Once in a Very Blue Moon

It was a hot night in July and the moon was so swollen it could almost blind you if you stared right at it. It was a beautiful blue evening. The young couple was entwined in each other’s arms in the back of a car that was parked at Lookout Park, the highest point in the city of Davenport, Iowa. The lookout was a landmark; you could see all the way across the Mississippi River to Illinois. The Centennial Bridge was a twinkling arc across the inky black sky. An old-fashioned riverboat that looked like a wedding cake floated down the river. The steady churning of the paddles could entice even the fussiest baby to sleep but the Dixieland music and laughter tumbling from inside would keep you awake until dawn. The young couple had just seen “Romeo and Juliet” at the local drive-in. The girl, at seventeen, was beautiful; she had long dark hair, an oval face, and big brown eyes fringed with thick lashes; she wore a yellow sundress. The 20-year-old man held her in his arms; he had thick blond hair and dreamy blue eyes. Elvis Presley was singing Love Me Tender. The young man took the girl’s head between his hands and she raised her face and closed her eyes and felt herself drawn toward him and enfolded and surrounded by his love. His lips pressed her lips and his palms covered her ears so all she could hear was the rush of her own blood. She closed her eyes tightly, fighting back the tears.