by Jeffrey Hantover.
Josh Baskin walks home in the autumnal light, the flapping sleeves of his Brooks Brother suit cover his fingers, the cuffs of his pants drag along the concrete. By the time he can fit into the suit again, it will have gone out of fashion.
Josh Baskin loiters on the sidewalk in front of the MacMillan Toy Company hoping for a glimpse of Susan, but she has left the company, married a Wall Street lawyer, moved to Greenwich, and is expecting her first child.
Josh Baskin didn’t go to the junior-senior prom. Who could he ask? They are all so young, so inexperienced, so fumbling in their teenage desire.
Josh Baskin’s best friend Billy has grown tired of looking at the Playboys hidden in the closet, all the sex talk and the whining about the cool loft he had and his company expense account, and how lame the kids at school are. Billy joins the science club and the school band and tells Josh he is too busy to hang out.
Josh Baskin sits in the backyard alone on a Friday night. His classmates dream of the future where he has already been. He is a prisoner of the past, haunted by memories of her smile and soft body. With every day of longing, she becomes more beautiful until she disappears into the unattainable. A shooting star slashes across the sky and is gone in an instant.