For Bellabeth (Part 2)

Sweet Bellabeth,

I can still see the details of that picture in my mind even today.  I was haunted and inspired by that picture.  Did you know that I tried to draw a portrait of you from that picture?   I must have poured hours of time trying to capture the details of your face.  I ended up crumpling it up… because it lacked he essence of spirit that the camera caught on that one day.  No mater how skilled I may have been, no matter how many times I tried… I couldn’t capture you.  I couldn’t draw the freedom in your eyes or the mischievous playful curve of your smile.  I was so frustrated and yet I could not stop trying to capture what I saw in that picture. In the end I realized what I was trying to do.  I was making a copy of a copy, no wonder I was so dissatisfied with my results.  A picture is worth a thousand words… I didn’t expect the one emotion that came along.  It was in that moment I summoned up as much bravery as I ever have… I asked Wendy to introduce me to you.

Walt laughed at me.  He found it funny how someone could fall so hard for a picture.  Wendy was concerned that this could end badly for me, but must have seen something in my resolve that day because she told me she’d give you a call.  I was overwhelmed with joy, fate finally smiled on me!  There was fear I’d be lying to say I wasn’t afraid.  I told myself at the very least talk to her so you can put a voice to the face and then you’d be one step closer to understanding why I was so drawn to you.  I was excited and unable to focus on anything except your picture (Wendy let me borrow it so I could keep trying to complete a portrait).  A couple days later got a call from Wendy… she said that you were out of town visiting relatives’ for the summer and would be unreachable for a while.  My joy and excitement that kept me aloft plummeted to the ground.  Surprisingly I didn’t give up hope, I mean this was supposed to be fate right? This was a test.  I was not going to fail the test of faith given to me.  I asked Wendy if she could leave a message for you to call when you came back from your trip.  I decided that if I had to wait to meet you, then so be it. 

The wait it turns out was only two weeks.  I don’t recall what I was doing before you called, whatever it was its importance was lost as soon as you spoke.  Your voice was very high pitch and slightly squeaky, not how I imagined it at all.  You told me that you received a message from Wendy, and she gave you my number.  I tried making small talk about your trip and how I dint expect you to be back so soon.  You told that it was fun, but now your back.  Then you told me to hold on that you’d call me right back.  And you did; I remember smiling so hard that my head almost split into two.  We made some more small talk and then I asked the question that was hovering in the air with my prayers.  I asked you if you were seeing anyone at the moment.  When you said there was no one at the moment, my head split into two.  I wanted to high five someone!  I wanted to dance on the ceiling! I must have made some happy sounds because I heard giggling on the line.  You told me to hold on and that you’d call me right back because your younger brothers are probably listening in.   After I hung up the phone I dropped to my knees my arms outstretched and shouted THANK YOU!   The phone rang again and you were back on and felling that fate was on my side I asked if you’d like to go out for some coffee or something someday so we could meet face to face.  You told me sure that be nice and asked me what I looked like?  I told you I was dark tanned, had curly black hair and uhhh… I had all my teeth (yea I know, I was real smooth)!  Again I heard the giggling in the background and you said you’d call me back once more.  While waiting for you to call me back I thought of things to ask you and more smooth line to say.  The phone rang again and I picked it up mid ring.  It was Wendy on the phone, I told her I was expecting an important call soon and that we’d talk later.  She sounded sad and asked me who called me.  I told her that you had called me and I owed her big… her voice became tentative much sadder with what she said next.  She said that the person on the phone who was calling me wasn’t you, but her friend Lacey.  The giggling I heard in the background was not of your younger siblings but of Walt and Elmo.  I was a victim of a prank.  The next things I heard was Wendy yelling at those three.  I don’t believe I ever heard Wendy that angry before.  Whatever she said had them on they phone telling me they were sorry.  I don’t remember the words that were used or if they said it.  I’d stopped listening to the world after I heard it wasn’t you on the phone. 

And I cried.

For Bellabeth (Part 1)

Sweet Bellabeth,

Do you remember me?  Am I just another name and another face, right? Or did Boone tell you the story about me.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he had told you the story about me, I have a way of becoming the icebreaker anecdotes for my friends.  Especially around women, how do you downplay your shortcomings and faults? Simple, tell them a funny embarrassing story about me.  That way everyone laughs and breathes a sigh of relief that they are not the most pathetic one in the room.  I’m starting to ramble and lose track of what I wanted you to know.  I don’t know what you’ve heard from Boone, but would you mind I told you the story… a story you may never read.

What is love at first sight?  What is love? I don’t know, but that how the story begins.  It happened one summer while I was enjoying the day over at my cousin’s house.  You remember Walt and Wendy right?  I’m sure you do, Wendy was your friend.  Hopefully time hasn’t changed it too much.  Well at their house I’m usually around Walt and his best friend Elmo.  Walt and Elmo were battling it out in Boulevard Battler 2: Extreme Edition, needless to say I suck at it and provided no challenge.  So I decided to wander and find things more interesting and less demoralizing.  The sounds of the radio drew me toward Wendy’s room, the door was ajar and I poked my head in. And there was my cousin Wendy sitting on the floor with pictures scattered across the floor.

I sat down across form her to help her and alleviate my boredom.  I picked up a stack of pictures and leafed through them one by one.  I picked out good pictures of her friends for her to peruse and stacked the still life and landscape photos into a separate pile.  Wendy had a lot of pretty friends and they all seem so photogenic if you could get past the fact that most of the photos of them where done in a studio.  You know those airbrushed glamour shots. I must have gone through three dozen photos when one caught my attention.  It was a candid photo of a girl she was at a wedding or so other formal event, because she was in this horrendous hot pink and shiny purple ruffled dress.  The girl in the picture had a flower clasped in her hand.  No not roses, not lilies, and not orchids.  She held a small bouquet of geraniums.  So here was this picture of a girl in an awful bridesmaid dress holding a common geranium.  I was mesmerized not by the ugly dress or the geraniums most people would walk past without a second thought. I was dazzled by the beautiful spirit frozen in time.  I was looking at the definition of a free spirit and that was more beautiful that any airbrushed studio photograph that I have ever seen.  I was looking at a photo of you.

By the way did you end up getting back that the person who put you in that dress?