Valentine’s Day Gift: That’s the Ticket!

I wrote a bit of short fiction for you today. Enjoy!

That’s the Ticket

Five years ago on Valentine’s Day, I met the man who would make all my dreams come true.

It had been raining all day, and the only color on main street were the pink and red splashes that lined most of the shop windows along the way. I felt as gray as the weather, walking alone in a dress I couldn’t afford and now, given its bedraggled state, couldn’t return. He stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb in our small town, rushing down the sidewalk with a pointless newspaper held over his head in that expensive suit soaking up moisture as fast as it fell from the sky.

I’ve never played football, but when he rammed into me shoulder-first, sending me flying a few feet back and right up against the thick trunk of a sturdy tree, I was pretty sure I knew what it was like to be tackled by a line-backer.

He did stop to make sure I was okay, though he was obviously perturbed at the delay. I was perturbed at being thrown into a tree, and received a very polite apology before he took off again.

I think about him every year on this day. I go stand on that corner, snap a selfie under that tree, and I wonder where he is and how he’s doing. My friends and I toss back a shot in his honor, knowing that he doesn’t know my name and probably has no memory of me or that brief encounter that changed my life forever.

I’m guessing he doesn’t remember the lottery ticket I lifted from his suit jacket, either.

Jamie DeBree

Writer | DBA | Dog Wrangler

Valentine’s Day Gift: That’s the Ticket!