Friday, March 21, 2008

3WW: Indisposable

(Here's something I wrote for this week's 3 Word Wednesday. The words were: money, tangled understood)

It was somewhere around hour fifty-seven of his work week when he happened across a forgotten memory buried in the back of a desk drawer. It was a snapshot of her on a trip they took to King's Island when they were still dating. Immediately, the memories came pouring, filling up his mind.

Money was tight then. Rolling change to help make the rent. Buying a dollar and fifty cents of gas. So they had made the trip in one day to save the cost of a hotel. Leaving before sunrise, he spent much of the day in line for the rides leaning on her shoulder with his eyes closed. They bought a disposable camera for five dollars and got a man who looked like Dick Van Dyke to take their picture in front of the fake Eiffel Tower.

The hardest rain he had ever seen began to fall late in the afternoon and they ran laughing and splashing for cover. That is when he had snapped her picture, her hair soaking wet and her face just beginning to turn away from the camera when she realized what he was doing. She made him promise at least seven times he would throw the picture away.

Coming back to the present, he found himself smiling. One of those big goofy smiles that you hope no one has seen. He also realized they had not taken a trip in... he couldn't remember when. It had been several years. Years of sixty hour weeks. Years of too much working late and not nearly enough leaving early. They had plenty of things and money now. But staring at the picture again, he found himself longing for who they were then, when money was what they wanted and love was what they had.

All at once, in that office on the 5th floor at 6:18 PM on a Friday, his tangled mind was clear. The work he had been stressing to get done and that had seemed so important a few minutes earlier could wait. There were more urgent things to tend to. There always had been, he just needed to be reminded. Grabbing his coat, he carefully placed the photograph in the inside pocket, and started home.

She would be confused at first, no doubt, when he told her to pack an overnight bag because they were taking a trip. When they crossed the Ohio, she might have some idea. And when he finally showed her the photograph he had promised to throw away, he hoped she understood.

"Remember digging through your old purses in hopes we'd get enough change for an RC Cola or a pack of cigarettes..."

20 comments:

  1. now that,, is what life is all about... so well done!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. nicely done, you'll be in the running for the most eligible bachelor with stories like this!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That was simply beautiful. Though I'm probably the Diane Arbus of blogging, I'm a romantic at heart and I thank you for this story

    ReplyDelete
  4. Touching, tender tale. Magical, even! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh that's so sweet!

    May you NEVER get to where you are "longing for who they were then, when money was what they wanted and love was what they had."

    You come up with the best stuff. You're keeping a hard copy of all of this...right?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Paisley: Thanks. And I agree. It just seems easy to forget sometimes.

    Sage: Wow, go me! Hopefully that'll work out for me. I'm getting kinda tired of standing with the group trying to catch the garter at weddings.

    Pia: Thank you. The Diane Arbus line is hilarious.

    Tumblewords: Thank you for the nice words.

    Renee: Thanks. Actually, my printer is on the fritz, so I've been having all my blog entries faxed to you :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love this post. It's pure romance. I want to read it over and over again

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm so not crying at work. I'm not.

    That was nice. I like that it was a fairly happy ending.

    I'm currently working on a 3WW mega mix because I've missed 3 somehow and my story's very dark.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wonderful story! You hooked me right from the start. My favorite line:

    staring at the picture again, he found himself longing for who they were then, when money was what they wanted and love was what they had.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a Darling you are ... a male who understands romance and women, you're rare! Beautiful post!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Genie: That's always a good thing to hear :) Thank you.

    Xinh: I didn't expect that it would have that effect. Thanks.

    Yeah, I kinda thought I'd wind up writing something dark or sad when I started out this week. But that's not how it turned out.

    Christine: Thanks. That line was sort of the thought in my head that the whole story evolved from.

    Redness: Oh wow. I don't know about all that. In going from writing to putting into action, I think way too much gets lost in the translation for me :) Perhaps if I start viewing my life as a story I'm writing...

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've been trying to comment on this since you wrote it! Finally, finally, finally, I can!

    I adore this exercise. You can feel the emotions he goes through and the longing he has for the things he felt in the past and his hope for the here and now.

    Wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Excellent story this week, Bone. It's always nice to see you participating.

    I like how he realized how much he'd taken for granted over the years, and decided to fix things before it was too late. Often times we let work, silly fights, lack of money - all the trivial details really, come between us. It was nice to see him fix that.

    ReplyDelete
  14. What? You getting mushy?

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh, I like this - especially the last line. I could see a good film coming out of this.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ah, the romantic gesture. Who needs money :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I followed someone else's 3WW button and ended up back here instead of at the new site and noticed taht the first post for 3WW was actually "The Punch." Does this one not get a tag? :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lillith - Thank you. Were there problems with Blogger or something?

    TC - Thanks. I guess he could easily have waited too long, but I was in the mood for a happy tale.

    Sean P - I hope that's a good wow.

    Gautami - Yeah, I knew I shouldn't have watched Extreme Home Makeover last week :)

    J Adam - Thank you. It definitely has the happy ending aspect to it.

    Anthony - Thanks for the comment.

    TC - Ah, thanks for pointing that out. The issue has now been resolved :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. this was good, just catching up,
    really nice...hey there's a gift awaiting you at my space, hope you will like it, i havent been able to come by lately, but wanted to let you know that you are in my thoughts.

    ReplyDelete