First Experience

by Virgil
(Walkersville, MD)

It happened at the beginning of my senior year in high school in September of 1954.

I was sitting in the band room waiting for practice to begin when this little sophomore girl wearing too much makeup walked in. A voice in the back of my head said, "That girl will be your wife." My reaction was immediate and quite natural,"You've got to be kidding." It was like talking to someone I'd known forever.

Three years later, we were indeed married. The marriage produced three children and lasted forty years.

Since then, that voice has become a part of my life and it basically says one thing: "Write", which is what I'm doing now.

Understand that this not an audible hallucination like something schizophrenics experience. It is something that happens entirely within my mind and now is completely natural.