The year was 1985 and David the Husband and Lauren the Wife were David the Boyfriend and Lauren the Girlfriend. Surrounded by semi-new-relationship aura, we decided to borrow our friend’s motor boat and my roommate’s dog and head to Masonboro Island. This small spit of land was an inlet’s ride from Wrightsville Beach, NC, where I lived, and only accessible by boat. Few people went there, particularly overnight, and we considered it the perfect romantic rendezvous spot.
We gathered David’s camping gear and what at-the-time we considered “sophisticated snacks,” White Zinfandel, summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. (We were 22, for goodness sakes, and besides the White Zin, today’s Boone’s Farm, the rest is still more than passable, though not quite sophisticated.)
Now at this point in time, my parents were living in Hong Kong, my father working for a toy company. This being the eighties, the era of looking-much-better-than-the-Joneses, fake luxury watches were ripe for the picking on the streets there. My dad got me a “Rolex,” a “Piaget,” and other assorted counterfeit timepieces. Each lasted no more than a year but I looked darned impressive (in my 22 year-old mind) wearing them.
I wore one of these camping; stupid, yes, but I have also been known once upon a time to wear a mini skirt and heels hiking.
After setting up the gear, sharing our “sophisticated snacks” with Waldo the Wonderdog, and participating in various other amorous activities, we all snuggled in our sleeping bags for a satisfied night’s sleep.
Did I happen to mention there was a full moon that evening?
In the dead of night, I was suddenly awakened by David the Boyfriend picking me up bodily, throwing me across the tent so violently that it broke the crystal of my watch, and yelling at me to get out of the way of the train. Somehow in his slumber, the full moon shining brightly through the tent canvas translated to a speeding locomotive bearing down on me and, collective aaaah here, he rescued me. It didn’t matter that the watch was broken, or that I had a lump on my head the size of Japan; what mattered was that even in his sleep, he cared enough for me to risk his own life to save me from an oncoming train.
I knew then that I wanted to marry this knight in shining armor and, although it took us another two years to make it official, I will always remember the full-mooned night on Masonboro Island when David saved me from the train.
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