Love Accidentally Part II

continued from the previous post


There are many couples in this world that just don’t match. You know what I mean? Like Sonny and Cher, they just didn’t match or how about Donald Trump and his latest super-model wife, please? Kelly and I were one of those mismatched couples. I was a head taller than him, he had jet black hair and flawless skin, I had freaky-white hair and freckles splattered all over my face and I’m guessing that I weighed three times as much as him. But, when you’re blinded by love, those physical features just blend together perfectly.

Kelly and I spent every possible moment together. During recess I would carry him around on my back, because he was just a tiny little thing and well, I was gigantic. I wanted to squeeze him and pet him and call him mine forever and ever; yes, I was that abominable cartoon creature with the tiny, cute, loveable pet.

One day as we wrestled around on the grass during recess I kissed his cheek. He stopped and looked at me with a big smile then wrestled me back to the ground and returned the kiss on my big freckled face. Oh, it was love.

Kelly had two older sisters that would crochet bracelets and necklaces for him to give to me. I wore all my yarn jewelry with the proud air of The Queen Mum. One day the sisters scrounged up a real piece of jewelry for Kelly to give me. It was a thick silver bracelet that clasped around the wrist like Wonder Woman’s arm bands. I hadn’t the nerve to tell him that I thought it was too much, I also hadn’t openly admitted to any of my family that Kelly was the man of my dreams and we were so in love that nothing could tear us apart. So, as I walked out of school that day I thought about how I would hide the bracelet. My first thought was to stow it away under one of the bushes at school and then retrieve it every morning before classes started but, I didn’t want to risk it getting dirty. I decided the best thing would be to come up with a real wing-dinger of a story to tell my mother and sister and then my love bracelet would never have to leave my body.

First, I showed the bracelet to my sister. She looked at it and asked where I got it. I told her I had found it under the bushes in front of the school. That seemed to satisfy her and we walked to the car where my mother was waiting to take us home. The first words out of my sister’s mouth were, “Mom, April found a bracelet.” That did it, I didn’t have the time or the experience to get my story straight, my mother asked where I’d found it, how I found it, who did I think it belonged to, and then she marched me up to the school and into the office where I had to hand in my bracelet to the school secretary to put in the lost and found. I was crushed. I knew deep down that my mother would never understand that the bracelet was a gift to me from my true love. So, I let it go. I never saw my beautiful silver Wonder Womanish bracelet again.

Kelly didn’t care that I had so carelessly lost the bracelet. Our love was stronger than any material gift. We continued to be in love and then Christmas break came. We talked on the phone once; it was awkward because if we couldn’t push each other on the swings or play horse and rider, then we didn’t have much to say. I think he told me something about visiting an antenna.

When we came back from Christmas I noticed Kelly’s desk was empty. I asked our good friend Danny where Kelly was and he told me he had move to Antenna. Our town’s radio and television station was located two blocks north of Maine Street and the antenna soared above all the trees. I always dreamed of climbing to the top to see how high it was. I was excited that Kelly was living by the antenna; maybe he would get to climb it and tell me how high it was. Day after day I thought Kelly would come back. I asked Danny if Kelly was going to a different school and Danny said, “Yeah, he’s going to a school in antenna.” Kelly was gone, forever. My little, tiny, bundle of sweetness was gone.

I don’t think it was until third grade while I was studying the United States that it dawned on me that Kelly had moved to Montana.