Love Songs

Michelle was easily the prettiest girl in the school, and I was her man. Ok, I was her boy. Our relationship had endured a weekend apart and three days at school. That’s five days, and for a ten year old, we were getting into that long term relationship zone. I was thinking that in a couple of days, I might even talk to her. For the time being I just admired her beauty from afar, her warm smile, long brown hair and amazing ability to do cross overs with a skipping rope.

My mind raced, thinking of ways to impress this beauty without spending money I did not have, or talking to her, which just seemed too awkward.

For what happened next, I blame my father. It was he who loved those Beatles, and took to playing his vinyl records on a Sunday afternoon. I also place some blame on the songwriting duo of Lennon and McCartney, for their repertoire of hit tunes included that beautiful ballad, Michelle. 

As Michelle, my belle blew through the house I came up with what was at the time, an ingenious idea that would leave me remembered for years to come. Well, I got half of it right.

Lunch time at school was an orderly affair. Every student sat down on the basketball court, finished their lunch and waited until they were dismissed. Michelle was sitting with her group of friends (she was the queen bee) to one side of the court. I quickly finished my honey sandwich, ruffled up my hair, cleared my throat and made my way across.

There was no hello, no warning at all. As Michelle turned to see who had entered her inner nest, I began to sing.

‘Michelle, my belle, these are words that go together well, my Michelle...’ It was like impromptu junior talent contest gone wrong and within an instant I had a crowd, a big crowd. I got up to the “I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU” part and was giving it my all, which meant two things, I was singing quite loudly and I had my eyes shut. Both meant that I actually didn’t notice that Michelle had walked off. I heard later that she had called out ‘you’re dumped’ on her way out. I noticed her lack of presence as I opened my eyes. I also keenly noticed that everyone left behind was laughing at me.

On the up side, this all occurred during the last term of the year, so I only had to endure choruses of I love you, I love you for a relatively short period of time. Alas, Michelle and my relationship never recovered from the singing affair and she spent every effort avoiding me and quickly moved on to dating Roger, who was good at footy and never sang.