Lucunda

By J. Lewis Celeste

This story is historically accurate to time and place in San Francisco, California in 1946. The cover is a view from Bernal Hill overlooking the golden city. The depiction was chosen because it is central to one of the running themes in the story, adolescence in an all-boy’s Catholic Junior High School in the 1940s. The title in full is Lucunda en Latente, which in translation means hidden or secret crush, another running theme in the story. This work is fictional; however, certain characters and events are loosely based on childhood memories passed down to me from my father who is “Bobby.” I have taken considerable license in this tale for his recollections were shared with me in the early 1980s and he passed away in 1984. But the essential elements of the piece I attribute to him and his childhood in San Francisco. I hope you enoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. Lewis Celeste
• Release date: Aug 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005514945

J. Lewis Celeste

J. Lewis Celeste is the author of the novel, “Gettin’ Paid,” along with several short stories and poems. He is a social commentator who encourages readers to question their opinions. J. Lewis Celeste challenges readers to evaluate their own beliefs, values, and perspectives. His writing focuses on core universal themes of the human condition.Contact: [e-mail]

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Lucunda en Latente

Copyright 2022

By J. Lewis Celeste

Published by J. Lewis Celeste at Smashwords

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For Bobby

Lucunda en Latente

She stood in front of the class. Her head was hooded in the traditional black veil of the sisterhood. Her face was young and fresh, slightly flushed with natural exhilaration. Her skin, smooth, tight and clear— flawless, divinely perfect. Her eyes, her remarkable eyes, steel gray and piercing. Eyes that penetrate, that command and control— eyes every boy in the room craved to capture and hold. That is one of the things that is hard to put into words all these years later, that feeling we all felt in the presence of sister Mary Theresa. She was unlike any nun that I have ever known, and I have been a catholic for 88 years!

For one thing, she had a Giaconda smile that was a cross between Ingrid Bergman and Sophia Loren. And we would argue about that during recess, who she looked more like, and often, because we all adored her and wanted to win her, we would come to blows because of our adamant opinions on beauty. For another, she would laugh and joke and tease us, as if she were one of the boys, easily melting our guard