Seven Story Publishing

Avendale City Park – ( February 2017)

It was a calm afternoon in the city of Avendale, Virginia. The local military base continued their day to day duties, the frozen boardwalk carnival continued its games and concession stands as the maintenance crew repainted and fixed up the rides for the coming spring. Seagulls continued to screech and hang around the nearest drive thru in hopes of a stray fry falling from someone’s bag.

Just this morning, the city was given the news of the first snow of the year coming in quickly. While salt trucks and road crews prepared for the coming frost, I was sitting at a park table with my sister, Taylor enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream with chocolate drizzle.

My name is Max Damon. I’m a local shutterbug working his way through community college one snapshot at a time. Today, however; was an easy going day where I had to promise I would leave my equipment at home and relax.

With the coming snow, I was on break from College and Taylor was given the day off while the zoo she worked at closed up and prepared the animals the dining weather. It had been a while since we had some time alone and Taylor saw no better excuse to get out of the house.

The park was filled with children playing happily on the playground nearby with the gently falling snow dusting the ground. The parents sat bundled up with their coats sharing idle gossip with their fellow moms. Each kid was laughing and running as they tried to catch a snowflake on their tongue.

While I’m one for getting lost in my thoughts, I couldn’t help but chuckle watching the children play and Taylor staring off into space at a guitarist sitting on a bench strumming away. Every so often, he would look up from his strumming and smile at her as he played even longer. She would smile back and swing her knee high boots and recording him with her phone. Taylor was never one for crushing over random guys.

“Since when did you start guy watching? You know him?” I asked teasingly.

She shot me with a surprised look. “And you don’t?! That’s Matt Luther! He’s only one of the greatest musicians in Contemporary Christian music. He has a concert tonight and he invited me to sit on the front row and hear him.”

“Uh-huh,” I replied suspiciously. “And how does a random famous musician just happen to start talking to you?”

“Well, if you must know, I was at work the other day welcoming people into the Zoo and passing out flyers. He said he admired my smile and the way I was so happy to see the guests. I politely thanked him and he said he wanted to do something nice for me and gave me a ticket to his show.”

Max sat confused and suspicious. “And?”

“Well…he kind of…” She began to explain as her face turned red as a tomato.

“Wait…did he ask you out afterwards?”

Her mouth shot open as she began to protest until she knew there was no way she could lie to me. “Maybe he did. Don’t be jealous.”

“Jealous? Please, believe it or not, I’m actually happy for you. Usually the only one signing you songs are the howler monkeys at the zoo.” We shared a laugh together as she turned to face me.

“So, what are the chances I could convince you to come with me tonight?”

Normally I would have no reservations about going with her, but I wasn’t prepared to be a third wheel.

“I don’t know, Taylor. Tonight seems pretty important to you.” She rolled her eyes as she looked off in the distance and suddenly stood up.

“Oh, I have an idea! I see your friend Melissa over there talking to some girl in pink hair. You should invite her and we could have a double date!”

I felt myself blushing as I slowly turned to see Melissa sipping on an energy drink with her friend with the pink hair. She turned her face slightly as my eyes were caught up in her thin, dark eyes. The falling snow circled her head with a gentle breeze blowing past them.

A glimmer of light sparkled against her cheek in a way I couldn’t explain. My warm hands holding my cup felt shaky, my mouth awkwardly hung open, and my gaze refused to leave her.