The Loving Pear

                                              The Loving Pear



My name is Ellen Genoa. This is my story about The Loving Pear.

The year was 2042. My husband, Thomas, and I used to look in on an elderly couple Al and Heather, every once in a while, to make sure they were okay. This was not much bother since they lived close by, in an old Victorian, down the street. This was in northern California. They didn't go much for the government based medical monitoring we had in those days. We don't need big brother watching us, they said. I was never quite sure what that meant. Probably some reference to a book or movie they had back then. They were a very loving pair. They still held hands as they walked together. Being in there late eighties they were still pretty spry, but we still didn't want to take any chances, thus our vigil started.  Al used to tell a story of how they met. He remembered it like it was yesterday.



I remember it was somewhere towards the end of August 2012, Al said. I lived in a beautiful place with flowering trees, wild geese, and morning songbirds. I was in my late fifties about medium height with a beer belly. Not a handsome man then, as I am now, but not ugly either. It was not too hot and partly cloudy most days. I had taken a bartenders course, but nothing much had come of it. I just couldn't remember the damn drink recipes.  I had been out of  work for quite a few months, and was down to almost no money, with rent due in a few days. I was feeling pretty low. In those days they had different lotteries. Called them education lotteries they did, although I don't think much went to education, except that you shouldn't buy lottery tickets. I had bought a lottery ticket the day before, but only won a dollar. Since that wasn't going to do me much good, I bought another with the dollar. It was Cash5, it wasn't worth millions or anything.  I had gotten 4 out of 5 three times before, so I figured what the hell. I woke up the next morning not expecting a whole lot. I booted up the computer, while I was making coffee. I figured I'd check the lottery website. Lo and behold I had the winning ticket. It had risen up to $737,000 which meant it was worth about a half a mil' after taxes. I almost had a stroke. I took a shower, got dressed, grabbed my ticket and ID's and headed for the lottery board. I took my time. All I needed now, was to get in an accident, and lose the ticket. I signed the ticket before I got out of the van. I went in and spent about four hours filling out forms, answering questions, and waiting for them to check my background out, to see if I owed anybody any money. After all this, they deposited $481,000 into my bank account. I had never been so happy. It seemed to me my problems were over, at least for awhile

I went straight home, checked my bank account, and there it was, $481,027.59. I told you I had almost no money. I couldn't wait. I started looking for another car. I had to sell the car I had, two months ago to pay the rent and bills. All I had left was a ragged out van. I went online and found a car much like the one I sold. A couple of years newer, and a lot less miles. I got it checked out. Checked it's history. It seems it was perfect. A 2003 White Toyota Solara, with 45,000 miles and not a nick, ding,or scratch on it. It looked brand new. So I bought it for $6,500. What a deal I thought. I got my temp tags and ordered personalized tags that said “Solar Ice” on them. A name I got from a chewing gum package.

I drove it to my apartment complex. Ran upstairs to my neighbor's apartment, Tim and Donna, and knocked on the door. They opened the door , “I won the Cash5 and got myself a new car,” I said excitedly. Well,  new to me. Come and see it . I just about dragged them down the stairs and out to the car.

“Wow that's a nice car,” they said.

“Let's go for a ride,” I said . “I'll even take you out to dinner.” So we drove around a bit and went to a really nice restaurant.



I know, when am I going to get to The Loving Pear? I'm getting to it. Just be patient.



Anyway, Al went on, a couple of weeks later I asked Tim and Donna If they wanted to come out to the mountains with me. I was going to rent a cabin ,and I knew they had never been out there. It's on me, I said. I'll even let you both test drive the car.  They owned their own art studio and could close it for a few days. So they said “OK.”

The cabin was about a half an hour west of Asheville, NC. We got to the cabin at about dusk. I had brought some steaks, veggies, beer, wine and charcoal with me. So we fired up the grill and relaxed. By the time the food was ready the stars had come out. It was beautiful. The mountains in the background, with a crescent  moon, and fireflies flitting about. The night was cool, but not cold. You couldn't have asked for more. Later we lit a fire in the pit, drank and talked for a few hours. We had never really talked to each other that much before that night. I found that they were from New Hampshire, were tired of the cold and decided to move south. They found a nice place for their art studio in downtown Raleigh, so it was perfect.

The next day, I was the first up, so I started breakfast, coffee, sausage, eggs and potatoes. It wasn't long before the aroma had them stirring. After we had breakfast and cleaned up. We had some more coffee on the deck.

“Wow, the view is really beautiful,” Tim said.

“It was a little hard to tell last night.” Donna agreed.

“So, what do you want to do,” I said. “We can go rafting, horseback riding, hiking or whatever?”

“It's a little cool for rafting,” Donna said, “but I wouldn't mind horseback riding.” “I haven't done that for a long time.”

Jim said, “yeah that would be nice.” “Do you know a place we can do that?”

“Well, I've never been horseback riding,” I said. “Actually, I did try horseback riding once, bareback.” “A (friend) got me on the horse, and then smacked it on the ass.” “That really scared the hell out of me.”

“Well, you suggested it,”  they said.

“I know,” I said. “I want to get over the phobia, so I'm still willing to try.” “We can ask in town, I know there is a place somewhere close by.” “I just don't know exactly where.”



  So that's what we did and had a great time. I think I was a little less anxious about riding after that. We stopped at the Smokehouse Bar-B-Que in Dillsboro, for dinner,  and it was excellent. I had heard about a concert the next day, that had Bluegrass, and Jazz, and I talked them in to going. That's where I met Heather . She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever laid eyes on.. Not very tall, slim, with brown flowing hair, and brown smiling eyes. I could get lost in those eyes. It was like fireworks went off. We couldn't get enough of each other. I almost forgot about Tim and Donna. We must have talked for hours. It seemed everything I liked, she liked. We all went back to the cabin, and chilled out for a while. Heather and I talked well beyond dawn. It was like we had known each other forever. I found out she lived in a house in Carrboro, and was a waitress at a high end restaurant there. She had been divorced for a couple of years, and lived alone.



From then on we saw each other alot. Carrboro was about forty-five minutes from where I lived . Every day I would go to see her, and she would help me to remember the drink recipes. It wasn't long before I passed my test at the bartenders school, and got my certificate. I started to tend bar, at the same restaurant where she worked. We tried our best to work the same hours, so we could be together all the time. Most people say, that working together at the same place doesn't work, but we couldn’t get enough of each other. We had fallen in love. It was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. We went everywhere together.

One day she asked me, “why don't you just move in with me?”

I was there, more than I was at home anyway. So I said “yes.” 

I wanted to be with her as much as possible. We must have lived there for five years. Me tending bar, and investing in penny stocks, and her waitressing. Eventually we both invested in penny stocks and made millions.

We went to the mountains often. Sometimes with Tim and Donna, but most times not. I got pretty good at riding a horse though. She loved to ride.

Finally I said, “why don't we just move to the Rockies?” “We both love the mountains, and they are real mountains.”

I didn't have to ask her twice. She sold her house and we moved to Georgetown, Colorado within two months. We opened a bed and breakfast there, and  lived there for about twenty years. It was a beautiful place, with boardwalks on the streets, like an old west town. She would do the cooking, and we would both clean and make beds and such. I was never much of a cook, except on the grill. In the winter we would take couples on horse drawn sleigh rides, through the town at night. It was so romantic. People started coming to our bed  and breakfast from near and far. It was just the kind of life we wanted. No commuting, because we lived where we worked, and no stress.



By the time we were in our mid-eighties we had enough of snow. So we moved to the coast in northern California. I sold my photographs, which I always wanted to do, and she sold her arts and crafts.

We had met the Genoas in town, at the restaurant they owned.  They were a very nice couple,and we became good friends with them.  They treated us as their grandparents. We became so close to them, that we put them in our wills. We had bought a plot of land and wanted to be buried there, together, in a cardboard box, with a pear tree planted above us, because we knew we would die together, when the time was right, and wanted our spirits to go into that tree..

Well, that's how we met.  “We'll be together forever,” he said while he squeezed Heather's hand..



Well, one day Thomas and I found them. It appeared that they had died together, overnight, spooning. I guess they had decided, it was time to go. So we did just as they had asked and buried them together, and planted a pear tree above them.

At the funeral a few people had come by and said, “didn't they make a loving pair?” “They were so sweet.”

Well, after that people had eaten pears from that tree and had always said, how sweet they were. Thomas and I decided to save some of the seeds and pears and sell them as Loving Pears. It was as if the couple had lived on through the trees and pears, and the people who ate them. Soon they were planted all over the country. It's said that a couple who eats the Loving Pears together, will be in love forever. To this day, at most weddings a Loving Pear is eaten by the couple to complete their wedlock, even though Al and Heather were never wed.

So that's the story of the Loving Pear. I guess Al was right. They would be together forever.



                                                                The End