Jennie was a waitress at the FOUR TOPP CLUB where I worked as a waiter. The only way to describe her was to say that she was very pretty. She was tall and slim with reddish hair. I fell for her right away. I did not know any better. I am one of those guys who always fall for the wrong woman. I always have and I think I always will. But I explain that part later.
The
big problem with her as I saw it was that she would not go out with
me.
She
always told me it was because she was being loyal to a boyfriend
called Ronnie. I never met him. She told me that he was a sailor that
was sent to a base on the east coast. She told me she did not want to
go out with anyone else.
She
gave me that excuse every time.
In
the back of my mind I must of known she just did not want to go out
with me. But you know how it is. Sometimes you just
ignore the obvious.
At
the time truth and real life seem to mean little to me. I wanted
everything to be going the way I wanted it to go. But then again who
doesn't want everything to go their way?
Even
though she would not go out with me she was always nice
to me. So I decided against all odds to keep asking her
out. I figured I would wear her down someday and she
would go with me. I guess I thought I had forever to wait
for that to happen. When you are young you always believe you got
plenty of time ahead.
But
she always told me no. She told me that she was always
going to be loyal to her boyfriend Ronnie.
I
started telling her that I was spending my free time sticking pins
into my Ronnie voodoo doll. She always thought that was funny.
Sometimes when his phone calls upset her she would ask me to go stick
another pin into it.
One
night when things were very slow at the club the two of
us were sitting at a back table in the nearly empty dining room. I
asked her out once again. I was not really surprised when she said no
once again. Deep down in me I kept hoping she would have a different
answer for me.
Someone
once told me that false hope was the worst kind of hope. I wish I
knew that then.
I
pulled out a small plastic bag I had in the pocket of my work apron.
From that I pulled out a small plastic sailor doll I found at a
thrift shop that afternoon. I had bought it for a dollar.
Here
it is. My Ronnie voodoo doll. I told her as I stuck a
hat pin into it's chest. I thought Jennie would never
stop laughing. She thought it was so funny at the time.
She
is gone now. She never return to the club after she went
east to her boyfriend's funeral.
He
died in a drunken barroom fight with a bartender who refused to serve
him anymore beer.
The
bartender stabbed Ronnie in the heart with an ice pick. It all happen
the night I stuck a pin into that sailor doll. It freaked her out
when she was told how he died. She would never talk to me again after
that.
I
use to mope around the club as I worked. I missed Jennie.
I missed her badly. I stopped my moping after one of the
waitresses told me that it was not really worth it. That all along
Jennie was going out with all sort of other guys and once when it was
suggested that maybe I could be fixed up with someone Jennie said
that it would be pretty hard to fixed me. That she could not think of
anyone would want to go out with me.
It
stung me that she said that. I should have known she would say and
think such things about me. At least now I could see that happening.
Not
long after that I got myself one of those cheap plastic model dolls
at a 99 cent store. The kind that are made to look sort of like the
Barbie Doll.
It
reminded me of Jennie.
For
a long time I kept it on the night stand by my bed.
And
every night I consider sticking a pin in it.
THE
END.
Copyright 2015 by Teel.
