Venus incarnate

Mary Kay Jordon was my first crush.  One morning when we were in the third grade, she exited a school bus in a green slicker surrounded by a sea of shorties dressed in plain old yellow ones. Zing went my  strings. My very own Little Green Riding Hood. 

I also admired and envied her talent at winning multiplication table races in the front of the classroom, mastering the chalk and blackboard as if they were hers and hers alone, toiling away like no other, her shiny chestnut  tresses curtaining her sweet, determined countenance.  Every single time, she left one and all in her singular wake. Wow! What a girl. 

Last week, a mutual friend told me she died last year.