Winter Season

Valentines Day

Oscar didn’t care for Valentine’s Day. It was the day for lovers and he’d never really had a lover. There was Esther and he loved her. But they weren’t lovers. Not yet anyway. He wanted them to be and he was pretty sure she wanted it to.

He wanted to do something special for her but what? He had long since given Esther the keys to his house and his heart. She like wise. He was so afraid that he would have a panic attack while Chet was busy and there would be no one around to help him. That was the ruse he was telling himself.

He could only surmise that since he gave her a key, she gave him one. That wasn’t fair, he thought. She was a kind, caring, wonderful woman. She loved him. He loved her.

He stopped at a jewelry store on the way home. Usually everything was closed by the time he left for home except for a hand full of businesses; but for Valentine’s Day everyone stayed open a little later hoping to get that Valentine dollar.

“Oscar,” Sue greeted him. “How are you today?” He and Sue went to church together.

“I’m good. You?”

“Oh, I’m just fine. Oscar,” she leaned over the counter whispering as if the store was full of people. “Did you hear about Brother Evan?”

“No, what about him?” He acted surprised.

“Well you haven’t been too church in a long time, so why would you know? Brother Evan is gone. Left in the middle of the night; packed all he could get in the back of his truck and left. Lick-a de-split.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, the church is in a horrible state.”

“I’m very sad to hear that.”

She leaned back over to her side of the counter. “So, getting a Valentine for your mom?” Oscar just glared at her. “Hmmm, I’ll take that as a no.” And she left him alone.

He only saw Esther wear that one ring. He was beginning to think this might be a mistake. Especially since he had no idea what ring size to buy. A necklace caught his eye. It was silver, a pair of hands shaped like a V holding a heart. That was pretty.

“Sue.”

“Did you find something you want to see?”

“Yes, I want to see that necklace.”

She handed it to him with a big smile. “Who’s the lucky girl?” He ignored her. She cleared her throat, “have you met the new lady in town? The one that moved into the Morrison home place?”

“I couldn’t help but not.”

“What’s she like?”

Oscar was doing all he could to ignore her.

Looking at the necklace, he wondered how it would look around her neck. How it would hang? Then he remembered one of their highly charged encounters. When he put his fingers at the back of her neck, touching; with his hands around her neck, his thumb was at the nap of her neck. That seemed like a good place for a charm to hang. He took the necklace he held out of the package and measured it against his hand. It was too small. “Do you have a longer chain?”

“Do that again?” Oscar did. “Looks like you want a sixteen.”

He did the same thing to the new chain and it was perfect. “I’ll take it.” Sue just giggled.

“Sue, she’s a very nice person.”

All the way home, Oscar worried if he had done the right thing.

Winter Season