Love at First Site

“Darrington, Melyssa Darrington, super spy extraordinaire at your service. Show me your villain, the crime and I will surely bring justice to all evil doers and all around bad guys in record time.” Melyssa says to herself as she is walking to school. Daydreaming to school is more like it. She has walked this way to school for the past 4 years of her 6 year career as a student at Middleton elementary school. Both her parents are too caught up in work to be able to take her to school or to spend time with her in the morning so she has gotten used to taking care of herself.

She would get up in the morning and put on the clothes that she laid out for herself the night before. Then go downstairs and call for her parents. They were of course both gone by that point, but it doesn’t hurt to hope. Mrs. Sanchez, the Spanish speaking maid and Melyssa are the only people there at that time in the morning. She says hi to Mrs. Sanchez and sits down at the table for her customary bowl of cereal and juice breakfast, then leaves for the walk to school at precisely 6:45, to beat the heavy traffic of dead beat students running late or hanging around the streets just waiting to cause trouble or to pick on her. The latter happening more often than not.

Melyssa and her family live in Middleton, Ohio, a town of approximately two thousand people. The town itself is built in the old Victorian style with houses that seem to be no younger than a century at best.

Often, Melyssa would walk to school slowly just to look at the houses on her route to MES. She has seen the houses millions of times but there are some that she really does enjoy. Some are one story ranch style houses but most are two story Victorian houses.

Truth is Melyssa can’t wait to get out of this town. She can’t wait to grow up and be able to move away and do whatever she wants. She isn’t exactly a sad, depressed kind of girl. She just likes to be left alone. She has never had many friends. More acquaintances than anything, but she doesn’t mind. Less people she has to deal with the better.

Melyssa is walking down Main street now in front of Sam’s Hardware Store heading towards the corner of Main and Fifth Ave and she turns the corner onto fifth and bumps into a boy of about the same age.

Melyssa, drops to her knees to pick them up saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.” The boy, bending down to help her with the books, replies with a smile in his voice, “Well, the way you look down all the time, it’s a surprise that you see anything but your feet.” He says with a smile that shows he is joking.

Melyssa doesn’t say anything to this. In fact, she doesn’t know what to say. She’s not used to people actually being nice to her much less even caring enough to help her pick up her books.

She picks up the last of her books, her Science book, to be exact, and the boy says, “I am new here and I hate to say it but I am lost. I am trying to find Middleton elementary school.”

She takes a chance and glances up to see his face and says, “It’s just down this road the other way. I am going there now.”
He says, “You mind if I walk with you? I can carry your books if you don’t mind.”

She shrugs lowering her head back down, and starts to walk.
He takes her books from her and walks side by side with her towards the school.

“My name is Brandon. Brandon Elks, like the animal.” He says.
She just keeps her head down and continues to walk.

“Don’t talk much do you? Well, if you don’t tell me your name, or if you don’t have one, I am going to have to give you one.” He pauses to see if he could get a reaction from her.

She just shrugs.

Brandon continues, “Okay, then. A new name it is. How ‘bout Dorothy Dropsherbooks? Or maybe Susie Shesoshy?”

Melyssa isn’t purposely being rude, and she definitely thinks he cute. She just doesn’t know what to say.

She finally manages, “I’m Melyssa…Darrington.”

“Well, she does speak. I was beginning to wonder.”

And that did it. That made her crack a smile. A small one, but a smile none the less.

“I’ll be…she can move her face too. I was wondering if you had chronic frown face disorder or something. Or maybe you were frowning one day and someone came up behind you and slapped you on the back. That happens you know. At least that is what my mom says. I don’t know for sure. I never saw it happen. So is this the school?”

Melyssa looks up and is surprised to see the school so soon.
Brandon asks still trying to break her, “So, Melyssa, where would a regular joe, such as myself, find the registration desk or the administration building?”

Melyssa shyly says, “Through those doors on the right.”
He bows, “Well, maybe we will see each other again soon. Maybe even I will be lucky enough to have you in a few classes.”

She smiles faintly and nods her head.
He smiles back and holding out his hand, says, “It was a pleasure meeting you Melyssa Darrington.”

She shook his hand.

With that he left heading towards the admin office. Melyssa stayed there for a moment and stared after him.

Later, in Algebra, Mrs. Thompson was going over some equation. What equation, Melyssa couldn’t really say. She was busy daydreaming. Daydreaming of Brandon. Daydreaming of anything but math.

Mrs. Thompson must have noticed the starry expression on Melyssa’s face because she said, “Melyssa, can you tell me the answer to this equation?”

Melyssa blinks out of her daze and looks at the blackboard, “The answer is 7y + 4, simplified.”

Mrs. Thompson says, with a smile, “Very good. I thought for a minute there that you weren’t paying attention.”

“No ma’am. I mean, yes ma’am, I was.” Melyssa managed.
After ten more minutes of math, the bell rings to signify the end of the day. Melyssa gets up and quietly gathers her materials and heads for the door.

Just before the door, she hears, “Oh…Melyssa? You mind staying just a moment. I want to talk to you just a sec. I won’t keep you long.”
Melyssa turns around and moves to the teachers desk.

“What is wrong Melyssa? I noticed earlier that you looked like you had something on your mind. Is there anything wrong at home?”

“No ma’am.” Melyssa states, “I just met someone earlier…He pulled my mind from class. I am sorry. It won’t happen again.”

”Don’t be silly, girl. You are a whiz at this stuff. If it were up to me, you would be in an advanced class.”

Then, leaning forward in her desk, Mrs. Thompson whispers conspiratorially, “So tell me. Who is he?”

Melyssa couldn’t believe it, “I…um…he…”

“Don’t worry. It’s perfectly natural.” She smiles at Melyssa’s reaction. “You should have seen me when I was a school girl with a crush.”

”It’s not a crush, Mrs. Thompson. I just met him.” Melyssa states matter-of-factly, but even she doesn’t believe it. She could feel her face flushing as she said it.

Smiling, Mrs. Thompson said, “Call it what you wish, dear, but just know that it is normal. You should talk to him.”

With that Melyssa smiled, her dreaming of the unfathomable possibility of her actually talking to Brandon again. She walked out.

Walking down the hall to her locker, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bring her mind away from Brandon. Above all, she couldn’t believe she was even thinking about this. I don’t even know him she chastises herself. Just as she thought that she bumped into him. It’s Brandon. It has to be. He has a way of showing up when she least expects it. She knew it was him because who else could it be.

“We really have to stop meeting like this.” He said with the wonderful smile she remembered from earlier. “Can I walk you out?”
All Melyssa could do was smile and nod.

He took her arm and walked her out to the quad where the buses picked up the kids that lived too far out of town to walk. We continued walking out past the buses to the street where he released her arm and said, “I actually need to go this way. My mom wants me to go to Ole Fingwick’s Market for some cantaloupe. She’s making some fruit salad. She makes the best fruit salad. Maybe one day you can come over and have some.”

“Okay.” Was all Melyssa could say.

He smiled and took her hand in his and brought it up to his lips and kissed the top of it.

She blushed. Again.

With that he lets go of her hand and walks away looking back as he walks down the sidewalk.

Melyssa turned around directing her blush toward her home. Just then she heard a harsh fearsome noise coming from behind her. She turned in time to see a car with a blown tire careening out of control onto the sidewalk where Brandon was just walking. But she couldn’t see him. Where did he go? The fear overwhelmed her, sometimes overbearing, need for seclusion. She ran to the front of the car and she saw him. He was on the ground and there was blood all around him. She knelt down beside him and he looked up at her. She didn’t know what scared her more, the sight of the blood and him laying on the ground, or the vacant look in his eyes. The same eyes that just a matter of minutes ago shown such wonder…such beauty. All she could think about was the loss.
His eyes swam into focus to meet hers. He said, “So this is the face of an angel.”

She smiled and took his hand. Tears were lining her face like another skin. A skin that glistened in the bright afternoon sun.

That was the last face he saw.