A Rose and a Gravestone
"She's the most beautiful tonight!" I told my friends and swigged half of the liquor in my glass.
"Yes she is", replied my buddy Billy Burton. "But, who is she? I can't recall her from school."
"Maybe she's not a senior... perhaps she is some classmate's sister. Anyways, who cares? She's absolutely the prettiest girl in the ball tonight." Johnny Dimpleton said.
We all observed the girl as she climbed down the stairs with gracious confidence. Like an angel she wore a white gown and a gilded tiara crowning her dark hair. A pair of emerald eyes glistened reflecting the fluorescent spotlights in the salon.
"I'm going to ask her for a dance." I spoke with self determination.
"Ha! I bet twenty bucks she won't dance with you!" I heard Billy say. Yet, without looking back, I walked away leaving my buddies gambling on my fate.
The beautiful brunette stood by the stairs scanning the ballroom. A cold blow in my stomach suggested with some traces of disappointment that she might have been looking for someone. Her fiancé? But I was half way across the salon on my way to ask this girl I've never seen before for a dance and my friends were expecting me to fail in the quest.
"Good evening. Are you looking for someone?" I asked her. Yes it was better to ask first. After all I didn't want to get a punch right on my nose for asking another guy's girl to dance.
"Yes... Well, I was. I think he didn't come. I've been looking for him for... Seems like an eternity.
"Oh, I see? Your boyfriend?"
"Oh no. I don't have a boyfriend. Men nowadays are not fond to commitment. And me... Well, they see me and run!" She said and chuckled.
"But why! You're the most beautiful girl in the prom", I told her.
"Oh that's so sweet! Thank you." She blushed burying innocently her eyes to the floor.
"My name is Branden." I introduced myself. "What's your name?" I asked.
"I'm Rose Marie."
"A lovely name, to a lovely lady." Like a gentleman I kissed her fist. Her delicate and pale hands were cold to the touch, but her skin was so soft and smell like roses.
"Thank you, Branden."
"Would you dance with me tonight." I ventured to ask her finally.
"Yes." Rose Marie answered and smiled.
Taking gently her hand, we sauntered amidst the dancing crowd.
And we danced and danced... And conversed and laughed to each one's jokes till the prom ended. As we walked out the salon I covered Rose Marie's bare shoulders with my Jacket. It was passed midnight and she had accepted me taking her home.
We drove through the city until we got to the Old Town's Cemetery.
"Are you sure you want me to leave you here. I think it is no appropriate. I should take you right by your door", I insisted.
"No! I mean, look, my house is that one on the hill. It's not a long walk and my mom is very strict. I don't want a fuss tonight."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely", she said. "Thank you for everything Branden. I had a wonderful time with you tonight", then she kissed my lips softly. Her lips were cold, but plump and sweet.
I watched her walk up the hill until she disappeared in the darkness. Then I drove back home.
The next morning I woke up early to wash my Chevy. As I wiped the vinyl front seats, I noticed something glowing on the rug. I leaned to grab the sparkling little object and found it was a silver chain with a diamond pendant. That was Rose Marie's charm. I remembered she wore it last night. Immediately, I thought of taking it back to hers. Maybe this was the perfect chance to visit her.
After finishing detailing my car, I hurried inside home, took a shower and dressed up decently to go to the girl's house. I parked my car on front the humble wooden house on top of the hill right next to the town's graveyard. Necklace in hand, I knocked three times the front door and waited.
An old lady opened the door and scanned me. "Yes?"
"Good afternoon ma'am. Is Rose Marie home?"
"Who!" The woman asked me baffled by my question.
"Rose Marie. My name is Branden, I'm Rose Marie's friend..."
"Excuse me young man, are you mocking on me?" The woman cut me off glowing a severe expression on her face.
"No. Why? Look. I only want to give this back to her. She dropped this last night..."
As soon as the woman saw the pendant in my hand, her eyes opened wide with bewilderment.
"Who gave you that?" She asked me. Her eyes watered.
"I said she dropped it last night when I took her back home."
The woman grabbed the oscillating charm from my hand and walked inside her house. She examined carefully the jewel and sobbed.
I followed the lady to the living area. Her eyes and face reddened and anguish drew on her countenance.
"Please, tell me how this pendant ended in your hands", she said sounding desperate.
I narrated her everything that happened the night before. When I saw her so beautiful and danced with her. How I insisted in taking her to her house door, but she didn't accept.
The lady walked to the curio in the corner of the room. She opened the glass small door and took out a photograph which she showed to me. "Is this her?", she asked me.
"Yes. That is Rose Marie."
"I don't know who you dance with last night, but THAT wasn't my Rose Marie. My baby girl died 20 years ago in a car accident on her way to her prom."
"But... But that's impossible. You... You are lying to me! Where is Rose Marie? She told me you were too strict with her..."
"No! Please! Don't say that to me Branden!" The woman cried and let herself drop to the floor. She pressed the photograph, Rose Marie's photograph to her chest. "That what she always told me, that I was too strict with her... If I had let her go to the dance ball, she wouldn't have escaped and probably she'd be alive now."
"Excuse me... But all this seem so bizarre to me. It's like a bad joke and I only wanted to take her necklace back... I'm sorry but I can't believe this story that you're telling me! I dance with her last night... I... I left her on the sidewalk next to the cemetery..."
"Well, you brought her home then, because she rests in that cemetery. If you don't believe me you can go and see with your own eyes her gravestone, right there, across the street", she spoke, walking to the balcony and pointing to the Old Town's Municipal Graveyard.
I left the house realizing that I've just met a crazy woman. Maybe she hid poor Rose Marie in her room, or in the basement. The whole story of the dead girl was so implausible to me.
I got into my car and drove down the hill to the corner where the road lead to the cemetery, right on front of the sidewalk I left Rose Marie the night before.
"I must see it with my own eyes", I told myself.
Once in the graveyard, the undertaker explained me how to get to the gravestone I was inquiring. Shivers ran down my spine with the possibility of finding a crypt with Rose Marie's name on it. I was in a state of denial. It couldn't be true...
I walked among the mausoleums, tombs and marbled statues of angels and saints until I found it. On the gravestone read: Rose Marie Charles; 1958-1976.
Over the marble tomb, there lied my jacket.
***This short story is based on an urban legend from my Town.