Burts dark hair was between my fingers last time I seen him and my new career became drawing him for the next two years. When I didn't make any money I gave the drawings to his grandmother. Four years later I've become the girl friend of . Burt was a soccer player in college and a mountain biker until he had a bad fall and tore his flesh off his elbow and knee.
Burt was from Mexico, and grew up raising rabbits in Wisconsin. Shelley and Burt met at Road
Crisis Enterprises and ate chicken for lunch everyday. Shelley feared her college sweet heart wouldn't commit to her and moved in with Burt. She hoped their night life would simmer down and that she would get a new job in the city.
A few dollops of vanilla creamer in my milk and several unsettling prayers in my conscious has Shelley at ease. After all its the early morning and no one she has ever known gets up in the early morning unless they are going to work. Its Sunday, and ideas of throwing out her agenda, saving the world, and surrendering over her life was promising for Shelley.
"See you for dinner sweetheart." Said the dark haired man Burt.
"Lets get a movie too." Shelley squeaked.
Shelley smooths out her dry hands with baby oil as she checks for chips in her nail polish. After her prayer meeting over the phone she was mortified to find out just how naive she could be when she realized she was always the first to hang up on calls after an blunt bye-bye not wanting to be an annoyance to anyone. After all her empowerment meetings it was funny how she had the best reasons to be the first one to leave with only a smile and a few words. For more than two years Shelley feared she had important things to get done; and to keep the phrase, "stay out of trouble" out of her life she feared was closer than she planned.
"Enough is enough!" She exclaimed.
"Who are you?" Asked Frank.
Frank lived just a few blocks west from where she was staying. He would go for walks with her on warmer days and worked in the city as a radio announcer or air time sales person. His hair was dirty-dish blonde and his sky blue eyes were filled with intense nervousness. Shelley and Frank met while she was serving coffee at a cafe in Lakeview near the train stop and the gym. Frank inspired Shelley to continue volunteering at another radio station on the lake and quit her job at the cafe when her sister got into a accident caused by too much stress.
"I'm not who people say I am." Shelley groaned.
"Well, anyway I'm getting married Shelley and moving to Boston." Said Frank.
Frank left without saying good-bye and Shelley only seen him once a year after his move when he came to Chicago for business. He told her about their first child named John and that they were on their second child. He gloated about wanting another boy and having enough boys to start up his dream of his own baseball team. There was a sparkle in his eye that she never seen before and he had a more relaxed look in his face since his single days.
It was the end of the summer when Shelley met Ginger an apartment renter shortly after Frank got married and they drank coffee every week together and sold apartments. She and Ginger both had been in traumatizing car accidents at the same age of twenty one, only Gingers had a broken leg and Shelley had a brain injury. The aroma of coffee was moist and warm and they chatted about their changes in careers in the past decade. Ginger would leave every fourth Saturday of the month with a man who was married to a famous author and every Monday would come to the cafe and share the few hours they'd spend at the beach house or the house up in the mountains somewhere on the west coast.
"Shelly I'm in love." Ginger wined.
Speechless and mortified for her good friend Shelley spit her coffee at herself and her eyes darted up to Gingers dimples on her face.
"Thats wonderful. With who?" Shelley sung.
"I'm not going to say." Ginger pouted.
