The internet was a baby, and so was Howie, when he answered the Women Seeking Men ad on the website that would look like carved stone to a kid of 19 now.
When he met his date in Gollings Park-he had been so afraid she would suggest a bar-he thought the woman he was meeting was the one behind Elizabeth, at the drinking fountain.
But it was not.
Elizabeth called to him as he passed.
She was honest about her marital status and he was eventually honest about his age, not that she cared.
They met for clandestine dates in public places, she in dark glasses and a scarf, he in a web of excitement, then lust that had taken some time for the engine to warm up.
Elizabeth talked about de Kooning and divorce.
Howie talked about motocross and maybe a career in law enforcement.
After some intellectual meandering, they found lush and fertile common ground.
The divorce never materialized, and the topic went from a sliver to a roadblock, to a bomb falling from the sky that threatened to obliterate it all.
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