Brenda and I were courting. She was with the crew
digging a Santa Rosa-Swift Creek burial mound on Mashes Island.
The crew lived in a rented house in Panacea, on Ochlockonee Bay.
Me and the crew chief from the Aucilla would spend the weekends there.
We cooked out, walked sites, surface-collecting, sorted potsherds at the house.
Brenda and I would walk out on a dock and hold hands and look at the Milky Way.
There was no light there, then, and you could really see it. We'd see shooting stars.
It was pretty innocent. No wild, screaming sex. It wasn't permitted. No drinking.
I weighed 190 lb. And that was mostly muscle. Brenda was lean and fit too.
She hadn't had two babies yet. She didn't have a desk-job yet.
I weigh 280. I don't know what Brenda weighs. That's her business.
We're going to keep Rowan this weekend. That will wear us both out.
It takes two of us to do what one of us used to.
If this can happen to us, it can happen to you.
At least we aren't estranged from our children.