“Love Letters in the Sand”
Listen to this story, “Lunch on the Cliff”
Up on a little cliff overlooking the water there were shade trees and grass and picnic tables. Around noon, the ladies carried the picnic lunch up there and began to get it ready. And soon the group made their way up to the little spot. Julie, with the other girls, had gone back to the hotel to get a beach jacket. On her way to the picnic area, she met Allen going back to the hotel.
“Where ya goin’?” she queried.
“Dad wants me to do something,” Allen replied.
“Shall I save a place for you?” Julie offered.
There was only a moment of hesitation. “No,” Allen answered. “Thanks.” And he hurried on. The coldness of his voice made Julie shiver a bit with a slight reaction of hurt. But Julie dismissed it with, “Oh, well, it’s just another one of his ‘moods’.”
Most of the kids had already found their places when Julie got to the picnic area. She saw a vacant spot by Gloria and started to sit down.
“Sorry,” Gloria smiled sweetly, “but I’m saving this place for Ken.”
So Julie looked around for another place. She saw Steve sit in the vacant spot by the new girl Phyllis as he said, “Thanks for the place, doll.”
Oh, Allen, thought Julie, why didn’t you want me to save you a place?
But lunch was soon under way, and the hungry kids devoured the food. Most of the rest of the afternoon many of the kids, the girls especially, lay on beach towels or old blankets baking and burning but occasionally going into the water to get cooled off.
Allen, on his dad’s old Army blanket, lay fast asleep beside Julie who sat beside him looking at him like a puppy looks at its master. Why, Allen, she thought in her heart, why didn’t you want to sit with me? Why, Allen? But you are only a boy—not much different from the average male.
Allen was just like the other fellows in some ways, but in other ways, to Julie, he was wonderfully different. He was a good Christian, and that’s what mattered most. He took an active part in the Young People’s Society of the church and was socially very intellectual. Since the day ten months ago when Julie and Allen had first met, she had gotten to know him very well.
One night very long ago, he had asked her to go steady, and she had refused. Later, Allen brought it up again. But they had had a couple of little spats in the meantime and now Julie wondered, Are we still going steady? She didn’t have a ring from him or even a silver heart on a chain like all the other girls did when they were going steady with someone. But then, Allen wasn’t that type.
“Love is more than that, Julie,” he had said, “and that isn’t necessarily love.” But now Julie still wondered, Are we going steady, Allen, are we?
Julie looked at the 14-year-old creature stretched out before her. He really wasn’t a bad-looking guy! Gorgeous blond hair, baby blue eyes, and oh what a tan!
He stirred, and Julie knew he was waking up. She spoke his name tenderly. He turned over and opened his eyes and looked up into her face.
“Oh,” he murmured, “I must have dozed off.”
Julie only smiled and nodded slightly.
“But how nice it is,” he continued, “to wake up looking into two pretty brown eyes in a pretty face framed with pretty black hair.”
Julie looked around, mockingly sober, and teased, “What pretty face? Where?”
“Yours, punkin,” he said, pulling her closer to his side.
Julie blushed slightly and returned his smile. Then, looking straight into his love-lit eyes, she said, “Allen, I—I just want to get something straight—in my mind. Allen, do you—do you still consider that we’re—we’re going steady?”
“W-e-ll,” he drawled, “uh, no.” But he added quickly, “But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. Because I do, Julie, with all my heart.”
No, Allen? We aren’t? All right, Allen, we aren’t going steady, just remember that. “Oh,” she answered out loud.
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