Jefferson Pepper Follow

PAPERBACK ROMANCE (c)2008 Jefferson Pepper, American Fallout.com

Mary Ellen was never a beautiful girl
If beauty was measured by the boys in her world
Who ran around yelling outside of her house
Calling her names with their tongues from their mouths
Her daddy was dead but her momma was kind
She said “Don’t worry darlin’ cause those boys are blind
They just don’t know you the way that I do
You’ve got a good heart, beauty’s inside of you

Then the cancer came callin’, there was nothing to do
Momma went off to be with the Lord
But the bills kept on comin’ and she had to quit school
Got a job at the second hand store

And she made the floors sparkle and she made the glass gleam
And she scrubbed all the smudges from the soda machine
She never figured that livin’ would give her much more
Than a paperback romance from the second hand store

The kit cat clock counted time on the wall
There were porcelain puppies and styrofoam balls
And plasticine unicorns smiling at her
And children’s stuffed animals missing their fur
There were books about Paris and books on decor
There were books about love and books about war
But Mary Ellen’s favorites were romance magazines
But she could do little more than imagine and dream

Well the customers came and the customers went
She worked hard for her pay and every penny got spent
And the matronly patrons all patronized her
And they spoke in hushed voices of the “pitiful girl”
But she did a good job and she was happy to help
And she dusted the nick-knacks on the stained plywood shelf
And she felt she had purpose and she felt she was home
But mostly Mary Ellen just felt all alone

And she made the floors sparkle and she made the glass gleam
And she scrubbed all the smudges from the soda machine
She never figured that livin’ would give her much more
Than a paperback romance from the second hand store

Billy Campbell was heckled and freckled and shy
He spoke with a stutter, the school bullies made him cry
But he had his own business doing odd jobs in town
And he loyally toiled from sunup to sundown
Well he saved all his money in jars by the stairs
Hoping someday to be a big millionaire
So all of those bullies who made fun of him
Would stop and take notice that he wasn’t so dim

Billy came shopping one Saturday night
He saw Mary Ellen, it was love at first sight
So he bought her a dove with a broken glass wing
In seven more weeks Billy bought her a ring
Then he bought Mary Ellen the second hand store
And they ran it together till they turned ninety-four
And they lived in the grandest old house in the town
With seventeen grandchildren running around

And she made the floors sparkle and she made the glass gleam
And she scrubbed all the smudges from the soda machine
She never figured that livin’ would give her much more
Than a paperback romance from the second hand store