Tessie D

Last Friday, the boy from the carnival, Angel, started working on the dairy.

I’d gotten to the office early, well before the sun had come up, since it was Friday, and I needed to work on payroll and have everyone’s checks ready by the end of the day. The morning was quiet, just the sounds of the dairyhands working in the barn and the low hum of the milking machines and the smell of the dew mixed with hay, manure, and warm milk. In less than an hour, the sun would be creeping up along the horizon, the morning sky changing subtly from black to pink to blue. I thought about how I should come into the office earlier more often.

Midmorning, Mr. Olsen came in with Angel. Mr. Olsen introduced us, and I recognized him immediately and smiled when he walked up to my desk. He looked the same as the day I saw him at the carnival–maybe just a little bit older and a little taller. His smile is still the same: warm and friendly. Angel stuck out his hand and his soft, long fingers wrapped around mine.

But Angel didn’t seem to remember me. It was a familiar disappointment. Thinking that a silly little encounter at a carnival over two years ago might have meant something.

I was talking to my roommates about Angel later that night, and one of them knew him from high school. She said that he was popular, was an Honors student, and played football. He had a steady girlfriend that he dated during the last two years of high school, and everyone thought that they’d get married. She’d heard, though, that they’d broken up when Angel moved away to college and changed his major. They were going to get married after he finished school. He was supposed to be a preacher or go to business school. But Angel changed his major from Religious Studies to philosophy. His dad was so angry that refused to pay his tuition. Angel dropped out of school and found a job on the farm. Since he wasn’t a student, he had to move out of the dorms so he moved into the little house with the dairy manager.

And, now he’s here on the dairy.