.......

Martha went out on a date one sultry
summer night with her first boyfriend.
He picked her up that evening about
sundown and carried her to town for an early
supper at the local drive-in restaurant where
they had hamburgers
with no onions,
french-fries,
and chocolate milkshakes.
Then they went to the movie theatre.
Neither really watched the movie,
but sat through the whole thing totally aware of the other.
They didn't hold hands, but their shoulders would
touch occaisionally,
And once in a while one would look at the other.
After the movie they walked out into the
night remarking about how much cooler it
was outside, then drove slowly back along the unpaved
roads to the river where she lived in a houseboat with
her father, who unfortunately was a drunk.
The houseboat was gone.
(Some pranksters, knowing they were on a date,
and knowing her father was dead-drunk inside,
had untied the houseboat and set it adrift on the open river.)
Martha didn't know what to do.
And her date didn't know what else to do,
so he took her home with him.

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