Saint Walsh

Todd Mulvaney

California University Graduation 1997.

The young, brash, popular, handsome, successful Brandon Walsh prepared himself to walk across the stage one last time. Boy had time flown, he thought, completely unaware of what the day would bring. His final school year had proven to be nothing less than exciting; pregnancy scares, break-ups, and scandals built only for television. He would say these unexpected events came as a surprise, but hey, he lived in Beverly Hills: nothing ever came as a surprise.

While he put on his coat and tie he saw a letter off to the side.

It was from Valerie Malone. He opened it. The note was written in smeared blue ink, but the words very clear, she was going to commit suicide, and there was no turning back. This startled him and suddenly the best day turned into a nightmare.

After scrambling around for hours Brandon Walsh arrived at the ledge of a highway; and at the end of that ledge a pretty lady in a black dress stood.

"Valerie." The valiant Walsh cried out to the woman. His tie flapped in the wild wind as he loosened his buttons, and untucked his shirt. "Valerie" he cried again. "Don't do this!"

And right before he assumed nothing else could be done she spun around calm, collected, and said, "Go away Brandon."

It was hilarious in the darkest of ways, she thought that with a simple command he would turn his back on her and let some random SUV flatten her on the way down. He instead did the opposite and climbed over the guardrail to meet her at world's end. Coincidentally, and metaphorically graduating college felt much like this; like being on a rickety ledge with a suicidal girl wondering if your feet would stay planted on the ground or break upon a blistering hot pavement.

Brandon's voice was surprisingly steady, maybe because he always knew he would get to this point with Valerie. She was so hurt, so scarred from her father's passing, the only thing she hadn't done was attempted to take her life like her father took his.

"If you get off now we can still make it back to graduation." He told her, hoping that if he promised their togetherness during the ceremony it would cause her to reconsider. Brandon knew what this situation was about; love; in its stupidest form.

Just last week he kicked Valerie out the house because his fiancé Kelly (who would later be Kelly Sanders) couldn't stand her. It was simple, yet complex, Kelly had him and Valerie wanted him, Brandon was attracted to Valerie, but trusted Kelly. The issues of his love life re-emerged that day when all he wanted to do was be handed a diploma.

Thankfully, consoling Valerie worked, she took him by the arm and he was able to get her off the ledge. For a brief second, as they rushed to the ceremony she felt as though she was running away with the love of her life.

They arrived in the nick of time. Brandon had just been called up for an award and it appeared that the day would end perfectly after all. Walsh went up to receive his trophy. "Focus on this moment." He begged himself. "In just a minute or so you're going to be a full blown adult. Adults make the big decisions, and they make it look easy." There were some who didn't make it to this moment, Stewart and who could forget Scott Scanlon, so he was happy and thrilled to even have made it to this point. After all, what more could a man ask for than to be celebrated on stage with his friends and family looking on.

This happened twenty-three years ago. Before JC, before Oliver, before Ronnie, before Lisa.

The visual of Walsh raising his golden trophy would be the image that would propel him into his future. What I mean by this is, him on top of the stage as a victor is exactly how everyone would remember him. They would not get the unfortunate pleasure of seeing what happened next. Kelly would call off the wedding, and he would leave her for his best friend Steve Sanders to marry and then he would head to Washington DC.