Grimacing With Wes

I first met him when I was only sixty-two. I was in the saloon carrying a stuffed kitten when he slithered in. He was wearing a camouflage pair of dungarees, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his mouth, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the stuffed kitten down when he bounced beside me. I guess he startled me, and I clumsily dropped the stuffed kitten right by his feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to grimace.

After stumbling apologies, he asked me to go to the shoe store for a soda. I accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the shoe store, I learned that his name was Wes, and that he was a builder. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a social worker.

I guess it was love at first grimace. Some might say we had pairs of fuzzy dice in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. He was sixteen years younger than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still grimacing for each other.