put it in a frame. short story by me

“I wonder what this is all about” she said to herself as she walked into her house.

It was one of those days that seemed to be out of a fairy tale, baby blue skies with perfectly shaped white clouds, the lyrical (not at all annoying) songs of birds on the trees, and the sweet crispy wind that complimented the suns warmness so well. It was mid afternoon on a Saturday and she had just come home from dance class. At this point I must tell you that she was in her 30’s, from the sign of dance class one might think she was 10. But she had been dancing her whole life before that and wasn’t about to stop anytime soon.

She swung the door closed behind her as she slowly approached the surprise left on the floor in front of the door.

“take a minute

grab those pink high heels but don’t put them on,

and go to the place where you ride your bike to the swings”

that’s what the note said. But the note wasn’t just lying on the floor. It was in a gold frame. An antique gold frame with the white paper holding the message inside. She took a minute to stand in place and stare at the paper. Then like someone had pushed her she ran to her bedroom, her wavy brown hair on the loose. She searched her closet for her pink heels which turned out to be right in front of her nose and put them in a bag. She then jumped into her car and drove to the place where she rides her bike to the swings. The 4 minute drive felt like 44 minutes, her heart beating appallingly hard on the way.

She parked her car, almost forgetting to take the keys out of the ignition before she ran to the swings. There she found yet another note inside of another gold frame. This time it read

“face the swing looking at the bench in the distance. Walk to that bench.”

With a larger than normal smile she sped walked across the yard to the bench where another note inside of a gold frame greeted her. Next to the frame was one red rose.

“put your pink heels on the table

Sit on the bench and close your eyes”

As weird as this request was she took a deep breath and did as she was told, or I guess instructed to. She was now fairly certain that it was her boyfriend behind this.

1 minute past as she was sitting on the bench, hands held together nervously, trembling one knee up and down. She was sitting there 5 minutes when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She flinched from the surprise and said

“baby, is that you?”

Then she felt a hand cover her eyes gently as a gesture to keep them closed. Now her heart was beating like she was heading on a roller coaster. She sat, waiting for the next thing to happen, her foot tapping away in a nervous fashion. She then felt a mans hand on her knee, lifting her leg slightly off the ground and at that moment he said

“open your eyes”

She opened her eyes to see him on one knee knelt in front of her with one pink heel in his hand like he was about to put in on her foot.

All she could do was watch what he was going to do next. Her breathing was now accompanying her heart. He slipped one heel on, and did the same with the other. And like a rollercoaster, frightening in the beginning, it ended with tears down both of their eyes and a diamond on her left finger. She couldn’t feel her feet on the ground, maybe because she was hanging on him as if he had become a part of her and physically letting him go was the same as emotionally.

Her life with him so far had been a surprise each day. This proposal, today, had been unlike anything she would have thought. She had to think, for a girl who never wanted to have the same thing everyday for the rest of her life will never have the same thing for the rest of her life.