Hey Everyone! Below is my first story, in a four-part series. Hope you enjoy!
Adventures in Marriage: Maggie and Tom
Part One
Skirts of tulle
and silk floated toward the clouds as her husband lifted her up for another
photo. He held her until he heard the click of the camera then quickly set her
down, commenting the gown must have added twenty pounds to his bride. The
wedding coordinator hurried them inside the antebellum mansion where the couple
would be announced to their guests as husband and wife. The photographer
snapped one more photo of them standing next to the towering white columns
standing guard on the porch before they whirled inside.
Inside candles
illuminated the couple’s smiling cheeks. They followed the coordinator down a
hallway that forced them to walk in single-file before it opened up to the main
room of the house.
“And now ladies
and gentlemen, I introduce to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas
Oswald!”
The evening spun
by in a sea of champagne toasts, cake, dancing, hugging and laughter.
As the couple
ran outside toward their car at the end of the night bubbles danced over their
heads and guests shouted “congratulations!” They grasped each others' hands and
giggled like they were back in high school.
Sighing, they fell into the seats of their Jeep, graciously decorated by the groomsmen with
streamers wrapped around the frame and “Just Married” in white on the tire
cover. Tom turned to his beaming wife and said “we did it, darlin’”
Maggie leaned
over and left a pink lipstick mark on Tom’s cheek.
With luggage
bouncing in the back seat they made their way in silent wonderment to their
hotel that neighbored the airport. Maggie looked at her groom as he drove
through the crowded downtown streets
and remembered how crazy their lives had been up until this moment. She had
loved him since she was seventeen, always thinking of him during the difficult
years when they had split and grown without each other. But it was those years
of dating, fighting, making up and forming their unbreakable bond that made her
smile to herself and reach over for Tom’s hand.
“Do you remember
that night we spent on the beach for my nineteenth birthday?”
Tom squeezed her
hand. “And I played that cheesy forties music for you?”
“It’s not
cheesy. I love Frank Sinatra.”
Tom laughed. “I know
you do.”
After a moment
Tom asked “What about the night I first showed you where Orion was? That wasn’t
so cheesy.”
“Well….”
Tom reached over
and tickled Maggie’s knee and she squealed loud enough for people on the street
to stop and look.
She smacked Tom
on the arm “Thanks a lot! Now they think I’m some sort of weirdo.”
“Well…..”
Maggie had to
fight the urge to tickle Tom as he took the exit onto the highway. Instead she
clicked on the radio and began dancing in her seat. Tom smiled as she lifted her
arms above her head and sang off key to words she kind of knew.
The Jeep cruised
down the highway, wind coasting over the couple as they sang out of tune
together. Tom felt a sudden jerk in the steering wheel and then heard rubber
slapping against the asphalt.
“Shoot.”
He eased off the
highway and turned off the engine.
“You wanna
help?” Tom grinned at Maggie.
Maggie looked
down at her white gown then shook her head.
Tom hopped out
and made his way to the back for the spare tire. Over the sound of cars flying
past Maggie heard Tom’s exasperated “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“What’s wrong?”
she hollered back to him.
“The guys took
out my spare and filled the cover up with silly string!”
Maggie thought
she’d tumble out onto the grass from laughing. She gasped for air as Tom walked
back to the driver’s seat to call AAA. He knew his groomsmen were in no
condition to bring him back his spare.
“Now we just
have to wait.”
Maggie cuddled
up to Tom and let the whoosh of the cars on the highway lull her into a state
of calm. Tom pulled her into his chest and brushed his lips over her forehead.
They both thought they would drift off to sleep until a tractor trailer rumbled
by and shook them out of rest. Maggie held Tom tighter. No matter where they
were he made her feel safe.
Tom let his eyes
drift to the night hovering above them. He found the Big Dipper and the North
Star, but that’s not what his gaze desired tonight. Finally he found it and
pointed up at three sparkling dots.
“Orion’s Belt”
Maggie gazed up with the same wonder as she
had ten years ago.
The memories
came back again and Maggie leaned over to kiss her groom. It didn’t matter that
they were stranded on the side of the road, that their wedding day flew by too
fast or even the time they spent apart so many years ago. What mattered was
nothing could take away the joy she was feeling at that moment. She had married
her high school sweetheart, the first and only boy she ever truly loved.
Even after an
hour and a half of waiting it was too soon for Maggie to break away from Tom.
She walked in the grass as the mechanic helped Tom change the tire. She gazed
back up into the heavens and counted her blessings on the stars of Orion.
