Valerie

This is an intriguing love story.

I met a young African girl when I was twenty years old.

Her name was Valerie, and she was very appealing.

I really liked her from the first time I saw her at the youth club,

But I wasn't confident of winning the love of such a fair girl.

I’d only spoken to her a few times before I did a strange thing.

One night I asked my friend to give Valerie a picture of me.

The boy went to her home and gave her the picture,

And he told her that I sent it for her.

He said that she accepted the picture, and she look at it and smiled.

I asked him what her response was.

The surprising thing was that she didn't say anything to him.

 

A few days later, she stopped me when I was passing her home.

And she asked me, “Is this the way you do things?”

I don't remember exactly what I said to her,

But the short conversation we had led nowhere.

She didn't give the impression of being interested in me.

I knew that another guy was trying to court her,

And I didn't have a good reason to compete with him for her.

From that time onward, Valerie and I seldom saw each other.

Even though I thought about her a lot,

It didn't take a long time to get over her.

I got married to a Christian lady ten years after these things occurred.

 

Twenty more years passed, and I ran into Valerie at an electronics store.

I went there to purchase a preamplifier for my sound system.

At first, I didn't recognize her because she had grey hair.

She was thirty years older, and she looked so different.

I presumed that she was the supervisor at the electronics store.

While I was waiting, she said that she had something to say to me.

First, she asked me, “Do you remember me?”

I took a good look at her face and then I said no,

So she asked me, “Did you live in Whitfield Town many years ago?”

I realised she knew me from somewhere, so I told her yes.

Then she added this question, “Do you remember a girl named Valerie?”

I immediately said yes, and she responded, “It's me.”

Honestly, I still didn't recognize her,

But I remembered the beautiful girl I knew in 1990.

 

Valerie said that she saw me in the store with a woman a few months ago.

I told her that the woman she saw me with was my wife.

Much to my surprise, she said, “I kept your picture over the years.”

She added, “I’m not sure if I still have it, I might have recently thrown it away.”

I felt good knowing that she kept my picture for so many years.

Seeing her brought back memories of the days of our youth,

But my passion for her was a feeling of the past.

I didn't ask her why she kept my picture for such a long time.

She was obviously carrying a torch for me.

No woman would keep the picture of a man she doesn't love for thirty years.

Author's Note

Enjoy the reading.