remedy that fact. There is an ice-rink near my old school. My friends and I used to go there every Friday as kids. I take her on a Wednesday night to avoid the crowds. Getting on the ice she is super nervous. Our first lap she holds onto both me and the wall with a vice-grip. Starting our second lap around I propose a bet “If by the end of tonight you can skate a whole lap of this rink on your own I get a kiss.” “Ok, but what if I can’t?” “I don’t know... What do you want?” “You have to come in and meet my parents when you drop me off.” My heart skips a beat. I know how important her family is to her, and I’m scared of her Dad. The idea of meeting them so soon mortifies me. I can’t let her know I am scared. “Sure, but I will be getting that kiss.” I answer with false bravado. We lap the rink at least a dozen more times. She begins to find her feet, loosening up she lets go of the wall, and eventually lets go of my hand. It can be mesmerising skating loops of an ice rink. She is concentrating hard as we make our laps around and doesn’t even realise when I pull off to the side. She keeps on skating around focusing on her balance. As she finishes the lap and sees me standing on the side she makes her way over to me. “Are you OK?” she asks. I give her a goofy smile then with a wink I say “You made a full lap on your own.” She turns white as a sheet. I grab her hand and pull her forward. With my other hand I take the side of her face and lean in giving her a deep passionate kiss. Leaning back I stare into her eyes. “Th-th-that was my first kiss!” She blurts out. I can’t help but explode with laughter. Months pass, we see each other every week. I meet her parents. We have dinner at her place. Her Mum, Victoria, is the best cook in the world. Her dad turns out to be one of the warmest people I have ever met. He regales me with tales of his youth and when he fought in the revolution in their home country. Mary meets my friends, she isn’t too impressed. Our drunken shenanigans aren’t nearly as funny to her as they are to us. I meet hers and I am blown away. Who knew there were so many smart people in the world? She also meets my family. My mum and her become instant friends. They take to teasing me together. It becomes their favourite pastime. One day in October, Mary calls me up. “I have huge news!” “Cool, me too, what’s going on?” “I made it in to uni!” She is ecstatic and begins babbling on about the uni that accepted her and about the course she wants to take. After her telling me everything I could ever want to know about it she stops and says “Wait, you said you had big news?” I pause for a moment and respond “You know how I applied to join the army?” “Yeah” “Well they called me today. I am shipping off in two weeks.” There is a long pause. “What do you mean shipping off?” “Recruit training is down in Wagga Wagga. After that they will send me to Melbourne then Canberra.” Her voice turns to a whisper “But you’ll come back to Brisbane right?” I take a deep breath and answer “I don’t know.” CLICK She hangs up on me. Two weeks pass. I text her everyday. I tell her I love her and that I am sorry. I send her details of my enlistment day. Where and when the ceremony will happen. No response. I call her home and speak with her Mum. “I am sorry Will, Mary says she won’t talk to you.” I spend my last few days of freedom with my school mates. Having last drinks and reminiscing about all the trouble we’d gotten ourselves into over the years. My parents buy me a suit for the ceremony. The day arrives. My whole family come to see me off. Arriving at the recruitment depot, I am taken to a separate room with all the other new recruits. A scary mid-forties lady takes us through some paperwork before a group of sergeants explain what we need to do for the ceremony. We are all going to be stood on a small stage and have to take an oath to the Queen. After about thirty minutes they march us into a separate room. Our families are already seated inside. I take my place on the stage as an old Colonel begins a speech about service and duty. I stare across to my family. My brothers are giggling at me while one of my sisters has started to cry. My mum catches my eye and gestures to the back of the room. The oath part of the ceremony begins The colonel reads from a page and we each have to recite after him. I search the back of the room as I recite my oath. And there I see Mary. She is in the back corner staring up at me smiling. We don’t take our eyes off each other for the rest of the ceremony. The ceremony ends, the other recruits and I get marched off the stage. They take us to a back room to sign our contracts. Once everyone is all signed up we are released back into the ceremony room for a final goodbye. My crying sister is the first to hug me as I enter. She is followed by my brothers then my Dad. As he lets me go, my Mum hands me something. It’s a necklace with a medallion of St Christopher. “He is the patron Saint of travellers. It should keep you safe.” Mum explains before giving me a long warm hug. “I love you mum” I whisper to her. “I love you too, pork chop” she replies “Now go see that girl or you’ll be in trouble.” My mum lets me go and gives me a small shove towards Mary. She is standing in the corner, waiting for me. I inch my way over to her. “Mary...” She leaps onto me before I can say any more. She holds me tight to her. “I love you. You idiot.” She says. “I thought you wouldn’t come, I thought you hated me for leaving.” I reply. “Of course I was going to come. And I don’t hate you for leaving. I hate that you are leaving.” “I’m sorry I have to go. I will always love you.” “Don’t be sorry. You have to live your life and I have to live mine. You’re amazing Will. I will never forget you.” A big burly sergeant bellows “Times up, get on the bus.” Mary squeezes me extra tight for a moment then gives me a final soft kiss. We are both teary eyed as I make my way to the other recruits. I get marched out of the room and down to the bus depot. Each recruit has a seat designated to him. Before the bus moves off we are given a speech about being soldiers and how to act. The bus pulls out of the depot and turns on toward the main street. As it pulls out I see Mary there. Standing on the corner of the road. She is crying and waving at me. I give her a wave back and she blows me a kiss. I blow one back as the bus steps into gear and pulls me away forever. **The saddest part of life is saying goodbye to someone you want to spend the rest of your life with.