Red Gloves

A flash fiction piece.

She wore red gloves the day they met.

It was December and the snow had just started falling while she waited at the bus stop.  She didn’t normally take public transportation, but since her car was at the garage for the next week, she didn’t have much choice.  She hated the bus.  Or least she did until her eyes met his and her heart did that crazy flip-flop thing.  Even then she knew that he was the one.

She wore red gloves the day of their wedding.

They were long  and silky red ones that went past her elbows and made her feel beautiful and sexy, especially when he whispered in her ear how wonderful and quirky she was.  And then he laughed that laugh - the husky, contagious one, that always made her smile, and all she could think about during their wedding dance was how badly she needed him to get her out of that damn white dress.

She wore red gloves the day she told him about the baby.

She’d been cleaning the toilet and wearing those plastic, rubbery things that prevented her hands from smelling like chemicals.  Her stomach was rolling and as soon as she flushed the cleaner down, she threw up in the toilet.  She felt him before she saw him and she grumbled, “Don’t you dare laugh!  It’s your child that’s making me sick.”  When she stood and turned to him, tears of joy had welled in his eyes and she never loved somebody so much in her life. 

She wore red gloves the day of the funeral.

They were short and leather.  They seemed out of place with her black dress, but she didn’t care.  Tears ran down her face as they lowered his casket into the earth and her shoulders shook with the kind of black, bottomless despair that only comes with forever.    

And when she got home to that silent, lonely house, she took off the gloves and never wore red again.

Author's Note

This was supposed to be part of a picture challenge that my friend gave me, but I can not find the picture now! It was a picture of red gloves and a set of wedding rings. Sorry its taken me so long Nixie.

Reviews

[Alice Oiseau]

Honey, I swear to God, I have tears in my eyes after reading this. I love the red glove theme, and more importantly, I love what they symbolize. To me, it's her heart, her ability to love. And when he dies, a piece of her dies too; the heart, the ability to love. Hence the tears because interpreting it that way creates an incredibly sad tale. She'll love him and only him. Beautiful and tragic.

[Christopher Todd Dallas]

Pictures have inspired many poems/narratives. It's an excellent method to use in between epiphanies.
You have a terrific pattern that works thru most prose; the circular journey, the return in the end to the premise of the beginning.
Here is the phrase that I really liked:

"that only comes with forever."

[Kelley]

This was a great story Honeypot, very sad but very good.
Did you win? I hope so.

Thanks for sharing.

Kelley

[Big ol' Kahuna]

This was very beautiful. Building emotion strong from within with so few words is a wonderful ability you have. I liked the middle two verses the best as they really build the strength of the whole story.
It seemed so short, like there should have been another verse or two to it, but I guess that also is true about life; you just never know how long you have, or how many "red glove" moments there will be. Good job baby, as always. Really very well done.

[Stacey Watts]

What a beautiful love story. This story brought tears to my eyes. It was very well written and it is amazing the little things that mean so much in life.

[An owl on the moon]

This is absolutely stunning... what joy and grief you share, a life, a world that moves around us and in us... We come to know her, in good and bad... This is so well written.. Loved how you created the flow and feel.

[Brown Bull]

What a nice little love story you have once again put together my friend, I am glad that I stopped by and read it.

BB

[Bare trees]

Wow, a touching story. I like the way you used the color red for the gloves. To me it symbolized happiness because of each event described; when they met, the wedding, and the baby. Then you describe the black of despair through the dress and the description of her condition. Great story.

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

I love the symbolic use of the gloves in each verse... it adds to all the emotions being expressed... I was captivated from the first line on and nearly in tears by the end. Wonderful work.