Here is the Blogophilia challenge list for week 23.
Topic: Good luck with that...
bonus points
(hard, 2 points): Incorporate a forgotten Valentine
(easy, 1 point): include 3 kinds of fish
My Forgotten Valentine
So I'm thinking about my first teen love…my forgotten valentine…
His name was Sammy Joe. He had hair that flipped up in front in an unruly curl and big brown shy eyes that would melt a polar ice cap.
He was a country boy seven years older than me. I was just shy of thirteen and that's where the problem came in.
His folks owned a bait shop and a whole damn forest I think up at the lake where my folks use to go camping every weekend.
He and I clicked pretty much right away and afterwards you could always find us together down at the swimming hole or riding his four wheeler or out on the lake catching sun perch, bass and a few dreams.
He was going off to college soon he told me one hot July day. His folks wanted him to become a forest ranger, but he wanted to be a geologist and assured me he was going to live under the big sky of Montana someday. I told him I was going to be a famous writer.
One Christmas he gave me a little alabaster box, a poem and a funky hippy ring. I pretty much knew he was my kind of forever guy right then and there. You know that inexplicable moment when your heart becomes another's.
His dad always kept a watchful eye on us to be sure we didn't become too close. I'd heard the scoop that his dad thought I was just way too young for him and a city girl who could never be happy deep in those woods.
Sammy Joe…well he tried his best I think to keep everyone happy, but I couldn't wait for Friday night to arrive and the grin on his face when we pulled in the bait shop told me he couldn't wait for Friday either.
So it went …another summer came and he was excited to tell me all about college and I hung on his every word. We'd go for vanilla dipped ice cream cones in his new mustang and share kisses and dances under a country moon where we both were ageless and all that mattered was that magical moment.
Of course all magical moments come to an end and he would waffle back and forth between what we had and his father's admonition and enough finally became enough.
One day it just hit me. I was tired of his acting like a kid when he was damn nearly a man and tired that his father still pulled his strings. I guess he just wanted to please everyone but himself and I guess in that moment I decided he just wasn't strong enough to be my man. I can't say why exactly it happened because I really cared for him. Something inside me just snapped. You know that inexplicable moment when you take your heart back.
So nursing a broken heart I got my first job at a mom and pop burger joint near my house putting all my focus there and my camping weekends dwindled down to a mere few.
That summer was the summer I walked away crying and decided to never look back.
I guess that was the summer that Sammy Joe finally decided to look ahead.
He surprised me one day at my job. It was the first time he'd ever come down my way.
He looked at me with pleading puppy eyes and I knew he was on his way to finally becoming his own man, but it was just too late…
We sat there and talked on my break, but I think he knew my mind was made up and we both managed a hug, feeble grins and a long goodbye.
Many years later I went back there to those woods….to the sunrise on the lake and the smell of fresh pine…a place I loved… I thought of Sammy Joe and how we probably could have had a simple and great life together. One of those bittersweet moments that you know you'll never forget…
The old bait shop was there and so was his old man. I went in and asked for a bag of minnows and a box of worms.
"Elly, I haven't seen you in years" he seemed genuinely happy to see me.
"Yeah, it's been too long." I smiled and he smiled back.
"You heading out for a little fishing huh?"
"Yes sir, I am. Have y'all been catching any this weekend?"
He told me yes, that they were biting good and pointed me to some of best spots on the lake and wished me good luck with that.
I guess I had a melancholy moment and asked him how Sammy Joe was.
Must have been the most I'd ever heard him talk in my life after that. He told me all about Sammy Joe marrying some high society woman and moving off to a big house in the city.
That made me smile big inside.
"He's got two kids, boy and a girl, but we never get to see them because of that wife of his." he shook his head and pulled out pictures of the grandkids.
"They're both really cute. You must be proud." I said holding the picture for the longest time.
"Well I should get out to the lake now." I said finally.
He nodded and we exchanged goodbyes.
I don't know why I said it, but something just came over me as I was walking towards the door.
"Too bad you didn't end up with me huh? We could be out there on the lake all day long reeling in those big ones."
I turned and he was shaking his head with the strangest look on his face. "Yeah Elly, too bad… Really too bad..." he said as he put away the picture and watched me walk away.