The Other Day

Pierre Lavigne fingered through his pockets looking for the ten dollar bill that he carried with him everywhere he went. Fumbling and getting frustrated "damn it" He blushed and shrugged at the cashier. "Sorry, I'm penniless today". He put on his charming smile and noticed that the cute brown haired cashier was smiling back and gently bit her lip." that's ok" she said "this one is free" Pierre, absorbed by her beauty grabbed his coffee and slowly turned to leave. "Oh by the way thank you," he beamed. "I'm Pierre Lavigne" She smiled back with delighted eyes. "What time should I come back?" The cashier blushed and tensed up curling her straight brown hair. Pierre, noticing her hesitation. "I would like to repay you. Well I would like to see you, talk to you." He smiled wholesomely. " I'm Christina Deegan" The cashier blushed looking down at the counter, then up at Pierre. "Two o'clock" Pierre took a step forward. "Great Christina, I'll see you at two o'clock then." He smiled reassurringly. Pierre put his coffee on the counter and buttoned his coat. Once finished he turned to leave. "Pierre" he heard the sweet voice. "your coffee," He looked down at the counter. "don't forget it" Pierre scooped up the cup and raised it to her as if he were toasting. "two o'clock, won't forget" and he walked out the door.
Pierre stepped onto Congress street took a deep breath and walked over to the garbage can and threw out the cup of coffee. "Ready?" he said to Aaron. Dude, I woulda drank that, why did you throw that out?" Sorry man, I don't like coffee"
Aaron, now slightly annoyed "Then why did you go in?" Pierre taking in some more cold air. " I have too much testerone" Aaron looking annoyed and perplexed. " Yeah right, hate it when that happens" Pierre, starting to walk down Congress street towards the library. "Well you know there is a beautiful girl working in there, so I figured why not. Lets see what she's all about. You know?" Aaron starts to catch up. "I'm going to mee her at two o'clock, want me to see if she has any friends?" Aaron's face brightens. "yeah Pierre, see what you come up with." Pierre looking satisfied turns to Aaron."Good Aaron, I might need a wing man."

January in Portland Maine is as you can imagine winter incarnate: Temperatures in the mid twenties, a constant blowing breeze off of Casco Bay Harbor to make it that much more wintery. Storms come about once a week that dump pure white snow blanketing streets, cars,bushes and trees. Walking on the sidewalks is a hazardous task; Is that ice? How deep is the slush? Watch out for that dog excrement, so on and so on. But the worst is what lurks above out of sight on those days that creep past the freezing mark: icicles. Yeah, you don't want a wind gust to snap off one or those frozen daggers and wreck your day. No thanks.
As anything else that Mother Nature delivers, it provides opportunities for recreation and labor.Rarely both in the same day or same income. To the avid skiier, a wonderful trail to traverse. To everyone else a walkway to shovel and a driveway to plow. You can look at it as exercise, you can look at it as a chore, or to some a chance to make a buck. It was Tuesday morning and seven inches of snow just finished arriving making all school age children free from their duties of organised learning. Instead they were organising their sleds, their snowballs or the unlucky, few depending on your perspective, their shovels.
Pierre and Aaron were walking down Congress street to the library. Pierre to do some research on his family history and Aaron to take it upon himself to better acquaint himself on the subject of the Middle East. Aaron Wilcox had met a camp councilor from the Seeds of Peace organization. Seelika Hazeed was from Palistine and had attended the camp to better understand and to be understood by both the differences and likenesses of two cultures embroiled in violence and distrust. Aaron had volunteered as a soccer coach for the camp where he had met Seelika and soon be became enamored by her. He was hit hard by her ethnic beauty and was soon enraptured by her sense of purpose and the passion that was behind it. Seelika first noticed Aaron with some of the younger kids, his physical ability to move around the field and his willingness to teach the kids advanced soccer skills reminded her of her uncle back in the Gaza Strip.
Aaron and Seelika had found in each other a soothing friendship: neither was pressured to be anything other than themselves. Why would they? They were both participating in something bigger than themselves. What other priorty is there than providing a safe, tolerant, enviroment for young people to gather, to interact, to play? With so much tension and grief and hardship. With so many failed policies, truces, and cease fires not to mention dead bodies. What is the end result? What is the problem? What is the solution? Have the leaders failed to provide the basic tenets of life to its citizens?
These were not conversations that Aaron and Seelika shared. It was all palpable that first uneasy day that the kids met. By late afternoon at least in countance, the fear dissipated- the sun came out, they were safe.