It was late on Halloween night. Dan was twenty-six years old. Halloween had been his favorite holiday for the past three years since he had met his girlfriend Julia.

Julia was twenty-two years old when he met her at a bar in a large casino. Dan did not know at the time he met her, but Julia was then in her final year of nursing school. They had met at a Halloween party and had struck up a conversation after he saw her walk into the bar at the party.

Even now Dan can close his eyes and still see Julia in her “cute” and very short nurse’s uniform that she was wearing on the very first day they met. He remembers sitting at the bar and that she caught his eye as she walked by. She was well accessorized, sporting a stethoscope around her neck. But Dan’s gaze was on the breast pocket of her uniform where he saw what appeared to be several wide silver fountain pens.

About a half-hour later, he saw Julia struggling her way towards the bar through the crowd. Her eyes met Dan’s as she reached the busy bar rail. “Can I buy you a drink?” Dan asked as she met his gaze. “Yes, please” she declared, pushing her way towards the bar, “Buy me two; I have a critical patient who needs my immediate attention” she asserted to Dan.

The bartender had already seen Julia approach and quickly processed (through Dan) Julia’s order. Her eyes met Dan’s as she took the drinks. “I like your pens” said Dan, staring at the silver cases. “They are not pens” she shot back, “help me carry these drinks.”

She walked us to a table where she introduced me to her friend Amy and indicated to me which drink was to be given give to her. Amy was about twenty-three years old, and was dressed up as a schoolgirl. Her dark hair was pulled into pigtails, and she wore a white-cotton collared blouse and a thigh-high plaid skirt. She wore two-tone saddle shoes and white knee-high cotton socks.

This scene has been etched into Dan’s mind because when he first saw her, Amy was talking to a guy seated directly in front of her. Her short skirt was considerably hiked up and Julia yanked it down as she approached her from behind. As Amy sensed Julia’s tug on the back of her skirt, she wheeled quickly around but smiled when she saw that it was Julia behind her. Dan’s first impression was that Amy was a delightful young woman. He remembered following Julia back to help carry their drinks Things got fuzzy from there.

All three of them went up to Dan’s room. Julia whispered something in Amy’s ear and they both disappeared into the bathroom. Dan stretched out on the bed, his face into a pillow, and drifted off, listening to an occasional giggle (and groan) from behind the bathroom door.