More Than a Mistake

There was no great significance to the beginning of their story. It was a day like any other, completing tasks that were not thought out of the ordinary. She hit the snooze and waited for it to repeat its cadence and then slid out of bed. He threw on a shirt that was lying on the floor, and didn’t even look in the mirror before he left the house. Her day held the same mind-numbing routine as always, and he was going through the motions of the every day. There was nothing special about the way they met.

Valerie Locke didn’t think of herself as anything of importance. She had grown up moving around a lot and had never really had the stability of a home. She had learned to be a survivor. She had learned what it meant to be able to stand on her own. She took a job at her Aunt’s gift shop to help supplement the small income she was getting at the clothing boutique where she worked. Her dreams had never placed her here, but dreams are seldom known to come true. She knew that for now this was all she had, so this was all she tried to take.

Stephen McEwen was born and raised in the small town of Madisonville, Kentucky. He was the oldest of four kids, and he knew the definition of family. When he graduated high school he joined his father in the coal mines, never imagining that there was any other choice. He was small town in every way, and he felt he could see his whole life stretched before him. He would be a coal miner, just like his dad. He would marry his high school sweetheart and live in Madisonville, right down the road from his parents, for the rest of his life.

It all began in the most usual of circumstances. Valerie had come into her Aunt’s gift store to work behind the counter. There was nothing out of the ordinary about her day. People came in and out, some making purchases, others just shopping with their eyes. When Stephen walked in, she hadn’t even seen him. Her back had been turned as she helped another costumer. It wasn’t until she almost ran into him, literally, that she even noticed him.

“I am so sorry,” Valerie stammered.

“Don’t worry about it,” He laughed.

She walked away. There had been nothing about him that grabbed her attention, only the fact that she hadn’t been paying enough attention to even know he was there. She preoccupied her mind with thoughts of her day until she saw him walk up to her.

“If you were a girl, would you like this?” he asked.

“I am a girl,” she replied, slightly annoyed at what seemed a backhanded insult.

“I’m sorry,” he blushed as he began to rephrase his statement. “Would you like it if a guy gave you this?”

He held out his hand and she took a small jewelry box that was hand painted with an intricate floral design. She noticed that the colors were very bold, but that altogether it would suit anyone who received it as a gift.

“It’s nice,” she said, but seeing that this answer had not really satisfy him she added, “I would be delighted if a guy gave me something this nice. Whoever you are getting this for, must be one lucky girl.”

This answer seemed to give him a sense of contentment because he decided to make the purchase. She took special care to wrap it gently. He thanked her and went on his way.

That is how they met. That was the first moment they saw one another. There was nothing of great significance about it, only two strangers meeting in the most usual of ways. Neither could have been prepared to know that their futures would bring them together.

The next few months followed in the usual manner, but their meetings were more frequent and Stephen’s dependence on Valerie’s opinion grew with every purchase he made. She found him amusing and even slightly attractive, but she knew he was head over heels in love with his girlfriend. She learned from him that they had been dating since they were juniors in high school, they were planning on getting married, and unbeknownst to Courtney he had already purchased a ring. Stephen seemed to know exactly what he wanted. Valerie couldn’t help but adore that about him. Their friendship had become a constant companion to the normalcy of life.
The day Stephen planned on proposing to Courtney he came into the gift shop to ask Valerie what she thought about how he was going to propose. It was the opening night of the county fair, and they had gone every year. He was going to take her on the Ferris wheel and propose to her when they got to the top.

“What if she says no?” Valerie asked, not really thinking of what she was saying.

“What?” he looked as though someone had just knocked all the wind out of him.

“Oh, Stephen,” she pleaded, “I don’t know why I even said that. Don’t listen to me. I’ve just had a bad day, and I was being mean. I’m so sorry.”

He smiled his usual goofy grin and she knew all was forgiven. Part of her was slightly jealous. Not because she wanted to be with him, because she didn’t, but because she felt like there was one more person in her life that was closer to something that she didn’t know if she would ever have. She listened to the rest of his story as he shared his excitement with her. She couldn’t help but smile, really. He seemed so much like a kid the night before Christmas, not knowing what was in store, but knowing that something amazing was about to happen. When he left he was all smiles and butterflies in the stomach. Tonight he was taking one step closer to his future, and Valerie felt like she was now one step behind everyone else.

A couple hours later, Stephen walked back into the gift shop, but this time he looked like a kid who had his lunch money stolen.

“What’s wrong?” Valerie asked.

“Courtney is really sick, so she doesn’t want to go anywhere tonight. In fact, she doesn’t think it’s a good idea to be around her right now.”

“Wow.”

“That’s all I get?” he said, giving her a half smile. If there was anything he had learned about Val over the last few months it was that she was not one to be careless with her words, he had also learned that she didn’t care much for Courtney, or his relationship with her.

“So, I was thinking,” he began.

“Really? Did it hurt?” she teased.

“What I was thinking, was that maybe you could go with me.”

She looked at him like he was crazy, but he came in armed, knowing she would most likely say no. He begged her to go and kept reminding her that he wasn’t going to be able to propose to Courtney tonight and that he was completely miserable because of it all. She had never been good at saying no to him, and so she gave in and gave him at least something small to be happy about. They planned on meeting up at the entrance to the fair around six.

She had never been one for going to the fair, but she knew she was doing this more for moral support than for her own amusement. But once they were in amongst the hustle and bustle of fair goers Val knew that she was going to have a good time. There was just something about the energy of everyone there. She couldn’t explain what it was. It was an excitement of things never seen or experienced. Kids stood wide-eyed and watched as carnival rides took off. Teenagers laughed at anything that could be made fun of. Stephen and Val walked through the crowd and laughed themselves at the different sights they could see.

They had been there almost an hour when Stephen spotted his best friend. As they walked towards him, Val couldn’t help but notice the girl attached to his lips. She was blonde and beautiful. Their open display of affection didn’t shock her but Stephen’s reaction to it did. He started going off on this guy and the girl, and Val and no clue what was going on. As she listened, though, she began to understand that the blonde wasn’t just some girl, she was Courtney. Val felt as though the world was spinning. She couldn’t believe that this was happening to Stephen. She tried to calm him down, to pull him away, but there was no reasoning with him. He pushed past her and she didn’t see him again for weeks.

It would be imprecise to say that she was a mistake, because her life was to be so much more than an accident. She had always heard that she had not been in the plan. That her parents had not meant for her to come so soon into their lives. She had also been told how much love there was for her. Sometimes, though, the negative we hear, tends to overpower the positive around us. It would be her lifelong struggle to understand this simple lesson. She always believed that the story of her life began with romance, and would forever create within her a hopeless romantic.