The tandem story

mrbbrad - 2011-02-04 8:20 PM   As Valarie ran down the dusty dirt path she couldn't help but think of Pete. It was his fault she was in this whole mess. She'd met Pete nearly two months ago, at that party in the city. "He's certifiable,"  her girlfriends had warned her. Valarie, never being one to listen to Charlotte and Claire anyway, disregarded their warnings and approached Pete. CC (as she called Charlotte and Claire, they were always together) had been right. He was certifiable.


 "Hi Valarie!" he screamed from less than 15 feet away. When he turned around her first impression was that he had been sitting on that park bench for nearly a week. He was wearing a worn out sweater and had a scruffy beard and hands full of bird seed that he was dolling out to the local pigeons. "Pete? Is everything ok?" she kept a distance as he got up from the bench and came towards her. "Yeah, why do you ask? I'm just making sure these guys don't starve to death on me. Its not as easy as it used to be for birds to get food around here". Valerie was stunned. He looked like a completely different person from the guy she met two weeks ago. "I have to tell you something very important" he started, "I found something in the park that you will never believe."

Valarie had been here with Pete before. Still, there was something about his personality that she just couldn't get past. But this was so Pete. Well groomed and nattily dressed one time you see him and discheveled the next. He turned, not even waiting for Valarie to answer, as if he already knew that she'd follow him. As he walked birdseed began falling out of the bottom of his pants. "Does he have holes in his pockets?" wondered Valarie. As Pete led Valarie along a lybrinth of dirt trails she couldn't believe she was following him. As they approached a clearing Valarie could see the rusted out shell of what used to be a dump truck. Just beyond was a high fence with a hole cut in it. Pigeons, and pigeon poop, were everywhere.

Pete led her through the hole in the fence into small clearing. In the middle of the clearing sat a box. Valarie shuddered to think what might be in the box. Pete sense her trepidation. "It's ok, Val" he reassured her, "There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just something I've wanted to show you ever since we met." With that, Pete opened the box and slowly withdrew a tattered book from deep inside it. Valarie could barely make out the title. "Baby Names?" she asked incredulously. "That's right," said Pete. "I just had to show you the proper way to spell Valerie. You have it all wrong!"

ride_like_u_stole_it - 2011-02-07 7:35 AM

Valarie's  brain caught her mouth before she could say "Pete, you sanctimonious twit!" out loud. But she went on to explain that she was named after her great grand mother who had fought with The Resistance in WWII. "Nanna Martin's mother never learned to read very well, " she explained. She was too busy in the fields, and when the war came she saved at least three families of Jews by hiding them in her barn until she could smuggle them out of France in a load of onions.