Patricia

This isn't exactly as ordered but I hope you like it anyway.

 It was the first day of the first grade for Patty. She was an outgoing little girl who desperately wanted to make new friends. But her family was considered off limits. She did not have any friends going through kindergarten.

It was the first day of the first grade for Dave. His family had moved from a big city of over one hundred thousand to this small rural town of less than five hundred. He was a new kid in a new school and looking to make new friends.

It was lunch time and each grade sat at their own lunch table. Six grades, six tables. Each one over twenty feet long that pulled out from the wall. They looked like extra long picnic tables. Dave got his hot lunch and found a wide gap between two people and sat down. Patty to his left on the end and Ted to his right. Ted slid down and told Dave to as well.

“Don’t sit so close to her!” Ted exclaimed.

“Why?” Dave asked.

“That’s Patty Dillon. Nobody wants to sit next to her,” he replied.

Dave ignored him and ate his lunch. Every day for a week, he noticed the same pattern. Patty would sit on the very end of the long bench seat with a wide gap between her and the next kid. He made it a point to sit next to her.

“Hi Patty. My name is Dave Smith. Do you want to be friends?” he asked the next time he sat down next to her.

“Yes. I’m Patty Dillon. Nice to meet you,” she offered.

They ate their lunch that day and every day after. If there was a class project that required pairing, he noticed that she was always, reluctantly, picked last. He made it a point to choose her if he could. Even at the tender age of six, he knew that everybody needed a friend. He became her friend and she became his.

Dave was a nice kid. He had a lot of friends, but he was always chastised for being friends with Patty. He would go home with torn pants or shirts on many an occasion defending her from bullies.

“What happened to you?” his mother asked him the first time he came home from school with a torn and dirtied shirt.

“Some kids were picking on this girl so I had to stop them,” he explained.

“Did you tell a teacher?” she asked.

“No. It was after school and we were a few blocks away from the school already,” he answered.

“Fighting isn’t going to make you very popular in this new school,” his mom offered.

“Well. At least they won’t pick on Patty anymore if I’m around,” he stated and went up to his room to change.

Dave’s mom got the scoop on this girl from his teacher at a parent teacher conference one afternoon. She asked why the other kids picked on her. The teacher gave her the word on her family. She never said another word to Dave when he came home after he had to fight another bully.

As the years went by, the torn shirts and dirty pants became less frequent. Dave would hold Patty and console her when the names would fly. Many days he walked her home and dried her eyes. Dave would go over to Patty’s house to play on weekends and he would take her fishing with him as well. He didn’t care what the other kids said, or how they felt. Patty and Dave became the best of friends and would go to each others birthdays. Their parents became friends as well. Then about midway through the sixth grade Patty’s father got a new job offer and they had to move. Through tear filled eyes, Dave saw her off. She had his address and phone number, and he asked her to send him hers once she got settled in. The days turned to weeks, turned to months without any word. He never forgot about her.

“She’s probably to busy to write,” his mom would say as he waited for the mailman those first few weeks.

I think she knew that maybe Patty thought that Dave would be better off if she wasn’t his friend anymore.

When Patty’s family got to their new home, in their new state, she put Dave’s address in her secret place. She missed their times together. But she saw how good looking Dave was and how plain she was. She couldn’t know why he would like her so much with all of the other, prettier girls in their class. She never forgot about Dave even though she wanted too. She managed to make some new friends in her new school and she even found another boyfriend.

The years passed and she graduated and joined the Air Force. She managed ten years before she decided to get out. She became a nurse, found a man, got married and had a little girl of her own. She loved Paul but her mind would always wander back to Dave. She often wondered what it would have been like had she kept in touch with him. Paul was on his way home from work late one night when he was killed by a drunk driver. Shaken and torn, Patty sold her home and moved back to her small home town with her eight year old daughter. She found a beautiful place out in the country and bought it.

Dave made it through high school without to many scars. He would only think about Patty six or seven times a month. He wondered what she was doing or if she was even still alive as she never made any of the high school reunions. He tried marriage but it ended. He wanted children, she didn’t, so they divorced. He even did a tour in the Army Reserves. He became a Deputy Sheriff and he owned a small hobby farm. Nothing major just eighty acres for his garden, horse and dogs. For the past six months he saw the for sale sign on his neighbors homestead. It was only forty acres but it would make a great addition to his own property. When he returned from a two week vacation he saw that the property had been sold. ‘So much for that idea. I guess I should have bought it two months ago. Whoever got it got a pretty sweet deal,’ he thought.

A few months later Dave was working the highway around town when he saw a vehicle hit a deer in front of him. He hit the reds and pulled up behind it. He jumped out to see if the driver or passenger were injured so that he could start medical if needed. The female driver was a little shook up, but otherwise uninjured. When he checked her drivers license he noticed the address was right next to his.

“Excuse me. Did you just purchase the Miller place?” he asked as he handed her back her license.

“Yes I did. I used to live here about twenty five years or so ago. I decided to move back after my husband died,” she replied.

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that. I live the next place West. The names Dave. If you need anything, give me a shout,” he said as he gave her his card.

“Thank you,” she said as she looked at his card and put it in her purse.

“The tow truck should be here in fifteen minutes. I’ll wait with you until it gets here,” Dave said.

“Thank you Dave. Do you know of any place where I can pick up a rental?” she asked.

“I have a truck you can use until yours gets fixed. I’ll ask Tom to drop you off and I’ll check out for a bit to get it ready for you,” Dave offered.

“You don’t have to do that Dave. You don’t know me and you certainly don’t have to do this,” Patty stated.

“How soon we forget Patricia Dillon,” he said.

"Huh? What? I haven’t heard that name in years. Not since the sixth grade. My best friends would call me that. Dave Smith,” she offered a bit shocked.

“That’s me. Just one question though,” he said.

“What?” she said almost afraid the have asked.

“Why the silent treatment for all these years. You must have known how I felt about you back then,” he asked as they waited for the tow truck.

“You were better off without me...” she started.

“Don’t you think that maybe I should have been the one making that decision? For as much as a sixth grader could, I loved you Patty. I still do,” he admitted.

“I’m sorry. I did love you to...” she started again.

“Did? Or maybe still do?” he asked.

“I must admit Dave. I’ve thought about you many many times over the years. And to be honest. Yes. I guess I still do love you. What should we do next?” she asked.

“Have coffee some time. Get reacquainted. We’ll take it as it goes,” he offered.

“I’d like that Dave,” she said as the tow truck pulled up.

The End?