Day 9: redneck romance...

Relationships are a strange thing. Their beginnings often just as strange. As just one simple example, take the guy who becomes Prince Charming by screwing up the pick up line... badly. She giggles, then laughs and by some miracle he realizes that she's actually smiling at him, really smiling, and he takes the chance. You might say something similar happened to Hank.

Hank was not the sharpest tool in the shed, which is not the most promising beginning for a would be Casanova. Sadly, you couldn't even say he was bold or persistent. Hank just kind of was. He managed. Hank was, however, devoted. Devoted to one particular young lady in Mile City, Montana, a waitress at the '600 Cafe', and her name was Alice.

As you can imagine, there were many stolen glances over a cup of coffee and stuttered orders of pancakes, bacon & eggs, or grits while trying his best not to look at her. He would think of things to say, but they never made there way out past the 'thank you' that followed his order.

Hank was hopeless on the outside, but hope kept him coming back. Alright, so I said he wasn't persistent. That's not entirely true, and I guess you could say his persistence eventually paid off. At least in the form of dumb luck.

As it happened, they decided to change the menu at the cafe. They wanted to attract a more cultured crowd. Now, one of the dishes was a fancy egg white concoction called "Purity of the Morning". Did I mention these were very short lived changes?

Anyway, Hank stared at the menu some time before he finally decided he liked the picture of "Purity of the Morning" best. Alice came by for the third time that morning, by now a little flustered that he was taking so long. To be fair, that all the patrons were taking so long.

"Ready?"
"Y-yeah," Hank stammered, "I, I th-think I am."

He was a little scared, but he thought he'd worked out the words well enough. Hooked on Phonics had at least helped him a little bit.

"I'll h-have the p-p-purty of the mornin', please."

Alice couldn't help herself. She giggled. Surprise caused him to do something he'd never done. He looked at her, and of all the unexpected things, she was smiling.

"D-did I say it wrong?" he asked.

"No hon, you said it just right." He watched openly as she walked away, unaware of the foolish grin on his face. Strangely enough, it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship between Hank and his purty of the mornin', Alice.