A Charlie Brown Valentine's Day

 (While I am lounging at the beach, my blog administrator (aka Carey) is holding down the fort.  This post was written while the Wonder Hub was in Iraq, Valentine's Day 2007.)

At 6:30am I was sitting at the table, working on my first cup of coffee and my new bible study when the doorbell rang and scared the crap out of me. I eased around to where I could see through the windows on either side of the door, and not seeing anyone there, crept forward. I saw them just as I reached for the doorknob: A scraggly bunch of flowers, haphazardly stuffed into a plastic vase. A disproportionately large card was wedged among the flowers and towered over a small, slightly used teddy bear reclining at the foot of the vase. I opened the door just in time to see the back of a flight suit retreating into a running vehicle. Wrong height, wrong haircolor, thank God, or I might have had a heart attack. They really do all look the same in those things.

I brought the vase and bear into the house and opened the envelope. Inside your basic, run-of-the-mill Valentine's Day card was pasted a perfectly square piece of paper that read:

Dear Karen:
Happy Valentine's Day. Just
a little over a month until I
return--we'll celebrate Valentine's then.
I love you.

My heart warmed as I imagined the two of them planning this. My husband giving instructions, emailing the text for the card, but being too embarrassed to say anything mushy. His friend going out and purchasing one of those grocery store bouquets (the kind you get the teacher at the end of the year) and stuffing it artlessly into a used vase. I have no idea where Teddy came in, maybe he was discarded by one of the friend's children and looked like a good addition. No matter, I'll cherish him. I'll cherish the whole thing, because my Charlie Brown flowers are way better than anything the FTD guy might have delivered.