Valentine's Candy

(This is an abridged version of Chapter 34 (Valentine's Candy) in my 2014 book, Brookwood Road. If you are unfamiliar with my books, each chapter is a story from my childhood written as fiction. The stories weave together under a larger story arc within each book. This particular story, Valentine's Candy, is important because it shows how my daddy stepped into his son's crisis and saved the day. It also demonstrates how kindness leads to kindness. Happy Valentine's Day!)

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Frank always had a girlfriend, it seemed. The girls, however, rarely called Frank their boyfriend. It wasn’t until he was in junior high school, in conversation with an older and wiser high school girl, that Frank understood his one-sided relationships were in fact called crushes. He loved the girls, but they really didn’t know he was alive.

In the fourth grade, when he was assigned to the desk in front of the beautiful Denise, Frank considered it the luckiest thing that had ever happened to him. When he tried to be friendly with Denise, however, she just stared at him.

“It’s not you,” Jack said, trying to comfort his big brother. “Girls are strange. Stay away from them.”

Frank sighed. “I’m nice to her,” he said. “I speak to her every morning. I try to walk beside her on the way to the lunchroom. I offered to help her with her English homework.”

Jack looked at him. “Well, maybe it is you,” he said. “Stay away from girls.”

Valentine’s Day was approaching at the Acorn Primary School. Boys and girls had each created their own homemade envelope from red, pink, and white construction paper, labeled with their name. The envelopes were displayed around the room. A Valentine’s party was planned with cupcakes and punch. Each student was assigned to bring simple cards for the other students. They would then parade around the room while dropping the appropriate cards in the appropriate envelopes.

Frank overheard some of the boys talking one day about purchasing boxes of candy for their girlfriends and even for girls they fancied from a distance. That’s when Frank had a wonderful idea: he would purchase a box of Valentine’s Candy for Denise. Why not? She had no boyfriend. He had never heard a single boy express one ounce of love or affection toward Denise. Besides, he sat next to her, and it was only appropriate that he present her with a beautiful box of Valentine’s candy.

From what he had heard the boys say, these boxes of candy cost around five dollars and could be purchased at drugstores in Acorn. He had saved five silver dollars that Papa R.C. had given him at Christmas. So for this endeavor, money was not the problem. The problem was purchasing the candy. Since Hershel’s store did not carry boxed Valentine’s candy, he would need his parents to take him to one of the Acorn drugstores. That would require telling his parents that he wanted to buy a five-dollar box of Valentine’s candy for a girl named Denise, who really wasn’t his girlfriend and didn’t appear to even like him. The thought of all this made his stomach twist, so he opted to put things off.

He succeeded in waiting as long as possible.

            

He succeeded in waiting until the very last possible moment.

            

On February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day and the big school party, his fourth-grade teacher reminded the class not to forget their Valentine cards the next day. She also encouraged them to wear something red, pink, or white for the big day. She reminded those children who had promised to bring refreshments not to forget them. At these announcements, Frank’s heart almost jumped from his chest. Tomorrow was the day, and that meant today was his last chance to buy Denise’s five-dollar box of Valentine’s candy.

As he did every day, Tom picked up Frank and Jack from school and began the ride home south along Highway 141 to Brookwood Road. Normally Frank read during this late-afternoon trip, but on this day he just stared out the window. He was lost in thought. Tomorrow some of the girls in the classroom were going to receive boxes of Valentine’s candy. Many of those girls were not as pretty as Denise. He had been carrying the five silver dollars in his pocket every day for two weeks, hoping for an easy opportunity to buy the candy and then hide it from everyone he knew.

They drove along in silence until Tom turned into their gravel driveway. Then, as Tom turned off the van’s ignition, Frank exploded in a tempest of frustration, anxiety, and tears.

Tom just sat there staring at his son, whom he thought might start banging his head against the dashboard. The only word Tom could recognize was “candy.”

            

Frank finally gathered himself, and the look on his daddy’s face made him laugh at himself.

            

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Tom asked calmly.

            

Jack, climbing over Frank to exit the van, said, “Girl Trouble. Frank’s got girl trouble. I told him to stay away from them.”

            

“I wanted to give Denise a box of Valentine’s candy tomorrow, and now it’s too late to do it,” Frank said.

            

“Who is Denise?” Tom asked, and Frank began telling his daddy all about the one-sided relationship, and how he was hoping the candy might soften the girl’s heart toward him.

            

Tom looked at his watch and grimaced. “Wait here for a minute.” He got out of the van and walked into the house. He looked up the telephone number for the Rexall drugstore in Acorn, called, and explained the problem to the druggist.

            

“I’ll be back in an hour,” Tom said, walking past Janet. “Frank will be with me. Nothing’s wrong.” He shut the door behind him and jogged toward the van. He cranked it and began backing out of the driveway.

            

“Where are we going?” Frank asked.

            

“We’re going back to Acorn,” Tom said. “So you can buy Denise a box of candy.”

            

Frank stared at his daddy in disbelief. He didn’t understand it so much then, but he would understand it one day: sometimes it’s worth the trouble to be blessed by doing unexpected things for the ones you love. They rode in silence. Tom silently beamed at being the hero of the hour.

            

This is the Rexall - now closed and gone - in my hometown

At the drugstore, Frank selected a beautiful red box of Whitman’s chocolates. The heart-shaped box was edged with red and pink lace. It cost just over five dollars. Tom was happy to make up the difference.

            

The druggist, Dr. Marcinko, winked at Tom and said, “Glad you all made it back for this big occasion.” Tom just smiled as Frank took the box of candy, and father and son walked outside to the panel van.

            

“Thank you, Daddy,” Frank said.

            

“Next time just tell me what you need, and don’t wait until the last minute,” Tom said. “I might not always be able to help you, but there’s no sense having a damn hissy fit about it. I thought you were going to have a nervous breakdown right there in the van.” They laughed together.

  

That evening Frank finished his Valentine’s Day cards for his classmates, and he put them in his book satchel along with the beautiful box of candy. He had prepared no special Valentine for Denise, believing the candy communicated all that he needed to on this special day. It was a bold move, for sure, and not every boy in his class (or in the school—perhaps in the entire county) was bold enough to present a box of store-bought candy to a girl who certainly did not consider him a special Valentine.

When he and Jack climbed out of the panel van on Valentine’s Day morning, Frank strode into school with a full head of confident steam. Jack turned left in the school’s lobby toward the classrooms for younger students. Frank turned right toward the classrooms for older students. Coming to school from such a distance, Frank was always one of the last to arrive. So he knew Denise would already be seated. He planned to walk to his desk, remove the box of candy, and simply present it to her with these words: “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Down the hall, he walked. He came to the door of his classroom and turned to his left. His eyes went immediately to Denise. And then he stood paralyzed.

            

One of Frank’s friends had told him that a cobra bite paralyzed its victims, even large dogs. As Frank stood there, he felt like he had been struck by a cobra’s fangs. He could not move. He could not take his eyes off Denise.

            

She was beaming. Circled by a few girls, Denise was looking at the largest red, pink, and white box of candy anyone in the world had ever seen. It was so large that it covered the top of Denise’s desk. Later someone suggested it had cost twenty dollars. A fifth-grader named Terry had given it to her, and she was obviously thrilled to receive it.

            

When the paralysis wore off (his teacher called him to sit down), he walked across to his desk, nodded at Denise, and sat down. He was tormented by the smell of the chocolate from her gigantic box of candy all throughout the day, and Denise never even offered him a single piece of it.

He kept his book satchel tightly secured and stuffed under his desk to avoid anyone seeing inside it. The party was fun, and Frank enjoyed his cupcakes and punch. He enjoyed taking his construction-paper envelope off the wall and looked forward to combing through all the cards he had received from his friends.

            

After the final bell of the day, Frank went to the school library to wait for Tom to pick him and Jack up from school. They were not the only students in the library. A few others were gathered there too, waiting on working parents. It was time to work on homework or read a library book. Jack was already in the library when Frank walked in and sat down beside him.

            

“Did you give it to her?” Jack whispered.

           

 “No,” Frank said. “She has a boyfriend in the fifth grade.”

           

The library closed at four-thirty each day, and the remaining students were ushered outside to wait under the portico for their rides home. Tom reliably picked up his sons before they had to wait outside for very long. On one occasion, however, the clock was easing toward five when they were still waiting. Frank, sure that Tom had forgotten them, closed his eyes and prayed that his daddy would hurry before the school completely closed and the boys were stranded. When he opened his eyes, there was the white panel van pulling up to the front of the school. Frank never again questioned the power of prayer.

The entrance to my elementary school -
different today, but still very familiar

On this Valentine’s Day, Tom had not yet arrived by four-thirty, and the brothers went outside to wait. The only other student left was a girl named Carol. Frank knew her. She had been in his first-grade class, but she had stayed in second grade for two years. Now she was in third grade. Frank always thought Carol had a sad look about her, and when she saw the Wilcox brothers, she turned away.

Frank had an idea. He put down his book satchel and took out the box of Valentine’s candy. He tore off the paper loud enough to make Carol turn and look to see what was happening. Then Frank opened the box and held it out to Jack. “You want some?”

Jack had never said no to an offer of candy in his entire life, and he greedily took two pieces. Then Frank walked over to Carol.

            

“Would you like some candy?” he asked. She looked up at him and then at the open box of candy in front of her. “You can have all you want.”

She took three pieces. Frank sat down beside her and took a piece for himself. Jack came over and sat down too, forming a triangle. Jack took another piece of candy. The three of them passed the box around until all of the candy was eaten.

Frank put the lid back on the empty box and gave it to Carol. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said. She put the beautiful empty candy box in her own book satchel and smiled.

            

When her ride came, ensuring Frank and Jack would be the last to leave school on this Valentine’s Day, Carol looked at the brothers and said, “I enjoyed the candy. Thank you.” And she was gone.

            

Years later, when Frank returned to Acorn to visit his parents, Carol saw Frank in one of the town’s grocery stores. She approached him and reminded him of that Valentine’s Day. She told him about the death of both of her parents, and how she’d gone to live with relatives in another town and graduated from high school there. Frank felt ashamed that he had never known any of this.

            

“I still have that empty Valentine’s candy box,” she said. “It always reminded me of that special day after school, and it made me smile during some pretty tough days.”

            

Frank hugged her before she walked away with her family. It reminded him of how the simplest of gestures can impact people for an entire lifetime.

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