Rudolph Valenteeny

The front door slides open, and a small voice can be heard piping out a hello. It is H-chan, one of my son's seven year old class mates. And she has brought him a Valentines day chocolate. She made it herself. It is heart shaped and has sweets stuck  on it to turn it into a face. She has written a note, carefully sealed with a shiny sticker. There are hearts drawn on it.

And he is not in. He has missed his first proper Valentine. And she has gone to all that trouble, and come round from a different village, because she likes him. And he is not in. She doesn't get to give it to him personally, she has to leave it with his mum. He is off with his mate M-chan practising their traditional dance performance. She gave him a box of home made chocolates too, with one shaped like a cat. Very nice, but she is his mate, and a year older, so it doesn't count the same.

I want to make H-chan feel better, in recognition of her effort and to thank her for liking my son, for proving that he possibly won't need to spend his life alone and unloved. Well, not until he gets married anyway. But anything I attempt would only worry her, so she goes off, thinking to herself, "He wasn't in." 

The night before my son and I had watched a drama about a teenage girl who loves a boy, but she can't seem to make any good chocolates for him as Japanese girls are supposed to do. Her dad is a master choclatier, but he is too busy, working all hours. She buys some....and throws them away. In the end her dad helps her, they bond, the boy likes the chocolates, all her fears and angst were unfounded. My son was probably bemused by the whole thing, but it was better than an early night. Then the next day it was all played out again just for him. And he wasn't in. And he is still bemused.

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