In a slow pace she collects her crochet needles in her hand and pulls the different colored yarn through the whole of the octagon shaped organizer. She grabs for the Venetian red yarn holding a strand of it between her ring and index finger. The color brought me back to the seventh grade, sitting in the front office awaiting her arrival. When suddenly I hear the click-clack beat of stilettos on the tile floors leading to the office. From where I rested my head on the wall to the principle’s office and closed my eyes I could only imagine her fine posture held together in a form fitting black and white pinstriped pant-suit and the venetian red stilettos. The click-clack of her stilettos stopped and I opened my eyes to find her there both hands placed on her hips, her purse supported by the pit of her forearm. I couldn’t help but smile, at her confidence and at her simple beauty. “Come on baby, we have things to do” she held out her hand and I took it. I placed my fingers in between hers like I did when I was younger, to feel her firm grip but to play with her many rings. Her beautiful long finger delicately glides from the opening of the organizer and up to the tip of the red yarn. She attaches it to the needle beginning on another of her projects. I can’t help but wonder if she can make me a bag while she sits there. Not a word was said; there was only the silence around us. She clears her throat and the soft clicking of the crochet needles working away then grew audible. Finally she takes a deep breath; “ It was July 21^st, 1979 I was fourteen years old and we were at the Liberation Day Parade and Carnival. My mom wanted me to find my sister Darlene, so my cousin Carmen came with me to find her. We were walking around the graveled carnival, passing the many booths and vendors. I think we might have passed by the same game booths before we found her, because the same girl as before was standing at the gambling booth while the attendant announced, ““Place your bets, place your bets, bets down! Hands off the counter! And the lucky color is red! Pay Red, pay red!” When I found Darlene she was not at the carnival in fact she was talking with some friends that she met on the CB. They were sitting in the bed of their dad’s truck. She introduced me to Joe (my husband), his brother Tom and their two friends. Politely, I greeted the four of them and went on my way. The next day Joe came over with his friends to talk to my sister Darlene. He wanted to see me again so he made some lame excuse to my sister to get me out of the house. She called into the house for me to come say hi; which exactly is what I did. I came out said, “Hi, “and ran back inside. Now that I think of it, he might have been into me but I had other options going on at the time. A week later on the 29^th of July, Governor Paul Calvo was having a fiesta at Ypao beach for his birthday. The way this man partied was unbelievable. It wasn’t exclusive; in fact it was open for everyone and I kid you not the entire island was there. When we arrived at the party, the parking lot was already filled up with cars. A lot of the guests were already parking outside of the lot leading up to the facility on the beach. My sister Doll was driving and signaled to the rest of the cars that followed us to park next to the big coconut tree that surprisingly had enough room for all of us to park together. The minute we got out of the car, I could feel his eyes already on me. It wasn’t in a creepy way, but I knew he wanted to talk to me. So I slunk back to where he was away from the group we even walked around the party together. Our conversation was normal, it was as if we were on our first date by all the questions we had for one another. At one point he asked me if I would walk with him along the beach. I didn’t see why not so I followed him. The sun had already gone down when he asked to hold my hand, just in case there was something ahead that might make me trip or as if he thought I was afraid of the dark. Regardless that I wasn’t scared of the dark, I held his hand anyways. We wondered into a cavern on our adventure on the beach but that was when the memory of us get’s a little fuzzy but I do remember him saying, “Once I’m in a relationship I’m in it all the way” he wanted to know if I wanted to go out with him and I thought he was cute, so I said yes and we shared our first kiss. That following Monday he walked to my house after he got off at summer school. At the time my family had a five-gallon aquarium, and my task was to clean it. He helped me clean it; he liked to do things like that with me. From that point forward he was at my house every day, night and after we got out of school. We attended two different schools (especially since he’s three years older than me) so around the time I got off the bus; he would call to make sure I got off the bus okay to assure my safety. I found it charming and sweet of him.

I remember baking a cake for him on his eighteenth birthday. We celebrated at my parent’s house. That was when he told me that he never had a birthday cake before because his family couldn’t afford it, and that made me sad because I couldn’t empathize to him.

My husband joined the Military after his nineteenth birthday. He went over seas to Germany for basic training and I was only in the eleventh grade. We talked a lot over the phone while he was over there it built up a large amount on the phone bill, but Joe would send money for the bill. After a while, the phone calls didn’t come as much and I got tired of waiting on him, especially since I was in high school and was being asked out being in a relationship with him was holding me back. So we broke up.   He came back on Valentines Day two years later. I only knew he was back because I overheard my little brother Raymond talking to my mom that, “Joe called! Did you tell Mary Lou?” I freaked out, “What do you mean Joseph called is he here?” I darted for the landline and dialed his house number. When he answered I yelled at him for not calling me when he landed. “You better get to my house by five o’clock. If you don’t, don’t bother ever coming over!” He didn’t come over by five, he actually came over at eight. I figure now that he probably was trying to spend some time with his parents and siblings before he came over. I didn’t shun him away though, we actually talked and got back together that night. He was to leave for Fort Lewis, Washington shortly after we started dating and that was the day when he came over to my sister’s apartment. While they were inside he asked me if he could marry me. After he left for Washington I was thinking that we would get marry in a couple years. Then November came, and he calls me. He told me that his parents were going to fa’mai sen saina (to ask my hand in marriage) But in the mean time, Joe called my house and talked to my dad over the phone for his blessing and permission to marry me. When ended up getting married a month later on December 17^th, 1983. We Left Guam ten days later after we got married to our first duty station in Fort Lewis Army Post in Washington State.

Washington was a entire new experience for me, I’ve never lived anywhere else but Guam. I especially didn’t know about sales tax in the states, but I needed to buy snow boots. I found a pair of boots at the PX. The boots price were $19.99 and I had a twenty dollar bill. The lady was expecting me to give her two dollars and some cents more. “No I get a penny back, I have a twenty.” The lady looked at me and said, “But sales tax.” “Oh, well we don’t have sales tax in Guam.” Then she started explaining what it was and I came back later that day with the rest of the money for the boots. You see I didn’t do much when we moved to Washington. All I did was stay at home and wait for my husband to get home. One day when I was doing the dishes, I saw my neighbor walking by and she noticed me too. She stopped and chatted with me. She was telling me that she was going to the Paperback Exchange and if I would like to go with her. I didn’t have anything else to do and jumped on the opportunity, The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough was the book I bought. Late one night when Joe was out working. He was driving the Colonel to the airport. I was sitting in the dark of our living room looking out the curtain waiting for him to return; because there wasn’t anything else I could do we had no television or radio. When he came home, he saw how sad that I was because I wasn’t use to being by myself. I’ve always had my siblings with me. The next day we bought our first television and rented furniture.