Hidden Jewels (Short Stories)

6) Take me back to the night we met

Published: Friday, June 5th 2020 12:47 am

It wouldn't stop raining. The dark clouds that expanded the sky and darkened the town shook  the world angrily when the thunder boomed through the sky. Lighting came silently as it usually did, and the rain pour matched the sound of a thousands horses running in a stampede. The gloominess was made just for the days occasion. It didn't get any more sad than this for a funeral. Though it did make the ones left alive think hard and long about what their final resting day would be like.

"Dad, its time." Cindy, his daughter said from the doorway of the bedroom he no longer shared with the love of his life. If possible it rained harder at Cindy's announcement. A hand was placed on his shoulder that pulled him around to look at Cindy before she pulled him into a hug. The hug was over faster than it started. Cindy wasn't much for human contact. "Don't be sad." She said. "She's in a better place."

"She's dead." He stated and turned away from her to look back outside. He sighed at the dark world out the window. "Such a sad day. Your mother would have loved it."

"I'm sure she would have liked for it to be sun-shining instead." She tried to tell him, but he knew the opposite.

He disregarded that and grabbed his coat that was on the bed and brushed by her. "I'll be in the car."

The ride to the funeral home was short. Far too short. In no time he found himself hugging those who wanted to give him comfort and accepting their words of assurance that he would make it through this. He didn't believe them. He might be in his eighties, and married for almost sixty years, but even he felt cheated out of the time he could have had with his dead, sweet wife. The bitterness for what he wasn't given would always be there.

Then it was time to view her and say goodbye. She thankfully looked at peace in her casket with her hair put into a bun with a yellow hairnet to decorate. It was her color and she always wanted to have it on. The hairnet matched the yellow dress that she loved to wear and that Cindy hated that she would be buried in. But it was his wife's wish, and Cindy would have to live with it. The eulogy was heartfelt from the rest of their children and grandchildren, and even accompanied by their first great-grandchild. Many stories were told that brought happiness and sadness, but he only felt empty. He would always feel empty without his love with him.

They buried her and he didn't cry. He let the sky cry for him as it continued to rain through the burial. By the end of the day it was time to go home and greet the rest of his life alone. Christopher, his eldest grandson offered to drive him back instead of Cindy, and he took the offer. The ride was mostly quiet until Chris reminded him that he was there.

"Grandpa?" He looked up at Chris and bid him continue. "You and Grandma were married for sixty years?"

"Almost." He sighed of the thought of them almost making it that long until his wife was ripped away from him. "Our marriage made it fifty-seven years."

"And you met at that barn dance grandma always talked about?"

Chris remembered, he realized, the story that his wife would tell all of her children and grandchildren of how their family was formed. It all happened at that barn dance fifty-eight years ago. Who would have thought that, that night would change their lives.

"I almost didn't go that night." He admitted.

"How come?" Chris wondered.

Looking back he could see how foolish he was to think about missing the dance. He had just gotten laid off of work and didn't feel much like partying with the rest of the town. But he was pushed to at least go and get a plate of food and see where the night took him. That night started the rest of his life.

"Wallowing mostly from my bad day." He admitted to his grandson. "But that night changed everything."

"So you would do it all again?"

He didn't miss a beat. "In a heartbeat."

Chris stayed to make sure he was okay for a while and he was grateful for that. The rest of the family agreed to give him a day to process his grief before they came calling the next day. They were also grieving and he was all that they had left, so he didn't object. It was a cold night when he finally laid down in bed and looked up at the ceiling. There were glowing stars on the ceiling that his wife wanted. From the moment she saw them in some movie she had to have them and he couldn't deny her happiness. Chris had placed on the of the walk for them with no questions asked. She had been so excited about it and even spent hours just talking with him as she looked up at the stars. She would eventually fall asleep to the sound of her own voice and he would join her soon after, his arms surrounding her.

For the first time that day a strangled sound left his throat. He felt the tears coming as he did, but his eyes never left the stars on the ceiling. They were what she left behind. As he started to doze off, a single tear escaped the side of his eye and down his face, and he closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes it was like he learned to breathe for the first time. The light all around him was bright and calming and just for him. Then it begun to dissipate and leave him longing to see its brightness once more. The room began to change from the bedroom he had been in before, though he wasn't scared. If anything he was excited to know of what awaited him next in this world.

It was the barn, he realized, after the bright light left him at the entrance. The young man he once was is the skin that he adorned along with the clothes that he wore. It was the same outfit he threw on that fateful day all those years ago. He gasped as he took in the lanterns that decorated the walls, the hay that was used as seats for the feats, though the crowd that was once there all of those years ago was gone. It was just them.

She was waiting for him in the middle of the dance floor with the widest smile he had ever seen adorning her face. She was wearing the yellow dress with the flowers in her hair from the dance. Her hand outstretched for him to join her and he didn't give it a second thought.

"How?" He asked in awe as their hands connected and he was pulled into a dance. The music began to play out of nowhere, the same tune from all those years ago.

She only smiled as they swayed in the moment that they reclaimed once again as their own. There was no one around for them to worry about messing up what they had. This was their eternity.

"It was your time, my love." She said after a while, though the dancing didn't end. She had such a glow of happiness about her, it was hard to believe that she was real. "Are you saddened that you passed so suddenly?"

He scoffed and shook his head fiercely at the idea. He was anything but that. "Are you kidding? My life wasn't the same after I laid you to rest."

"I told you to go on without me." She reminded him softly.

"I know." He said. "But I couldn't. Your memory was not enough to keep me in that prison of a world."

Suddenly she stopped moving, though they remained locked in place. "I would have watched you live for as long as I could until you joined me. You deserved more years." She told him.

With a smile of nothing but pure happiness, he leaned forward and placed a kiss on her forehead. The music changed to a softer tune. It was one filled with love and hope.

"Being alive meant nothing to me in the misery that I was subjected to." Was his response, and she tried her best not to let this moment cause her tears to fall even if they were ones of happiness. "I love you, my darling, and I will forever."

She pulled their bodies closer, hugging him tighter. "Forever." She whispered as they began to sway once again, beginning anew with memories from the past.