And then, there was C… and the Pledge.

Freshman English, in the 102 variety. As it would be become a custom in the next few years, I sat on the back of the room, glimpsing the board every now and then and musing about life and at times, how on much I missed Lima.

Interestingly enough for the day, there was an interesting sight up front of this otherwise boring 9am class

A pretty redhead attached to the prettiest, (thanks warm southern fall!), legs seen this side of the universe.

Of course an immediate plan of action had to be determined. Decisive and swift action had to be taken, casualties being irrelevant.

I honestly don’t remember what the class was about… by this time, the voice of the professor sounded to me pretty much like the voice of Charlie Brown´s teacher (bwabwabwabwa). I was Charlie and THIS was my little redhead. (things of destiny, at the time I had a yellow shirt with a black stripe am pretty sure I must have been wearing that day).

The bell rang and it was the moment for glorious victory or miserable failure.

More intelligence to decide further course of actions was required.

Mission Base to all available forces… scramble all fighters, Mission base to squadron, get in position. Wit, smile and lips locked and loaded… dive-bombing into target at 1000.

And then silence… the raid was in effect.

Total flight mission. Under 7 minutes. Body Count? No casualities reported.

Reporting to Mission Base… Thanks to my wit, the raid was a hit beyond expectations. We gathered enough intelligence to sketch the next few days.

Among the many topics covered in the unlikely time of 7 minutes she disclosed she lived in Parham Hall (just 2 building next to mine), laughed at my silly and cocky jokes and told me she ate at the cafeteria everyday. She flirted back a bit and she also thought I was “kinda neat”. Arrangements were made to secure another encounter in a more fitting terrain, the cafeteria!.

Ladies and Gentlemen, with much less intelligence, the allies won Midway… so luck was on our side for this battle.

Days later we met at the cafeteria for breakfast. We talked for a few hours into lunch, me and my usual wit and charm with deadpan delivery, her and her intelligent remarks and deep insight into things, I was starting to like her….… but here is where the first red flags popped (just my paranoia I thought). She had a ring. “that’s a nice ring” I said (hoping to fish for more information)… “Yeah, its for my pledge, cute isn’t it?”. Then she talked about her conviction on Christianity (I have found a nice Christian girl I thought to myself! and the teachings of Jesus and many things better left untold for the sake of the story.

Back then I was a fresh arrival and almost lost on the details of American culture, so I didn’t know what a “pledge” was, nor that Christian fundamentalism was rampant this side of the states … nonetheless I didn’t bother to ask and reduced it to a simple anecdote, maybe good material for some talk later on. That was one VERY funny omission……. More on that later.

Anyways, we agreed to go out on Friday night to Fridays (back then, my idea of a “good restaurant” was Fridays… hey, I was young, don’t knock on the kid).

Friday came and I picked her up. She was perfectly groomed, not a single hair out of place, and the smell.. oh the smell of Coolwater by Davidoff…. The night promised to be a good one.

We ate, we laughed, we drank (thanks to a friendly water who slipped us, underage kids, a few drinks), we had a great time… but I had the curiosity.. “what was the pledge???”.

So I asked… and answer left me frozen in the middle of a hot September night. “ITS MY PLEDGE TO BE VIRGIN UNTIL MARRIAGE”.

Me, being at the time a superficial and horny 18yo thought to myself.. “out of all the 8 thousand+ girls at my school… I had to want to date the one who was absolutely decided to be a virgin until marriage!”.

Great, now my hopes for the night were reduced to go back to my room, watch comedy central and fall sleep after enough cold showers to send me in to cardiac arrest.

Either way, I really enjoyed her company, and we kept talking and laughing… but the time to go home was approaching.

We got in the car, she hold my hand and kissed me in the cheek.

That’s all the love am getting tonight I firmly believed to myself.

But hey!, she is such a nice girl and such a blast to have around it didn’t matter to me.

We drove back to the dorms… and she asked me to come over to her room… “great!” I thought…. we can cuddle and watch a movie or something I thought.

we walked thru the door, but as soon as we sat on the couch and cuddled and watched a few minutes of tv… my whole interpretation of logic changed, my whole understanding of American culture did a 180.

THERE WERE LOOPHOLES ON THE PLEDGE!!!!!!!!!!!! VIRGINITY HAD LOOPHOLES!!

LOOPHOLES!. Oh the ingenuity of human mind and female logic. LOOPHOLES!. Virginity for the american youth had loopholes!!! Oh, the grace of those arguments.

Needless to say, the tv didn’t stay on for long….

And the next morning, as I walked back to my room, a whole door of posibilites were added to my then limited repertoire, man, I felt as if had been “watching” tv in black and white for my whole life before that” (well, that’s just bluffing, it was just a couple years).
And her? well.. She was still a virgin after that night and her pledge was intact.

I don’t know if Jesus approves, but hell I did!. God Bless America, where everybody wins.