
It was 1960 and I lived in Queens Village, in Queens, in New York City, in a small apartment in a small apartment complex with my family on 215th street. There was a slender young blond girl with short hair named Sue that I knew then, one who I’ve never forgotten. I’m not quite sure where she lived but it was nearby. And I don’t think I ever knew her last name.
I don’t recall how we met, only that we did.
We were just friends but I wish we’d been more, much more. It wasn’t just that I found her beautiful but, as young as I was, I was fourteen and turned fifteen that summer, I sensed something profound in her, an intelligence but more, a sensibility and a sense of curiosity. And the attraction was very strong. But at fourteen I had no idea how to approach her so that our friendship could evolve into something else, although at fourteen, how much evolving could it have done.
Still, I think about her frequently and have for sixty-six years now.
I wonder how her life turned out and hope she found happiness and fulfillment, and that she attained all of her potential. The potential I sensed. I wonder if she remembers me; if she ever wonders what my life has been like.
If she shared something of what I felt.
_____
© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2026; all rights reserved. Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.
Guillermo (“Bill”) Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet and aspiring empirical philosopher) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia (although he has primarily lived in the United States of America of which he is also a citizen). Until 2017 he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. Previously, he chaired the social studies and foreign language departments at the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, New York. He is currently the publisher of the Inannite Review available at Substack.com; an intermittent commentator on radio and television; and, an occasional contributor to diverse periodicals and publications. He has academic degrees in political science (BA, The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina), law (JD, St. John’s University, School of Law), international legal studies (LL.M, the Graduate Division of the New York University School of Law) and translation and linguistic studies (GCTS, the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). However, he is also fascinated by mythology, religion, physics, astronomy and mathematics, especially with matters related to quanta, cosmology and cosmogony. He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at https://guillermocalvo.com/.