No One's POV
It was a brisk, cold day. The kind where the grass was covered with frost. It was October 8th. Everyday life continued on even through the cold, people were already wearing gloves and hats.
A man walks down the street from his silver Honda parked at the corner. His hands were stuffed in his pocket and his shoulders were raised keeping the piercing wind off of his neck. A white envelope was protruding from his left pocket. He continued up the street until he turns up the driveway of an old house. It was a wooden Victorian. A beautiful house. The man walks up the path way and up the steps onto the porch. After a few knocks on the door, the man steps back and puts his hand back in his one pocket. With the click of a lock, the door opens and an older man walks out.
"Hello." The man says to the older man at the door.
"Hi, what can I do for you?" The older man asks. He looked to be in his early eighties, gray hair and glasses. By what Sean knew, he was 81.
Robbie's POV
"My names is Sean Harrison. You're Robert Shapiro, right?" Sean asks. He looked to be around 23 with blond hair and green eyes.
"Yes." I simply say.
"I'm Cat Valentine's grandson. You knew her right?" Sean asks.
I was astonished. I hadn't talked about Cat in almost 50 years. I remember everything about her but i always kept it to myself. It brought back too many painful memories.
"Yes. I knew her. Is something wrong?" I ask concerned.
"Actually yes, sir… my grandmother is dying. It was expected. She was getting older by the day and we knew it was going to happen soon. The doctors say she doesn't have very long. She sent me here with this." He pulls a white envelope out of his front left pocket.
"What's this?" I ask him.
"She wrote this. She told me to give it to you. She said 'you deserve an explanation.' And she left it at that. She said you would understand." He explained. I looked at him confused. I take the letter from him but didn't open it right then.
"Thank you Sean." I say sticking out my hand for him to shake.
"You're welcome Mr. Shapiro. Have a nice day." He says taking it and shaking it quickly. He then skips down the stairs with a hop in his step, like he was in a hurry.
I watch as he leaves. He walks with his head down and shoulders covering his neck, his hand stuffed in his pockets. It was the way I walked away 62 years ago…
I look out the front window to see the moving truck parked outside the house next door. Two men were walking in and out of the house taking boxes from the truck and bringing them inside. A girl was watching on the porch. She had bright red hair, kind of like a red velvet cupcake. It made her brown eyes pop. She was a pretty girl and caught my attention immediately.
I knew a family was going to be moving in to that house for the past few weeks, I was just wondering when. I decide to go out and introduce myself. She looked to be my age. About 17. I open the door and push open the screen door. It was cold out. I'd say about 55 degrees. There was a bitter wind that stung when it hit your skin. I open the door and grab the jacket handing next to the door. I shrug it on and stuff my hand into my pockets. I raise my shoulders trying to keep the bitter wind off of my neck as I walk across our lawn. My parents were out at work but I was off of school for Thanksgiving break. I continue across their lawn when I catch the red headed girl's attention. I walk up the porch steps and over to her. She smiles at me and waves, before pulling her sleeves down over her hands.
"Hi. I'm Robbie. I live next door." I say smiling. "I'd shake your hand but I wouldn't want to make you take your hands out of your sleeves. It's freezing out." I say sliding my jacket off, revealing my long sleeve. I slide it over her shoulders.
"Oh you don't have to do that. I was just waiting for them to get the jacket boxes out so I could get mine." She explains.
"I see. See the great thing about living in North California is it's only like this for about 3 months. By February, it's like spring." I smile.
"I hope February comes around sooner." She simply chuckles.
"So where are you from?" I ask her.
"Florida. Where it's always warm." She laughs. There was something about the way she laughed. It was intriguing. I liked it.
"Lucky! I wish I could live in Florida. It's beautiful there. Well at least it was when I went to Disney at 5…" I know I'm getting a little bit awkward. I was never good at holding up a conversation.
"It really is nice there. My Dad found a better job here, so we moved. It was kind of abrupt but we needed to do it." She explains.
"What about your mom?" I ask not even thinking.
"She died about 6 years ago. She was hit by a drunk driver. It's just been me and my dad since then." She tells me.
"I'm sorry… I wasn't thinking…" I feel bad for asking now.
"It's fine. I've kind of coped by now. But my dad's a good guy. It's just been hard you know? He's a single father with a teenage daughter. It's not the same as having a mom. You can't talk about boys or girl stuff with him, but we make it work. He promises not to take out the shot gun on my boyfriends as long as I promise to be good and play Texas Hold'em with him every weekend." She chuckles. "You've got to love dads…"
"Well it's good you two have a good relationship." I say thankful that I didn't hurt her with the comment about her mother. "How about you come over to my house for a cup of coffee of something? We have heat." I try to bribe her with warmth.
"Well as long as you have heat." She chuckles a little bit. "Sure." She accepts. We both walk off the porch and across the lawns to my house. I open the door and let her inside. It was warm and nice to get in after being out in the cold. She takes off my jacket and hands it to me.
"You can have that back." She smiles.
"Thanks." I smile back.
I hang it on the rack next to door and walk her over to the kitchen. I turn on the light and show her a seat. She sits as I walk over to the coffee machine. I start to make some coffee before turning back to her.
"So, beside the freezing temperature, do you like it here?" I ask her.
"Yea… I guess I do. I've always dreamed of living in California. But more along the lines of LA or Hollywood, you know? But I guess Oakland is OK." She tells.
"So do you know where you're going to school?" I ask her.
"Um… yea. Hollywood Arts in San Francisco." She explains.
"Really? Me too. What are you going for? I play guitar and I'm pretty good with the stage electronics." I explain.
"That cool! I um… I sing. And act… I'm not that great… but…" She says awkwardly.
"I highly doubt that. To get into HA you have to be good… really good." I say trying to get her to lighten up.
"Yea I guess…" She says as I walk over to the beeping coffee machine. I get out two cups and fill them 3/4th of the way.
"Milk? Sugar?" I ask.
"Just milk please." She tells me.
"Comin' right up." I chuckle.
I go to the fridge and get out a quarter gallon of milk and bring it to the table. "Sorry it's not too fancy… usually I would put it in one of those tiny pitchers but I don't know where that is… so…" I say awkwardly.
"It's fine. I don't care." She takes the milk and pours it into her cup until it's a medium beige color. She stirs it a little bit with the spoon I brought over.
"You know… I don't think I've told you my name yet… I'm Cat… Caterine Valentine, but everyone calls me Cat." The red head explains.
"A red headed singer/actor names Cat… I like it. You're officially my best friend." I smile.
"I like the color. It's like a red velvet cupcake… I love those!" She smiles at the thought of them. "And I don't sing that well!" She defends.
"Sing something then." I tell her.
"You'll laugh at me." She says looking down into her cup.
"Are you kidding me?! No I won't. Do I really look that mean?"
"Then you'll lie and say I'm great!" She says looking back up at me.
"I'm the most honest person you will ever meet. I swear." She just looks at me for a second as if trying to figure out whether or not she trusts me.
"Fine. What should I sing?"
"What did you audition with for HA?" I ask the red head.
"I Choose You by Sarah Bareilles. I love her!" Cat cries.
"Sing that then." I tell her.
"Um… ok." She awkwardly says pulling her phone out of her back pocket. She unlocks the screen and hits an app.
"What? You have the karaoke version on your phone." She simply smiles and nods.
Let the bough break, let it come down crashing
Let the sun fade out to a dark sky
I can't say I'd even notice it was absent
Cause I could live by the light in your eyes
I'll unfold before you
Would have strung together
The very first words
Of a lifelong love letter
Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you
I choose you
(Yeah)
There was a time when I would have believed them
If they told me you could not come true
Just love's illusion
But then you found me and everything changed
And I believe in something again
My whole heart
Will be yours forever
This is a beautiful start
To a lifelong love letter
Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you
I choose you
We are not perfect
We'll learn from our mistakes
And as long as it takes
I will prove my love to you
I am not scared of the elements
I am under-prepared, but I am willing
And even better
I get to be the other half of you
Tell the world that we finally got it all right
I choose you
I will become yours and you will become mine
I choose you
I choose you
I choose you
She finishes and my mouth was practically on the floor. The way she sang, the way she felt the music, I could tell there was something personal in that song. The way she closed her eyes at different moments, the facial expressions when she belted a note… I was amazing… she was amazing.
"Wow…" Was all I could possible get out. She smiles and looks down as the blush comes over her face.
"Thanks." She looks up at me.
"That was amazing." I tell her.
"No it wasn't that great…" She says shyly.
There was something about how modest she was. How innocent she was. How happy she was. She was beautiful. And it was from that day on that I felt something… Something that I knew would last a lifetime.