Valentines Day and an Old Nemesis

I never caught taxis. I thought the cost was just to absorbitant. Between looking out the window, I would regularly check the price on the meter. It was slowely creeping up, the digital numbers flickering upwards way to fast. I felt panicy.

This was Valintines day though, and catching a taxi tonight was a special treat. It was a thumbnail moon and the lights above the highway moved along the roof of the car like retinal scans. It was valintines day though, I wanted to score love but I vowed this is the last taxi I will ever catch.

I arrived at town and payed the taxi driver his due, not a penny more, by the credit card system. The taxi driver, I thought excited about such a large fair, ran over a curb bumpily as he sped off - around a corner.

I looked for a pub that I thought satisfactory. It was called the quench and purge. And I thought it a likely place. It had high ceilings with chandeliers and couches - with patrons reclining on - amply spread through.

I bought a beer and fully expected love to catch me like a invisible spiders silk, like a well oiled up fly. But first I needed more oil. "Another beer", I said to the barkeep.

I was being a social butterfly fully expecting to be caught in a spiders silk of a one night stand, when my old high school nemisis Deniss McCaw came in.

I was expecting to be approached by sofisicates with dry beauty but instead I had to talk to Dennis McCaw. I wasted that huge taxi fare for this, I'll catch the bus home.

Dennis bullied me at school because one year I had worn turtlenecks. He used to ambush me after school; empty my bag, give me noogies in my hair, or punch me in the sternum. He stopped bullying me though, when I kicked the winning goal in school footy, playing for a team named The Vengeful Seal Pups. I was school hero, yet he still harbored resentment for me.

"What are you doing with your life? I bet he's a loser". He said to his friends smiling a non recipricated smile.

"I am not a loser, I work at the cafe" I said feeling hopelessly that I could be considered a failure.

I decided to leave the pub to get away from Dennis McCaw. I caught the bus home. Valentines day was fruitless. But there are plenty more of those... and life holds a lot.