There had been that time that Corina had offered him her soft plump hand.
He had felt a strange elation, like a somersault inside his rib cage, but then Murphy's and Mark's sneers had poured iced water on his little fire.
And yet, at home, at night, he could but think about her: the way she smiled and put her hand in his without pretensions, the smoothness of the plump hand....
Later, Murphy and Mark had teased him.
"Corina? She lives on apples pies, can't you tell? Her very face is an apple, so round!"
And they mimicked her face, and broke into laughter.
"Look, Jim, if you wanna be one of us forget about her. Show your guts", said Mark, and Murphy nodded. And they looked at each other in a way that excluded him.
He was just a rookie. What did he know<? If he wanted to learn something about girls and life, he's better stick around with them, and observe very close right?
Jim swallowed, then nodded, still seeing Corina's lovely face in his mind's eye. But he didn't want to be a loser.
His first date was coming soon.
Murphy and <Mark had set him up with a rather catchy blonde.
In the drive-in, he was so nervous that he kept switching gears.
The blonde laughed with a guttural sound, throwing back her long neck.
"This one is nuts," she giggled on.
When later she put his hand on her blouse, he froze.
She waited with a question mark in her cold gaze.
"I'm sorry. I can't."
It was all he could say. He opened the car door and jumped out, as she looked at him in bewilderment.
He didn't even turn back.
Jim just ran away faster and faster.
The day after, everybody knew he was a loser.
Murphy told everyone he had had to pick up the blonde instead, because Jim had left her on the spot without any decent excuse.
Jim was ready to bear it all, as long as Corina would give him another chance.
He hoped to see her, but day after day, she was not even in her classroom.
One evening, Jim waited outside her door, under her balcony.
He swore he would not leave until she opened her window.
He waited all night in vain.
The day after at school he was sleepy.
He waited again in the evening, but Corina didn't open her window.
This happened for the whole semester, until the rain season came.
As he waited rather discouraged under Corina's closed window, finally someone opened the shutters from the inside.
Jim closed his eyes, savouring his joy, but when he reopened them, a young man with a moustache was standing on the balcony.
"Corina -- he called -- come, smell the rain. It's quite wonderful. It will pour any minute now."
Who was that young man?
Jim did not have a clue, but didn't wait either to find out.
He ran away, tears burning in his eyes, as he kept repeating what an idiot he had been.
Out of breath, he stopped at the end of town, just at the crossroad where the cursed house stood.
He had never believed all the grim stories about it. But he was no loser.
Murphy and Mark would have to change their minds on that one.
So he waited until the traffic stopped altogether.
The night was pitch dark, until the wind dispersed the clouds and the silver moon shone sinister, and alone in the sky.
