Prove It All Night
That first date gave way to our stealing away every moment we possibly could. Walks around the lake in Cedar Woods; Shari stopping by my house early in the morning on the way to school; a quick stop at McDonalds for a Coke on the way home after school; and talking on the phone—let’s just say we developed a whole system for middle-of-the-night talks without our moms ever knowing. While they were sleeping, we were talking. About deep things.
That perfect storm in my life I mentioned earlier in the series, it turned out Shari was caught up in one of the ugliest of storms imaginable—a shattered family of origin; feeling like she no longer had a home; a pawn in her parents’ legal battles; the festering wounds of her step-mother’s twisted abuse; growing estrangement from her father, and the pain of rejection from one set of grandparents. I guess you could say our love was storm-born, or as meteorologists are fond of saying these days, a Bomb Cyclone.
My heart ached for losing Dad. Now my heart was broken for Shari, losing her family’s story.
But our story was just beginning. The thing about stories, it seems in all the good ones a handsome prince rescues the damsel in distress. That Born to Run chorus called us:
Someday, girl, I don't know when,
We're gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go, and we'll walk in the sun;
But 'til then, tramps like us,Baby, we were born to run.
Tramps like us, Baby, we were born to run! The promise of freedom lies on the horizon. For those who struggle long in hurt, the need to feel the thrill of yonder resonates deeply.
It’s at this point Shari’s mom entered our story playing the role of the nerve-rattled mother who sensed a shark circling her drop-dead gorgeous, pure, sweet, and innocent, 16-year-old daughter. No one could blame her for setting strict boundaries and drawing lines in the sand. But each limit or prohibition she imposed on our relationship only served as our next game to win. How are we going to get around this one? Challenge accepted! Us against the world.
Forbidden love, meet bomb cyclone.
The more I got to know Shari, the more I hurt for her, wishing she’d had my experience growing up. Wishing she had a family story.
But now there’s wrinkles ‘round my baby’s eyes and she cries herself to sleep at night,
When I come home the house is dark, she sighs, “Baby, you make it all right?”
She sits on the porch of her daddy’s house, but all her pretty dreams are torn,
She stares off alone into the night with the eyes of one who hates for just being born.
For all the shut down strangers and hot rod angels
Rumbling through this promised land,
Tonight my baby and me we're gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands.
Tonight, tonight the highway's bright
Out of our way mister you best keep,
'Cause summer's here and the time is right
For racing in the street.
Hindsight, now—many years and four daughters later, that strict, unrelenting adversary of a mom has become a dear mother-in-law—I totally understand her concerns for Shari’s well-being back in the day.
When you’re raising girls, you pray fervently, hold on for dear life, and hope for the best. It’s like juggling nitro-glycerin next to an open flame. I know she did the very best she could with the difficult hand dealt her. But I loved her daughter with all the madness of my soul. (I had stalked her for two years!) I just needed a little work ironing out some rough edges.
I was a terror for a divorced mom, you’ve seen my résumé: fatherless delinquent, rebel-without-a-clue, expelled from high school, fast car, little to no regard for authority—what’s not to rattle you? At one point, Shari’s grandmother offered me a bribe to “just drive away and forget about Shari” suggesting, “If you really care about her, you’ll see that she has a bright future ahead of her and you’re about to ruin it.”
Tears filled my eyes as I pulled out of her driveway. I reached for my cassette deck. Darkness on the Edge of Town. I turned up my system as loud as she’d go … and sang along with Bruce at the top of my lungs!
I’ve been working real hard, trying to get my hands clean,
We’ll drive that dusty road from Monroe to Angeline,
To buy you a gold ring and pretty dress of blue,
Baby just one kiss will get these things for you;
A kiss to seal our fate tonight–
A kiss to prove it all night, Prove it all night
Girl there’s nothing else that we can do;
So prove it all night, Prove it all night
And girl I’ll prove it all night for you.
To be continued …
DARIN MICHAEL SHAW 