The Best Valentine in the World

I saw her sitting on the bench near the boat ramp. She was watching the shore birds feed in the shallow water. She was quite lovely and caught my attention right away.

I backed my boat down the ramp and launched it. Being by my self it meant that I had to back down until the boat was just about to float off. Then I put my truck in park with the parking brake on. I got out and climbed up the ladder on the trailer and on to the deck of my small pontoon boat. I started the motor and let it run a while to warm up.

I climbed back down the ladder and slacked off on the winch and unfastened the cable hook. I climbed back in the boat and backed it off the trailer. The ramp area had no dock so I beached the boat and shut it off while I went back and moved the truck and trailer to the parking area. She watched my every move.

I smiled at her as I passed the bench on the way to the boat. I was rewarded with a flash of white teeth in her dark face. "Good morning!" I said. I stepped back on the deck to the boat. I restarted the motor and backed the boat off the little beach and motored out into the lake. I made my first test run and recorded the top RPM of the motor under full throttle. Then I wrote down the speed the GPS instrument showed at various RPMs.

When I was finished I returned to the ramp and was surprised to see her still sitting on the bench. I pulled up and beached the boat near the bench again. I walked to the bow and stepped on the beach. "Hi! You are still here?"

"Yes, I have no way to leave."

I left very stupid as I looked around and saw no other vehicle in the parking area.

"How did you get here?"

"My date dumped me here last night when I wouldn't do what he wanted me to do."

"You have been here all night? Wow!"

"I was hoping I could get a ride from someone but you are the first person I have seen. You weren't out very long."

"Oh! I am trying a couple of different propellers on my boat. It wasn't performing the way it should. When I am through I would be happy to give you a ride somewhere."

"Thank you so much. I may have to take you up on that."

I smiled at her and got the other prop and the tools and waded out and changed the prop. I put the prop and tools in the boat and looked at her. She was truly beautiful.

"Listen, I can't just leave you sitting here. There are some rough people who use this ramp. I'll only be out about twenty minutes or less, why don't you ride with me? Then we will get you home. My name is Tom, Tom Murphy."

"I think I will accept your kind offer. I am sort of frightened sitting here by my self. I saw a bear and some hogs last night."

"Well come on then, Ma'am, and I'll help you aboard." I took her hand and she stepped aboard. She was a tiny girl. She was perfectly proportioned and her size wasn't evident until she stood beside you.

"Thank you kind Sir."

I put the motor back down and started it back up. I backed out and we motored slowly back out the channel to the river proper. I grinned at her, "Is this your first time on the Oklawaha River?" She smiled and nodded. I noticed she was a bit nervous. "Is this your first time in a boat?" She nodded again.

"Can you swim?" She shook her head. I took the boat out of gear. I had her get up from the seat she was sitting on and I opened the storage box beneath the seat. I took out a life jacket and helped her put it on. I showed her how to adjust the straps and the belts. It was very bulky on her. I reached back in the locker and searched through the jackets. I found a small adult size and helped her exchange jackets. This one fit better. She sat back down and smiled at me. "Do you feel safer now girl?"

"Yes, I sure do, I'm sorry I'm so much trouble."

"Hey, I enjoy having the company. What is your name?"

"Serena. Serena Williams."

"Well, Ms Williams I have some water, a couple of Cokes and a pair of sweet rolls in this cooler if you would like breakfast. You must be starved." I watched as she grinned and nodded her head. I slid the cooler out from under the console and opened it up. I took a Coke and a sweet roll and handed them to her. I put a Coke and a roll on the top of the console for myself. The sun was getting a bit hot now so I took the time to put the top up. I put the motor back in gear and started idling back out the channel. I saw something up ahead. I motioned for her to come over near me and pointed out the big alligator lying in the water. He eyes grew wide and I saw her tremble in fear. I took her hand and gently said. "Don't be afraid little girl, I would never let anything hurt you." She looked down into my eyes and relaxed.

"You know, I really believe that."

"You can take that to the bank."

She returned to her seat. I told her that we were now entering the main river channel. I explained how that this was the original river and how they had built a dam and raised the water level much higher than it had been before. The river was too twisty in this area to be able to run at top speeds. I sped up a little and headed for the straight section of the river. The helmsman's seat on this boat was a doublewide seat and I motioned for her to sit beside me. She looked at me for a second and moved beside me.

"Now I don't have to yell at you. I thought I could explain what I am doing and you wouldn't be frightened. OK?"

"OK, Tom, thank you. This is a little scary for me. I do really feel safer than I have all night long."

"Poor girl. I feel bad that I didn't see something was wrong when I first got to the ramp. I was too full of what I was doing to really pay attention. Please forgive me."

"For what? There was nothing you did wrong."

"I just feel badly about it. I was raised to believe that a man's first duty was to protect all women. So that is how I am."

"You seem to do a good job of it."

"It gets me it trouble sometimes when they don't want to be protected."

She laughed with me.

We reached the straight section of the river. I slowed the boat until we finished our Sweet rolls. I pointed out to her a huge nest in the top of an old dead tree. It was a bald eagle's nest and the male eagle glared at us until we left. She was grinning. She grabbed my arm, "That was so beautiful! Wasn't he magnificent?" I pointed back and we watched as the female eagle landed on the nest with a fish in her claws.

She smiled at me, "Momma is home from shopping. She brought dinner."

I told her to hang on; I was going to speed up. I put the throttle as far forward as it went. The boat lunged ahead and was soon at top speed. The RPMs went to 6000 and the speed leveled out a thirty-one miles per hour. Better than with the other prop. I glanced down at her. She was grinning. I laughed. "You like this don't you?"

She nodded and hugged my arm tighter. I pulled back on the power a little. She relaxed a bit. I slowed even more and told her to take the wheel. Her eyes got wide. "Go ahead girl, I won't let you hurt us."

She tentatively held the wheel and I let go of it. Nothing happened. I told her to turn the wheel just a tiny bit to the right. She grinned when the boat turned. I told her to straighten it out. She did.

"OK. First mate, you are now in command."

"What?"

"Don't ask questions, just steer." She steered while I changed the power sittings and recorded the RPMs and the speeds.

I pulled the power back all the way. "Now, girl, ease over to the right side of the channel. Good, now turn, hard as you can, back to the left. Great, now straighten out when we are headed the other way." When she had us going back down the channel I added power back to cruise RPMs. We were doing just twenty miles an hour. As we approached the Eagles nest I slowed the boat and we eased on by before I added power again. She looked up at me, "You did that so you didn't disturb them didn't you?" I nodded. She smiled at me. I loved to see her smile.

I pointed out the entrance to the channel back to the ramp. She looked up at me. "Do we have to go back right now? Does the river end up there?" She pointed ahead of us.

"No, little girl, that is where the river looks something like the old river looked. It twists through the cypress and palm trees. Want to see?"

"Oh! Yes. Can we?"

"Anything you want, my lady."

Her head quickly turned to look me in the eyes. We looked into each other's eyes for a long time. I looked up just in time to grab the wheel and twist it hard and yank back on the power. We just missed hitting the trees along the riverbank.

I laughed, "One of us has to keep his eyes on the road. I'll just have to settle for only taking little peeks at you. I have to confess, I was trying to figure out how old you are. What? Somewhere between 12 and 30 is as close as I can come with out checking your teeth like they do on horses."

She giggled, "Here, I'll open wide if you promise not to run us aground."

I had trouble not looking at her. "Here, Girl, you drive while I look at you."

"Tom, you make me blush."

"I love to look at you, you are nice to watch."

'Please don't tell me I am going to have to get out of the boat and wait for someone else to come along."

"Never happen, girl. I could never do anything you didn't want me to do. Never!"

She looked up at me and saw the tears in the corners of my eyes.

"You really mean that don't you?"

"Sure I do. Listen to me little girl. If I tell you something, I mean it. If I tell you to hang on to your purse or it will fly away, you better hang on, because I have seen something you haven't seen. I will never lie or cheat on anything. That is how I am."

She turned and glanced at me. "Somehow, I believe you. Oh! Look at that, it's beautiful. I never knew the river was so lovely."

I pointed out a dock on the bank. There was a house high on the bank behind it. You had to look carefully to see the house.

"That looks like a real old house."

"It is. It was built in 1925. Would you like to see it?"

"You mean go inside?"

"If you want."

"Do you know the people that live there?"

"Yep, and old grouchy guy and his dogs."

"I would love to see it. It's an old 'cracker' house isn't it?"

"Yes, it's had a porch and a room or two added during the years but it is mostly original."

I took over the steering and pulled into the dock. I secured the boat and stepped up on the dock. I reached down and took her hands and helped her up. I reached for her and she jumped back a bit staring at me.

"I thought you might want to take off your life jacket for a while. I didn't mean to frighten you."

"I'm sorry, yes I would like to take it off."

Two dogs ran towards us barking like crazy. I held up my hand and they skidded to a stop. They sat quietly watching us walk toward them. When we were close Serena grabbed my arm and moved close to me. "The big ugly guy is Bud, the sweet little Shepherd is Dixie. Bud, shake hands with Serena, she is a friend." Bud stuck out his paw and grinned at her, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Serena took his paw and held it. He sniffed her hand. His tail beat a tattoo on the ground.

I introduced Dixie the same way. "You will always be welcome here now. They will not forget you."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

We walked on up towards the house. She still held my arm, and I loved it. I have to admit the old place was lovely. The grass was freshly cut. The house was gleaming and near perfect in fresh white paint. We walked up to the enclosed porch. She clapped her hands. "Jalousie windows, I haven't seen those in years, we had them when I was a kid."

"Oh! Last year?"

She giggled, "I wish."

"Come on in." I opened the porch door and let her precede me. The porch had a nice wooden swing and a couple of rockers. The dogs didn't try to follow us. I opened the door to the house and motioned her in. She stood and looked around. "I love it," She said, "It's beautiful, really beautiful."

"Do you need to use the bathroom? It is right over there."

"Yes thank you. Is there a towel I can use? I know I am filthy."

"Sure is girl. The guest towels are behind the door. Help yourself."

A few minutes later she stepped out and smiled at me.

"Thank you, Tom, I feel much better now. I think this is your house, is it?"

"Yes, I live here. Do you want to see the rest of the house?"

"Oh! Yes, I would love to see it."

"Come on girl, this is the dining room and over here is the kitchen, as you can see it has been modernized and enlarged."

"I love the way you did this. I grew up in a cracker house much like this."

I showed her the guest bedroom and then took her in my little office. She stepped in and looked around.

"Wow! Look at all the books and files. Do you work from here?"

"Yes I do, I do some writing. Actually I write a lot. I just don't get paid very often."

"I am impressed."

"Come on let me really impress you. Here is the master bedroom and bath."

"My God! It is huge, this is not original, right?"

"You are right. I enlarged this and the bath. What do you think?"

"I love it. The old bed? I've never seen one that big."

"Yeah! I loved the old bed but it was way too small. A friend and I made it into a king sized bed. We saved the original parts just in case. It does look good doesn't it? Care to give it a test ride?"

"Wha..?"

I grabbed her elbows and said, "Don't run little girl, I was only teasing."

"Hey, I was just trying to makeup my mind which way to run."

"Let's head back to the boat ramp. Do you need to call anyone before we go? By the way, where do I need to take you after I get my boat out of the water?"

"Ocala."

"Then we have two or three options. Can I persuade you to let me fix you some lunch to take with us and we can explore the river some more before we go back. Or I get you to go back in my car to get my truck and trailer and then get you to follow me back here before I take you to Ocala. Or we can explore the river and then go get the truck and trailer then you can stay for dinner and breakfast, then we can talk about taking you home."

She looked very seriously at me. "Do you mean that? You want me to spend the night?"

"Yes, I would love that. I haven't had so much fun in years. I love showing you things. I want you to know I want you to choose which bed you want to sleep in much later, the option is always open."

"I want you to take me home."

I guess she saw the tears start to grow in my eyes.

"Tom, I want you to take me home so I can pack a bag with the things I need if I am going to feel comfortable spending the night with you."

"What, you'll stay?"

"I would love to."

"Here help me fix us some lunch. How about a open faced BLT with cheese?"

"Sounds delicious."

I had her put four slices of bread on a baking sheet. I put a slice of cheese on each slice of bread. I let her slice four slices of tomato off of a very large tomato. Meanwhile I dug some all ready fried bacon from the refrigerator and put three slices on each sandwich. I turned on the broiler and put them under the broiler. I left the door partly open so we could watch. I let her watch while I got out some lettuce and mayo. I joined her and held her tiny brown hand in my big white one as we watched. When the bread was nice and toasted along the edges I took the sheet out and put it on top of the range. I put lettuce and a large dab of mayo on each open-faced sandwich. I sprinkled some kosher salt over them a quick grind of pepper. I got out two plates and put sandwiches on them and placed them on the kitchen table. I pulled a chair out for her and she grinned as she sat down. I sat and said "Oops!" I reached out a long arm and got out knives and forks for us. Them I reached to another drawer and got out paper napkins. "The good linen and silverware will have to wait for dinner time."

"Boy, you are something else. This looks great. With those long arms I think you could have fixed the whole thing from your chair."

"Are you trying to say I have arms like an ape?"

"I was thinking of a gorilla."

"Oh!"

"A nice soft cuddly one."

"OH! Is that better?"

"I have a plush stuffed one I snuggle and sleep with every night."

"Wow! Can I take his place tonight?"

"I'll think about it. I love this sandwich. It is so good."

"I am fond of them, I often have them for supper at night."

"Do not think I can eat two."

"To be honest, I didn't think you could either but I didn't want you to think I was cheap or something if I only fixed you one."

"Mmm, I'll split it with you. OK?"

"Great!"

"Were you born around here?"

"No I have only been here for about ten years."

"Why do you look at me all the time?"

"I love to watch you, I know you must be used to it. I know every man loves to look at you, you are beautiful."

"I guess I know men look at me, I guess I like it. But you are different. I WANT you to look at me. As long as we are being honest, I need you to look at me. I love it when I see you watching me. I can't really remember caring if someone looked at me for years."

"What do you do for a living?"

"I am an old model. I don't get much work anymore. I won't do nude stuff or anything like that. Luckily when I was a popular runway model I saved like crazy. Socked away every cent I could get my hands on. I live quite well on just the interest. I have never wanted children. I guess, if you get right down to it I have never found a guy that I wanted to have children with. I was married for eight years. It didn't work. He wanted an open marriage I didn't. Last night was my first date in almost two years. My last too!"

"God, darling I hope not."

"Why?"

"I am planning to date you. Just until I get to know you well enough to ask you to marry me?"

"You would marry a black girl?"

"I didn't know you were black. Light brown maybe, not black. What difference does it make as long as we love each other?"

"I can't believe you."

"Why, have I ever lied to you before? Let me tell you how I feel about that. I have yet to see anything about you that doesn't attract me. I love the way you look, I love your personality, I love your voice, I love just being near you. I may find out you are a four hundred pound chimpanzee in disguise, but until then I love everything about you. I have never even thought about your color until you mentioned it. End of sermon."

"Shall we just go get your truck and trailer, do you just leave your boat in the water."

"Yes, I usually leave it in unless it needs work. I just got it out of the shop after a tune up."

We got my truck and trailer home and I drove her home in my BMW to get her clothes. She had a small duplex. It was spotless and lovely. She followed me home in her Toyota and we decided to go out for dinner after another ride on the river. We went up the river to Eureka and turned around and came back. She really loved me telling her the history of the river. She drove most of the time. I was falling in love.

Damn, she just turned me on incredibly. I wanted to pick her up and run to the nearest bed. I never thought seriously about just throwing her on the ground and making love. The thought did occur to me but I was able to resist it. She had proved last night that she was not the type of person who could be coerced into doing anything she didn't want to do. I was going to do my damnedest to make her want me too.

When we got to my house she went in the guest bedroom and said she was going to get ready to go out for dinner. I went and got dressed. I just wore slacks, a sports shirt and a blazer. She came out and she looked really great. Something bothered me a little though. Her bust looked wrong. I asked her to stand in front of me and turn around. I still didn't know what was wrong. Then it hit me. I smiled at her, "Serena, would you do something for me, even if it might embarrass you a little bit?"