THE DISCOVERY OF HEAT (Marlo Berliner)

One of the best forms of heat that I don’t think has been mentioned yet is body heat. I’ll never forget the day I realized what body heat really was. Not that kind you feel when your grandma gives you a loving hug. Not the kind you feel when your little sister curls up with you on the couch to watch a scary movie. No, the other kind of body heat.

 I discovered it early one Saturday morning in the Spring. My next door neighbor Jimmy, who I had known most of my life (and who had annoyed me most of my life) had come out on the porch. We were both sixteen and we lived in a duplex so our porches were connected. I was sitting on the middle railing enjoying the cool crisp morning air. For some mysterious reason Jimmy did something he didn’t usually do – he sat right next to me. I mean, right next to me. Arms touching, hips almost touching, face mere inches away. Instantly, everywhere my body touched his surged with heat. And radiated onward from there.

To tell you the truth, it was disconcerting at first. I had never felt anything but a cold loathing for Jimmy. After all, he was the one responsible for the decapitation of most of my Barbie dolls. He had laughed like a hyena when I fell off my bike in the Great Liberty Street Crash and skinned the entire right side of my body. And he had whacked or pinched me more times than there are digits in Pi. Don’t even get me started on the icy snowballs to the face.

And yet, that morning something was different.

Very different.

And it only took a few seconds to realize, he felt it too.

How could he not? If anyone had been watching, I’m sure they would’ve seen wavy heat lines flowing between us. He was throwing off more heat than a roaring campfire. I think we both were.

The very air around us was charged with electricity and an energy that can only be quantified as attraction. Spontaneous, magnetic…and powerful. I’m sure there’s some type of scientific measurement for it, and if so, we were probably off the charts.

Now, blame what you will – hormones, mother nature, instinct, whatever – but it was unmistakable, and raw, and real. And one of the best ‘first’ feelings ever.

Do you remember your first brush with body heat?