The Envelope

Chapter 1

         He sat in the drivers seat of his 1994 Ford truck. His thumbs where tapping on the steering wheel and was chewing on the inside of his lower lip as he stared at the house. Parked five houses down he was able to see the house that sat at the corner of Grabacr Avenue and 10th street. The house was a white two story house with an attached garage and blue windows. The yard was a small, well kept and had beautiful green grass and well trimmed hedges along the path leading to the front door. The house was typical for a Minnesota subdivision in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. Not for the first time he was amazed at the rate the suburbs where growing. They were among the fastest growing suburbs in the nation. He was still able to remember that the area around where his grandparents had lived, and that he had as well, used to be surrounded by hay fields and only a couple of houses. Now there was a housing subdivision across the street. He couldn’t wait to move out of Minneapolis and back into the country. But he’d be trapped there for at least a few more years.
         He looked at the clock down on his dashboard. 6:13, is what it read, Great, I’ve been hear for nearly ten minutes and haven’t moved, he thought. He continued to stare at the house as his thumbs tapped the steering wheel. He continued to think, and to stare at the house. But it wasn’t just any house, it was her house. Well, not technically as far as he knew. The last time that he had talked to her she was still living with her parents and would be for a couple of more years. Her parents lived at the house as well as her kid brother. He was what…? Ten? Eleven years old now? I should know this he’s the same age as Mandy. He continued to stare as a revelation hit him. Had it really been six years now? Six whole years? He had a hard time believing that it had been that long ago that they had met, but it had…

         It was the summer of 2004, and a brand new pizza joint had opened up in Savage called Camelot Pizza. He had managed to get hired back in February, a month before the store had opened. He had been hired with about fourteen other teenagers, the majority of which he went to High School with and where either classmates of his or a year behind him. It was the first actual real job that he had had. The place was owned and run by Debra and Andy Hankrof, a husband and wife team. Since the two didn’t feel like spending 16 – 20 hours in the place a day they promoted three of the new workers to shift managers after a couple of months, just before summer hit. He had volunteered and got the promotion and was given a key to the store as well as a security code for the security system. He soon discovered that he liked being in charge, not because he could tell people what to do, but he relished the responsibility of being the guy in charge and being the guy everyone went to when there was a problem or a question.
         It was a Saturday morning in early June and he was scheduled to get the store opened and ready for the long day ahead. He arrived on time, an hour before the store was to open. He walked up to the door, unlocked it and walked in. To his surprise he saw about twenty people sitting in the dinning area. Before he could ask them what they were doing inside the store Debra appeared from the back room holding a clipboard.
         “Aw, good morning John! We’re just holding a group interview here and we’ll be done soon so go ahead and do what you need to do. We won’t get tin the way. Oh by the way, every one this is John Polsk, one of our shift managers.” There were a few muffled hello’s and a couple of cheery ones. He waved and smiled to the gathered group.
“Hello everyone! Sounds good Deb.” With that he went to back room and got to work. Debra was right and the interview broke up about fifteen minutes later. Then it happened. As he was at the front counter getting the registers and money ready to go for the day, he heard a very nice voice talking to Debra. Intrigued he looked up to find the owner of the voice. He didn’t expect to see what he did. The owner of the voice was easily the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen. His eyes started at her feet and worked up. His eyes showed his brain a pair of phenomenal legs, a perfect body – one that wasn’t fat, but you could certainly tell she was no anorexic Barbie doll – and skin that was just slightly tanned. She had dark brown hair which he assumed was just longer than shoulder length, was up in a tight ponytail, leaving no hair in her face. But what he saw paled in comparison to what he saw next. She had the most beautiful set of eyes that he had ever seen in his life. They were the biggest, brownest eyes that he had ever seen. When she smiled – it was a smile that was absolutely wonderful to his eye - after something that Debra said it seemed to make her eyes dance. It was only after she left a couple of minutes later that he realized that he was staring and his mouth was open. He quickly looked around to see if anybody had noticed. He didn’t see anybody except Debra, but she had her back to him. He later found out that her name was Mary.

The clock on the dashboard now read 6:26. With one hand on the steering wheel and the other under his chin, elbow propped on the window sill, he continued to stare at the house. He then looked at the envelope that was sitting on the passenger seat next to him. The envelope had her name written on it in his crappy handwriting. It’s amazing how fast my courage is leaving, he thought. He had spent the whole past week working up his courage for this night. Last night while lying in bed he had convinced himself that he would be able to do it. Now his conviction was leaving him. He then looked down at the American flag that was on his right shoulder and then at all of the gear that was sitting in the bed of his truck. Then he fumbled with the amulet of St. George that hung on the same chain as his dog tags. He had been confirmed back in the 10th grade with St. George being the saint that he was confirmed in. St. George was the patron saint of knights and of soldiers, the model of a brave, fearless and chivalrous soldier and leader. It was now or never, he had to do it. He reasoned that if he could lead soldiers into a war zone, he could do this one thing. He grabbed the letter from the passenger seat and opened the door. He chickened out years ago with her, and he wasn’t about to do it again.

         It was his last shift at Camelot Pizza, at least for the next several months. It was the last weekend in June of 2005 and Dutch Payne Days was in full swing. Dutch Payne Days was the name of the local summer festival, named after a race horse that had been raised and trained in the town. Saturday was the day of the festival where all of the restaurants in town brought samples of the food that they served. Camelot had their own both at the festival, which was being manned by Debra, Mary and Derek. Derek was one of the ones to be hired along with John over a year ago. Derek was an odd character, even among those who worked at Camelot. He was a twenty two year old, tall, scrawny boy with bleached hair who acted like he was some tough gangster. He had taken an immediate liking to Mary, and for the past year had been actively pursuing her. John didn’t like it, but he never mentioned it or talked about it to anyone. Though somehow, in some odd way, John and Derek became friends. Derek would often bring up Johns thoughts and feelings about Mary. During the festival he was working the store all day, from open to close and had been responsible for getting all the food ready to go, just like the previous year.
         While the restaurants where selling there samples, it was his job to keep pizzas and buffalo wings going to replenish the food supplies at the booth. About every hour to hour and a half, Derek would drop by the back door of Camelot to pick up some more pizza and wings. At the end of the festival for the night, the three that had been working the booth came back and brought the little extra food that there was. Debra left right away. Mary and Derek stayed at the store for a while. Thanks to the festival the store was nearly empty and the other people that where working would be able to handle it. They chatted for a bit and then Mary left to go home. After she had left Derek turned to him.
         “Why must she be so daggone beautiful?” John said low enough so that there was no chance that anyone but Derek would be able to here him.
“I know, I know. Hey man I was talking to her tonight and well…she knows that you want to go out with her.”
“What? What do you mean she knows? I’ve never told anyone that I was going to ask her before I left for Fort Knox.”
“Dude, we all know that you want to and that you’ve been in love with her since last summer. But I’ve got some bad news for you. She’s not going to go out with you. She likes you, but not like that. She likes you as a friend and thinks that you’re a good friend. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, I figured.” With that he turned away and went back to work. Three weeks later he left for Fort Knox without talking to her and she without saying goodbye to him. He never asked her out or asked for her to verify what Derek had said.

         His boots hit the ground, but for a moment he didn’t move. With a deep breath he shut the door to the truck and pulled his beret over his head. Slowly he started walking towards the house. Even though it was early March he was starting to sweat and was starting to feel more nervous than he ever had in his life. The house wasn’t more than three hundred or so feet from where he was, but the house looked to be hundreds of miles away. John finally managed to make it to the path that lead to the front door and started to walk towards the door. When he reached the door he stopped, once again looking down at the envelope that contained the letter. The letter that he had worked so long and hard on. I must have rewrote that thing about fifty times, he thought to himself. As his hand rose to knock on the door a million questions raced through his mind. I got the address from the phone book, what if they don’t live here anymore? What if she opens the door herself? What if no one’s home? What if her dad opens the door? He knocked on the door and heard the echo go down the hallway. He soon saw a shape come to the door and the knob started to turn. The door slowly started to open.

         The summer of 2006 was a summer that created memories that would stay with him for the rest of his life. After his first semester of college had ended at the University of Minnesota, he moved back home to live with his mom and step dad. He then started to work again at Camelot Pizza. He never figured out the exact reason that he went back to work there. Debra over the past couple of years had become somewhat psychotic. She was incredibly paranoid, strict, and micromanaged everything that had to do with the place. He reasoned with himself that the reason he went back to work at Camelot was because he didn’t want to go job hunting to get a job that he would be at for three months. That’s the reason that he told everyone. Though he knew in his heart, that when Derek asked him to come back to work and he accepted it was because Mary was going to be working there again for the summer. It had been six or so months since he had seen her last and jumped at the chance to see her again. The last time that he had seen her was just before the Spring semester started at college. After returning from Basic Training in November he had returned to work at Camelot until school started again. Mary worked there as well during the winter break.
         Mary and John became better friends during that summer. Over the summer it became easier to talk with her and he became more comfortable while she was around. It used to be when she was around he would get all uptight and nervous and have trouble speaking coherently. It was the first time in his life that he was ever comfortable around a woman. Throughout his whole life he had had trouble around women and now he was finally comfortable around one. Once again he began to hope.