3/18/13

Beverly’s Diary
By Beth J. Whiting


Beverly was a tall blonde eighteen year old, one of the most beautiful girls in the school. One day she left her diary behind in the school library.
A boy named Matthew picked it up. He thought about giving it back to her but instead he kept it. Matthew spent the whole night reading it.
It was fascinating. She had a crush on every guy in the high school. It was a small town. Plus she had a crush on every other guy in the town, even guys in their 60’s. Her diary was over 400 pages.
The boy thought about a way to get Beverly’s attention. At first he thought he would write a love letter from every guy in town but that seemed mundane.
Instead he made up a guy.
His name was Milton McFur.
The letter began:

Dear Beverly,

I’m a lonely mail clerk who lives in this town. I fell in love with you one day when you sent out a package. There is something so phenomenally sweet about you. You’re a pretty girl with dazzling yellow hair. I hope we can strike up a correspondence.

Love,

Milton McFur

Matthew put his address on the letter.
A week later he got a response from Beverly.

Dear Milton,

I’ve never heard of you before and I thought I knew everyone in town. Perhaps I just haven’t noticed. Yes, I am interested in striking up a correspondence.

Beverly

So Matthew wrote her back.

Dear Beverly,

I went to your high school last year before I became a mail clerk. I would see you in the halls and I could hear my heart beating.
I know you’re a pretty girl but I would like to know the real you.

Love,
Milton McFur

Beverly wrote a letter,

Dear Milton,

I may be a pretty girl but in actuality I am quite the nerd. When I was 16, I bought myself a record player. My parents thought I was crazy. Just what would you want with a record player? Records are useless in this day and age, right? Well, I’ve discovered that not all good music is on cds.
Over the past two years, my father and I have been to thrift stores in the city. We try to go every Saturday. It’s fun to look through those dusty old records and find treasures.
Do you own a record player? Maybe we can exchange ideas.

Love,
Beverly


Dear Beverly,

I don’t own a record player but perhaps I should acquire one if you’re really into it. We could give each other recommendations.

Love,
Milton McFur

This girl was getting to be weirder than Matthew anticipated.

Dear Milton McFur,

Have you ever heard of the singer Beverly Kenney who I was named after? She has a lovely voice. I recommend her Sings for Playboys album.

Love,
Beverly

Matthew downloaded the cd and played it in his room. It was a dreamy voice singing vocal jazz. He played A Woman’s Intuition three times in a row. His mother walked by and looked at him sort of funny.


Dear Beverly,

That singer who you were named after was quite lovely. I’m not really into music. I go to the post office and then I go home and watch television. So I can’t really give you recommendations. But you can certainly give me recommendations.

Love,
Milton McFur

Dear Milton,

June Christy was a vocal jazz singer who made a delightful Christmas album called This Time of Year. It’s moody but it’s not Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It’s an interesting Christmas album.

Love,

Beverly

As Matthew walked the halls sometimes he would see Beverly walking towards him. He hoped a book would fall or something so that he could help her. Beverly was getting to be an interesting gal. She was not ditzy like the other girls around him.

That day in the mail he found a record, Blossom Dearie’s Once Upon a Summertime.

Dear Milton,

I thought that you would like an actual record. I found this in a thrift store. Tell me what you think about it.

Love,
Beverly

Milton went to his father's closet and dug out the record player. The record had a Betty Boop-like voice doing jazz. It was adorable.
There was just something about this Beverly.
He decided to put in a recommendation of his own from his dad's collection.

Dear Beverly,

I’m more of a country man. Why don’t you try the Louvin Brothers’ Satan is real?

Love,
Milton McFur

Dear Milton,

I giggled when I saw the cover of the hicks by the devil but it really is good music. And I’m not that much of a country lover.

Love,
Beverly

Who was he kidding? He had a crush on her. Matthew arranged a date for them to meet at a coffee shop. He would admit to her that he had made up a guy named Milton McFur, that he was the one actually who liked her.
But when he got at the coffee shop, Matthew saw a guy with glasses sitting next to her.
In a fit of jealously he interrupted, “Who are you?”
“Milton McFur.”
Milton McFur had come to life?

Milton and Beverly got engaged that senior year. He saw Milton at the post office and Beverly sometimes coming to see him.
For a while Matthew drove by their place, sighing out of spite. But then he knew he had to move on.


- - -
Beth J. Whiting was born in 1983 to a large family of brainy eccentrics. At eight years old she developed a love of books through the works of Roald Dahl and C.S. Lewis. Her short stories revolve around underdogs in suburban settings, such as the one in which she was raised. She currently lives with her artistic twin sister in a tiny apartment in Mesa, Arizona.