I suppose I was in love with her, I don’t know.  You know how young folks are.  We jerked one another around…had  fun and weren’t seeing other people but on the other hand we were not engaged or even going steady.  We did the movies and the burgers and fries bit and yes, we were, how do I put this, intimate, a couple of times.  She was just the sort of girl I presumed I was going to marry some day.  It never occurred to  me that it would’t happen.

photo by lostash

I knew her well enough to know her favorite flower was the white daisy…the one with the big yellow doodad in the middle.  It was the right time of the year and our pasture was just filled with them.  I picked  a big bouquet a fixed them up pretty with a twistum from a bread wrapper  and headed for her house although the hour was a bit late.   No matter.  Uncle Sam had called me and I had to go tomorrow no matter what.

When I arrived at her house there was a bit of a surprise..  Whoa.  Dogies!  There was a strange car in her driveway–a convertible–with the top down no less.  The lights were mostly off–just the bathroom light was on so no one would trip over the cat.  I thought to myself, hmmm, she’s not ready for my company.

I don’t know what I did with the daisies.  I think I put them in the front seat of the convertible…not to make a statement…I wasn’t mad at her and I wasn’t jealous of him…I just didn’t want to make a mess for the street department.  Yeah, right.  The next morning I boarded a train and rode off to war.  It was the only time I saw my father cry.

I never wrote to her so she never had my address to write back and we lost contact.   That was many years ago and now my internet service is proud to advise they are giving me a $15 discount on my order.  She died yesterday and I ordered a bouquet of white daisies to be delivered…specifically with big yellow doodads in the middle.