santa rosa chapter ii

my first true love was a girl named sharon

she was raised in santa rosa

california

an area known for fertile farming and wine

and this story may have been titled the wine of innocence

but upon years of reflection

it has taken a deeper

fuller taste

when i met sharon

she was living near buellton

california

she was 19

as i drove into town

i saw her resting with a brunette

leaning on the hood of a black car

later i saw her at my friend dan holmes' house

i was visiting dan for the weekend

he had a small get-together

music was playing

people were drinking

flirting

wasting time

it was summer

someone made the kitchen into a small dance floor and three of us were dancing

i stepped on sharon's foot

she quickly unloaded a vicious lashing on me

and i was hooked

i later found that her father worked for the state of california in sacramento and that her mother lived in santa rosa

but they were separated

i would visit her for a time while she lived in buellton

and we would walk along dried riverbeds

talk

argue

make love

drive out to the sea and as the world revealed itself to me sharon unfolded

it was only a few months until she moved back to santa rosa with her mother

her money had run out and she went back to community college with free rent and a waitress job

i'd visit her up north and she would walk me down st. john street where she was raised

and show me the abandoned house she grew up in