A Rosetta Stone for Parents of Teenagers

It was their first date.

They went on a hike to a spot Shane said had a great view of the ocean and the Channel Islands. The narrow trail started up a hill and cut back, and wound around, and then continued up, and cut back, and wound around some more, and continued up and up and up, seemingly forever.

For the first half mile or so they had tried to carry on a conversation, but that ended when their ears began to pop. They had now traveled for almost a full hour steadily climbing in complete silence and Meg, for one, half expected to come around a bend and find mountain goats munching on edelweiss.

“It's not much farther,” Shane finally said over his shoulder. He stopped for a moment to gain his breath and allow Meg to catch up with him. He was hot and dusty and very worried that he had missed the trail that took you to the bluff that over-looked the ocean that Matt Pearson and Toby Evert both said was the perfect place to bring a girl to. They called it “The Rock at the Top of the Hill”.

“My! It's so beautiful up here,” Meg said swatting a bottle-nose horsefly away from her face. She wanted to spit out some of the trail dust that was now coating her tongue, but she had no saliva left, and besides, Shane was standing up there watching her.

“It's really not much farther,” Shane said again. “We're almost to the top!”

Meg was now using her hands to help find traction as great quantities of pebbles and small rocks began to slide down the hill from under her red high-top tennis shoes. She looked very much like a girl crawling up a down escalator.

The fact that her tennis shoes were brand new and just bought yesterday was not lost on Meg. Nor was the fact that they, her tennis shoes, perfectly matched her red sleeveless top that was now sopping wet and see-through. Her bra, she was horrified to discover, could be seen clear as a bell which embarrassed her greatly for she liked Shane very much. Later she would tell the story that right then at that moment she literally wanted to die.

“Oh, wait till you get to the top!” said Shane. He looked up the hill, and as best as he could make out, the trail sort of fizzled into nothing, so either he was almost there, or this was all a terrible joke at his expense. “You won't believe the view!” he said.

Matt and Toby had said follow the trail. They said there was a handmade wooden table at the top and an oak bench and a view over the ocean. They said there was a big rock at the very top. He wasn't going to tell Meg any of this, but that's what Matt and Toby said. They were seniors. They said that they themselves personally had gotten lucky there hundreds and hundreds of times, and in fact never once didn't get lucky there, and that everyone got lucky there, even pimply-faced freshman like him.

“Wow!” Meg said when at last reaching the spot where Shane waited for her. She was bent over with her hands on her knees afraid to look up at Shane for fear that her mascara was by now rolling freely down her cheeks. All she really wanted to do was lay down in the dirt and die.

“It's right up here,” Shane said and began to lead the way again.

“Jesus, will you hold on a second!” Meg snapped. It was the first time that Megan Woolbright had ever snapped at Shane or anyone else in her whole life, but she was too tired to worry about it.

“Yeah, sure. No problem,” said Shane looking up the last ten yards of hill and hoping against hope that there was a handmade wooden table and a wooden bench and a view of the ocean and the Channel Islands up there.

Shane said “There's a bench up here,” and led her to the top of the hill where there was in fact a bench and a handmade wooden table and view of the ocean and the Channel Islands and a sign stuck in a huge bolder that said:
STOP! DANGER! STEEP CLIFF!
DO NOT GO TOO FAR!


***********************************************************************************************************

The walk down the hill took even longer than the walk up, but all in all Shane was very pleased with himself. He got a little lucky, not too lucky, but a little lucky. And Meg was pleased with herself because she liked Shane and always had since fourth grade and she was pleased that he didn't try to go too far.

The next week Shane and Meg went to a movie and were officially pronounced “A Couple”. They would go for hikes to the same spot almost every weekend, and Shane always got a little lucky, but never tried to go too far, as nobody dared go too far at “The Rock at the Top of the Hill”.

w/c 901