The Neighbour

It was nineteen-seventy nine and I was on the cusp of a whole new world. I was eighteen and school was ending, replacing the innocence of childhood for me and my friends with the realities of adulthood. Music, politics, and fashion were changing, challenging the old way and readying for a new decade of hope. I was in a new home that brought me hope for a change that was more personal. I was about to be engulfed in a living fantasy that I prayed would end with my new neighbour making me a man. The issue was the age difference. Not to me. But for parents who would never approve of their little boy growing up and discovering love and sex with an older woman, it was the biggest challenge of all.