I was cleaning my office Sunday night and I came across a Christmas card. It was a card that had a special message that I was giving to someone very close to me. I had made it myself, with Photoshop. The card I was holding was the final prototype, the finished version was signed and given to her. If I have ever been in love with anyone in my life I can honestly say this was the girl. We had a LOT of fun together, and I was remembering all the good times we had.
The first time I ever laid my eyes on her I was stunned, I was photographing a “Battle of the Bands” Contest and she was a dancer in a group that was covering “The Lumberjack Song” by Jackyl. I took a few pictures of her. I remember looking at those pictures and thinking, God what I wouldn’t give for a girl like that on my arm. Over a year later I was Interviewing a girl in a southside strip club who wanted to shoot for me. Two girls walked in, one was to be in the amateur contest the other, was her friend there to lend support. The friend cased the sleazy little club, locked eyes with me and came and sat down and introduced herself. She didn’t remember me, but I remembered her. It was the same girl from the battle of the bands contest. She didn’t want to sit alone and she commented that we looked like the only cool people in the club. I don’t lose my composure easily, but I couldn’t come up with a word to say, I felt like a high school goalie staring down a one on one with Wayne Gretsky. I’m a pretty self confident fellow but I knew this one was way outta my league. But I wasn’t going to just lie down, no sir, I was at least going to give it my best play. We talked for most of the night, when it was all over we were getting up to leave and she handed me her phone number and said please call me. When I got back out to my car I wrote that number on ten different papers and stashed them in my wallet, in my car, all over. I figured it was a bogus number or something but I wasn’t going to take a chance that I would lose it. The next thirty six or so hours were excruciating, they lasted forever, I wasn’t going to call her the next day, it had to wait. In baseball terms, I wasn’t about to swing at a sucker pitch, even though I was eager I didn’t want it to show. Finally the second day came and around 4PM I dialed her number. I wasn’t expecting anything short of a disconnect notice or maybe the time and temperature. She answered the phone and for a couple of seconds I froze.
I quickly got into play and made a date, the rest is history, we traveled together, we were best friends. I was still way out of my league but I managed to hold my own for a couple of years before she drifted away. I guess she found someone who was in her league and the last I had heard she had gotten married.
I haven’t heard from her in Five years.
I was looking at the card and rereading it, I was remembering how I always felt when in her presence. I remember thinking, God, I’d give anything to hear from her, to know how she is doing, she is the love of my life.
This morning, 36 hours later I got 2 emails from her, she reads my site. The last sentence read:
“I have held my tongue for too long. Please E mail me soon so we can really talk. Lots of
loves and kisses, XXXXXX.”
I feel as though I am about to stare down a 100MPH Slap Shot
