A Valentin’s Day Story

Posted on 02/14/2016 by Andrew Reynolds

It was just after sunset on a cold January Sunday when I pulled into the grocery store parking lot.  The sky was dark and a slight wind was starting. Sodium-vapor streetlights cast an unearthly orange over the cars and in the air was a slight odor of turpentine.

After shopping the scent of turpentine was still there and my mood was depressed and pensive.  At home I put the single serve lasagna in the oven and turned on the computer.

In the word-processor window I typed, “The air smelled like turpentine as he walked into the night air.”

From that sentenced flowed 2,000 more words of a story about man who wakes up in a world where his car won’t start and he is only one left in the world  In time the man walks to a park and finds a woman there.  She is painting the sky.  They talk and he remembers who he is – a dreamer.  Then he remembers her, the artist, the one who painted his dream in the sky.

He tells her a new dream and she paints a new sky.

I titled the story, “Turpentine,” and showed it to a few friends.  It was somewhat autobiographical.  It was something of a wish for a lonely heart.

A few months after I wrote that little story, I started dating Heather.  I showed her the story and realized that she was my artist.

That I needed her to paint the sky.

Writer and artist, joined in a common need to create, were married 18 months after I wrote that story in January 2000.

Never dismiss the power of creating and the love to make dreams come true.

Till next week,
Andrew

About Andrew Reynolds

Born in California Did the school thing studying electronics, computers, release engineering and literary criticism. I worked in the high tech world doing software release engineering and am now retired. Then I got prostate cancer. Now I am a blogger and work in my wood shop doing scroll saw work and marquetry.
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23 Responses to A Valentin’s Day Story

  2. aranislandgirl says:
    02/17/2016 at 4:54 pm

    Aw, sweet. Xx

    Like

  3. m lewis redford says:
    02/16/2016 at 11:19 am

    lovely-scented sketch of … a life

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Jacqui Murray says:
    02/15/2016 at 7:57 am

    That is lovely. You were definitely fated. Me, my husband and I ignored each other for a year after we first met. Great start, hunh?

    Liked by 1 person

    • Annika Perry says:
      02/15/2016 at 8:07 am

      Jacqui, this has me laughing! I suppose the important bit is that you don’t ignore each other now! I met my husband at a friend’s house and she had warned me about one but said the other one was okay. However I forgot the names and for a couple of weeks kept wondering if I was going out with the weird one – phew, turned out not!!

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    • Andrew Reynolds says:
      02/15/2016 at 9:23 am

      Some fires burn slow. Some burn fast. Some burn cold. Some burn hot. Slow and hot are best, but takes the longest to get lit. Just projecting into your life…

      Like

  5. K.J. Ottinger says:
    02/15/2016 at 7:07 am

    Makes me smile. 🙂

    Like

  6. Sawdustandwoodchips says:
    02/15/2016 at 5:25 am

    hauntingly charming!

    Like

  7. laurieanichols says:
    02/15/2016 at 4:30 am

    How hauntingly beautiful Andrew 🙂

    Like

  8. Annika Perry says:
    02/15/2016 at 12:44 am

    Wonderful, Andrew. What a great story leading to you having the ability to create your own future, hmm? Wishing you both many more happy years of painting that sky! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  9. PiedType says:
    02/14/2016 at 8:36 pm

    Hmm, maybe I need to write a story …

    Like

  10. Carrie Rubin says:
    02/14/2016 at 8:16 pm

    What a lovely story. One with a happy ending. 🙂

    Like

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