The Oddities of Mr. Shaffer

Chapter 3: The Wonderful Women Named Ms. Valentine

When I walked into the Steel-Crest bar right down the street from the city hall, I was greeted by men and women a like.  Some even offered to buy me a drink.

This was on April 10, 1979; 5 years, 9 months, and 1 day after I had thought of this place.

It was around 8:00 in the afternoon; I was just coming off of a long day at work.  Filing papers and appealing documents had been my constant schedule for a few weeks, so I decided that I'd needed to go out and mingle a litte.

The bar was abnormally full tonight.  People huddled around a stage at the front of the place to watch a band play classical jazz.  If I remember correctly, the band was called "The Marsqet Brothers".  Boy, were they talented.  Girls would always be all over them after their gigs.  I found it funny to watch.

I made my way over to the back of the bar and took a seat.  Asking the bartender for a shot of tequila, he anxiously shook my hand and slid my drink down to me in a flash.  After a few shots the bartender tapped me on the shoulder.

"Rough day, sir?  You don't look to hot."

"Yeah, it's been like this the last few weeks or so.  So many things to be done in so little time.  But really, what would ya expect.  I'm the mayor.  Stuff is supposed to be like this, right?"

The bartender chuckled and said "Well, that's why you're the mayor.  No one else could probably do it but you."

"Yeah, I doubt that." I mumbled softly.....

It was about an hour or so later when the bartender had woke me up from my passing out.  It seemed that when I did wake up that I had an unbearable headache, vision was blured, and everyone look more "happeier" then they were before.  I quickly by passed my thoughts and decided it was time for me to go home, but before I rose up off the bar stool, a beautiful women in a maids uniform came into my sight of vison and sat two stools across from me.  Thick curly blonde hair, and a nice figure.  It was like staring at a Goddess.  

I had never felt this way about a women before ever in my life.  It was almost like love at first sight. 

She signaled to the bartender for a shot of Vodka and a lemon tart.  She seemed agsausted and flustered about something, so I decided to make the first move.

"Rough day, huh." I asked.

She turned over to me in disbelief.

"Oh my!  Hello Mr. Mayor!  I'm sorry I didn't notice you when I came in.  It's... It's.. just you know, been a busy week for me."

"Oh I can understand.  It's been the same for me too."

"Well, you are the mayor.  I can understand the troubles you have to go through, well, maybe I can't really understand."

We both chuckled and our eyes met up.  She had pure light green eyes, and black eyeliner to compliment them.

"My... my name is Caroline, Caroline Valentine."

"Uhm... well.. my name is Robert, Robert Shaffer."

"Yeah, I think everyone knows that." She said, laughing again.

I could feel something between us both.  Some kind of connection.  It may have been a few sentences between us and a glance or two, but some how, I felt attached to this women.  Not sexualy, but mentaly, moraly.  It seemed the she felt the same way too, because she sat there and listened to me, like I was a normal person.  She talked to me, for me, not for what I had, but for me only.  I also listened to her, which surprisingly I found her life more appealing than mine.   

We talked until it was closing time.  We exchanged phone numbers and promised we would talk to eachother daily.

Two weeks later I proposed, and that following week, we got married....