WILL FARMER…a love story

Character study #3…

WILL FARMER

I’ve sat at the counter of Cherie’s Cafe every morning: 6:30am

For 2 years.  Black coffee, two eggs scrambled, with ham and

Onions,  potatoes crispy with chopped peppers cooked well

Mixed in, and white toast with butter on the side.

Cherie works the counter every morning, bright and cheery.

With her wide brown eyes sparkling and her one dimple flexing.

Brown hair all shiny in a knotted up pony tail at the back

of her head with a pair if black lacquered chopstick securing it.

She flows effortlessly behind the counter all smiles and

‘Hello how are ya, what can I get ya?  You got it. I’m on it.”

Cheery Cherie, that’s what I call her with a wink and nod.

I watch her in her just above the knee black skirt, and

tidy white blouse covered with some crazy colored apron

with endless pockets and pens of every colour clipped to it.

I think she’s got more aprons than nails at the hardware.

I guess you’d call it her signature style, her unique look.

I wish she’d let that long ponytail of hers swing free.

I wish she’d notice me other than ‘Hey Will, you havin’

the same?”  As she sets my black coffee in front of me

Giving me her movie star smile making my heart skip.

I say “Cherie, I’m gonna change it up this morning.

I’m gonna put some cream in my coffee.  I want my eggs

Sunny side up, with wheat toast slathered in butter, and

I want my bacon crispy, and give me some black berry jam.”

She gives a little gasp, hands on hips, some of the hair

from her ponytail flicking loose by her face and she says,

“Will, Will Farmer are you alright?  You sleep funny or somethin’?”

I say, “Nope, time to change it up, time to move along Cherie,

I’m boring, dull, and I have had enough of it.”

I pass her the Hallmark card I bought for her over a year ago

kept in the window flap of my truck.  My heart is out of my chest

Into her face, racing on this new stretch of highway I just got on.

“For me, Will?”  Her face all full of question and seriousness.

All I can say is, “Yep, for you Cherie, only you.”

She turns her back to me, folding herself around it in the opening of it.

It’s then I notice the silence in the Cafe against the thud of my heart beat

I turn just a bit to see everyone looking at me, then her, forks and spoons

Suspended in mid air, in slow motion while I hold my breath.

She wraps her arms around my waist, I settle back into the heat of her.

Her warm breath flutters on my neck, up to my ear in a restless shiver.

Heaven opens and the voice of an angel caresses my hungry heart.

“Will Farmer, what took you so long?”