Week 15 entry...
Joseph stepped outside and quietly closed the door behind him. Elle was still sleeping, and he didn't want to wake her; it was her seventy-third birthday, after all. He had left a note on the kitchen table next to her coffee mug, letting her know he would be a little late coming home from his usual morning trip to the cafe.
He still needed to pick up her birthday gift for tonight's dinner. They'd been married 46 years, so most holidays had faded to the background after so long. Birthdays were still special, though, and both made an effort to make each gift unique and meaningful, even if it was handmade or cost only pennies. Joseph still fondly remembered the year she gave him a small wooden goat she'd carved for him one year, complete with a small knitted hat on its head -- a reminder of a particularly humorous incident involving one of the creatures on a trip to Asia that year. There were many such gifts between them over the years, little things that would mean little to nothing to an outside observer, but were reminders of all the special moments they'd shared.
This was the closest Joseph had come to not having a birthday gift completed for Elle -- usually he had it prepared and wrapped a few weeks in advance. This year, though, the idea for the right gift hadn't come to him until just the night before. Each night, no matter what had happened that day, whether they were together or hundreds of miles apart, even if they were in the middle of a heated argument about something -- each night, they never fell asleep without exchanging 'I love you, I'll see you in the morning' phrasings. They never wanted to forget that any problems or troubles they were experiencing were temporary; they would still be there for each other when the new day dawned. Elle often said the rising sun lit not only the world but the mind as well, bringing new ideas, thoughts, and solutions where only emptiness had been before.
As he'd said good night to Elle, he had suddenly remembered the small antique shop he passed every morning on his way to Sal's for his morning coffee and muffin. The shop was small, quietly tucked away in between a Starbucks and a pharmacy, and often seemed to go unseen by anyone other than the locals. But oh, what a place it was. The couple who owned it had lived nearly everywhere there was to live, and still traveled heavily to visit family and friends. After Merrill had retired seven years ago from his consulting position, it hadn't taken long for he and Darlene to decide to open the shop.
From small figurines to life-sized busts, from intricately beaded necklaces to whole-wall tapestries, they had filled the shop with the most incredible selection of items from around the world. On his last trip there, Joseph had seen a small crystal carving of a stylized sun, meant to sit on a sunny windowsill or to hang in a window. The crystal surfaces refracted the light into what seemed to be hundreds of little pinpoints of light. While such things often seemed tacky, this one was exquisite in its delicate beauty. Much like my Elle, Joseph had thought with a smile as had pulled the covers up around them.
After leaving the house the next morning, he debated whether to stop in on his way to the cafe or on his way home, and decided he should stop in there first to ensure he secured the gift before someone else saw it. He didn't find it in the place he remembered, but this didn't surprise him -- Darlene moved items around the shop constantly, as new items arrived and old ones were sold. She immediately knew what item he was describing to her, and she quickly retrieved it from its new location for him. She concurred Elle would love the crystal, and triple-wrapped it in protective wrapping before placing it in a gift box for him.
At last! he thought with a triumphant nod of his head, tucking the package into his coat pocket as he exited the store. He buttoned the pocket to ensure it would not tumble out if he removed the jacket. Head bent down to look at the pocket, he stepped out into the crosswalk, his mind already thinking ahead to the cranberry muffin Sal would have ready for him.
Joseph never saw the oncoming car until he'd already been struck and thrown several feet to the ground. The driver, a young woman, rushed out of the car to his side. She was panicked and crying as she knelt beside him, saying "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" over and over as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket to call for help.
Joseph began to fade into unconsciousness. The pain was growing with each passing second, his eyes refusing to focus any longer; he felt the blood trickling down his face from some sort of head injury. It was hard to concentrate, but he knew it had never been more important to do so.
I love you, Elle. I'll see you in the morning, my darling.
This is my entry for the fifteenth week of Season 8 of therealljidol. The prompt this week was 'preoccupied'.
This is prequel of sorts to my entry from the very first week of the season, though it was not necessary to read that one before this one, so I didn't want to link to it until the end. But for another bit of story about Jospeh and Elle, please see week one.
As always, thanks for reading.