Once upon a time, there was a young man who lived in a group home in a quiet little town on the north shore of New Orleans. He was an angry kid with a FTW mentality. He did anything that pleased him. After all, he was locked up in kiddie prison, and what could anyone do worse? He was on restriction in the cafeteria staring at the wall, when a new resident came in being toured by staff. She wasn’t the hottest girl he knew, he had three drop-dead girlfriends. But there was something special about her, he had to go out with her. The next day he asked her out, and to his dismay, she said NO.
He couldn’t believe this. Here he was the bad-boy of the town who always got what he wanted, and she said NO. Well, persistent as he was, he kept after her. Until finally, two weeks later(on Valentines Day), she said ok. He decided to drop the other girlfriends, and be true to her. She told him not to, that she couldn’t get serious. He dumped them anyway. They soon grew very close to each other, despite their situation. Every day they would spend time together, in school, at lunch, anytime they could find. They fell quickly in love with each other. Then one beautiful, sunny day, everything changed. The boy was allowed privileges that enabled him to see his love everyday without supervision, provided he didn’t behave badly. He was doing good (better than ever), but this wasn’t good enough for the counselors. They wanted him to use his influence to help the other children, and when he didn’t, they revoked his visitation. Well the young man couldn’t stand not to see his love, so he destroyed everything in site, flipped over a poker table and tried to kill the head counselor. That night he stayed in an asylum (strapped and shot w/Thorazine).
The next week he was sent to live far away. He and his love tried to stay in touch, but he was insecure. Until one day they had a horrible argument over the phone, and they broke-up. It was his fault. Now he was doomed, having found and lost his soulmate, he knew there would be no other. My name is Laurence, my loves name is Melissa. That was almost 18 years ago. Melissa and I have talked on and off over that time, even talked about getting back together. But there was always something, you know.
That was until Hurricane Ivan. I was living in central Ms. and had a house by myself. I was calling my friends and family from the New Orleans area to see if they needed a place to evacuate to, when I called my sister she told me that someone named Melissa had called looking for me. This was it! We finally get to live happily ever after, right? Wrong! We started seeing each other again and were talking marriage (BTW, I would marry her today), when another man entered the picture, Jesus Christ. That’s right, I lost her again because I’m not a Christian. She said that she couldn’t marry a non-Christian. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a very spiritual person (I talk to God everyday). I just don’t believe in religion, period. Maybe I was doomed to be without true love.
Then Katrina hit. I lost touch with a lot of people. “Google stalking” helped me find a lot of people that I lost track of, including Melissa. But, of course she’s still religious, had a boyfriend, and moved way the f*ck away. That was the last time that I spoke with her. So last week, tired of being lonely, I start answering personal ads (don’t waste your time), when I get an email telling me that someone from Melissa’s town, her age is looking for me. Could it be!? I don’t know, yet. I’ve started “Google stalking” her again, but with our backgrounds, we are equally hard to find. Her last phone is disconnected. Melissa is very responsible. So that means either she moved, or somebody else is stalking her for real. I hope she moved back to N.O. I’m including my email, please no bullsh*t. Hope you see this, my love. wyledawg [at] gmail.com -L
