PART ONE: NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1968/1969

1969 began with a kiss. For Jake DiAngelis, it was a bittersweet kiss, one that seemed to promise a great deal, but which he sensed would deliver far less. Why he felt this he couldn't exactly say. After all, he was kissing Joanie, whom he always referred to as "the love of his life." Yet, there was something amiss, something he couldn't quite pin down, but which he knew, clearly, was wrong. For Joanie Cohen, it was really two kisses, both disturbing ones. The first was Jake's unresponsive kiss at midnight. The second was later on, a decidedly sexual kiss with Annie, one that awoke in Joanie troubling lesbian feelings. The unexpected thrill she'd felt as Annie's warm tongue snaked its way into her mouth had been far different from the all-too-familiar deadness she'd felt earlier when giving Jake the proverbial New Year's Eve midnight kiss. For Bill Samuels it was a dangerous kiss, one he feared could threaten his blossoming career as a sociology professor at the U. Not the harmless kiss at midnight he'd planted on the cheek of that attractive undergraduate, Christine. No. Rather, it was the warm and gentle kiss from his graduate assistant, Pat Richardson, early this first morning of the new year. Where would it lead? Bill was close to panic when he considered the possibilities and their consequences. For Pat Richardson, it was a deeply disturbing kiss, a passionate one from a very married man. In fact, the whole evening had been disturbing. For a woman who'd only slept with one man in her entire life, suddenly her world seemed to be flooded with sexuality and sexual possibilities. And for a woman who was known for her rationality and clarity of thinking, she felt her emotions running rampant and a profound sense of confusion. For Jukie Jefferson, it was a forbidden kiss, one that both thrilled an’ terrified him. His first white woman. Twenty-five years old, a Viet Nam vet and this was the first white girl he'd ever kissed. White meat, forbidden fruit… an’ he could tell, there'd soon be more than a kiss. He was gonna’ ball this chick 'til the sun came up.