Ours

Just a little story I wrote on a whim. What do you think?

    I met him in preschool when I was standing in the corner. All I wanted to do on that first day of preschool was to leave. I remember, as clear as day, standing in that corner as I cried for my mum to bring me with her to work. It was when I looked up from my tear-filled hands that I first saw his gentle eyes. He stood there with his hand offering me his teddy bear as he said sweetly, “Hi! I’m William. I’ll play with you if you want.” At that moment, my tears stopped and I knew I had a life-long friend.

            William and I went through every moment together. I told William everything, from stealing a cookie to my deepest secrets. He was always the first person I wanted to see in the morning and the last person I wanted to see at night. Whenever something happened in my life, he was the first person I wanted to tell. He always knew what I was thinking before I even said it and my emotions before I ever let them through. He never missed a birthday or one of my theater performances. He was my William.

             In middle school, when romantic love with my best friend terrified me, I dated Calvin to preoccupy myself. William listened to every story. It was he who helped me prepare for dates, and it was he who consoled me when my virgin heart was broken for the first time. He was the one who handed me the tissues and cried with me.

            William and I took on freshman year of high school together. He played saxophone in the band and played on the chess team, and I played flute and stage-managed the plays. He never missed a production, no matter how small. In sophomore year, I finally dated my best friend. 

            After high school, we moved into an apartment together in New York. We never attended college, but we were happy and had no regrets.  He wanted me to pursue my dream of being stage manager on Broadway because, as he said, “If you have a dream, then you have to go for it. This is your life and these are your dreams. If we mess up, at least we messed up trying. Better to fail trying than to fail at trying.” Although I never made it to Broadway, I became a stage manager for small off-broadway productions. William became a firefighter. This never surprised me because he always went that extra mile to help people. A year after graduation, he proposed, and when we scrapped together enough money, we got married in the gazebo in Central Park. My dress was a short white sundress and he wore a nice shirt and pants, but when we saw each other in the gazebo, nothing could have been more perfect. I never would have wanted to see anybody else waiting for me under the shade of the gazebo on that warm July day. Three years later, when we bought our first house, Zachary David was born. When Zachary was four, Abigail Rose was born. 

           

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The alarm went off at 5:00 am causing the usual morning stir. I rolled over in our bed to face William.

“Good morning, Lydia,” he said softly. I lightly kissed the tip of his nose,

“Good morning, William,” I whispered.

“You really ought to brush your teeth before I wake up. Your breath is awful,” He ended in a chuckle.

“Well, your breath doesn’t smell like roses either.” I laughed.

“Touché.” We enjoyed each other’s company for a while before we got out of bed. Being a fireman, William spent many nights in the firehouse, so when he was home, we made the most of it.

I walked over to my wardrobe and picked out two dressy outfits and said,

            “Which one?”

            “Whatever you wear, you’ll get the job.”

            “William, this is Broadway! They are looking for a stage manager for CATS. This could be my chance to live the dream. Now, tell me, what should I wear?”

            “What would it matter? When you get the job, you’ll just wear black and hide backstage.”

            “You’re awful,” I said gently nudging him.

            “The worst,” he parried. After carefully weighing my options, I chose the ivory blouse and black pencil skirt. When I came out of the bathroom in this outfit, he gasped and said,

            “They’d be nuts not to give a beautiful and competent woman like you the job!” I felt my face turn several shades of pink before returning to the natural shade.

            “William, can you wake up Zac? I’ll get Abby’s bottle started.” I walked over to the crib on the side of our room and gently woke Abby, brought her downstairs, and began to fix her bottle. With Abby in my arms, I heard a small pitter patter on the stairs as Zachary came down with one eye still in a dream. William followed Zac. I took out the toast I had made and put it on the kitchen table.

            “Hey, champ, what are you doing in school today?” William asked Zachary.

            “What we want to be when we grow up. I want to be a fireman like you, Daddy.” William and my eyes locked as we laughed.

            William got Zachary dressed as I was getting Abby ready.

            “Hey, William, can you take Zac to school on your way to work?” Zac looked up at his father and pleaded with him until William gave in. With Zac ready, William kissed me and said,

            “Love you, Lydia, see you later on.”

            “I love you. Stay safe.” When the boys left the house, I brought Abby to the baby sitter and drove to Broadway for my interview, which needed to be cut short.

            America is under attack. Those are the words I heard in my interview. As soon as those words were known, the interviews closed. I got in my car and raced to the baby sitter and Zac’s nursery school.

            Once home, I turned on the television to see what was going on and I saw the World Trade Center burning down. Terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers. I lifted the phone to call William at the station, but nobody answered. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw fire trucks at the Trade Center. Fear tingled through my spine causing my body to go numb. When I gained a sense of reality, I noticed the phone was on the floor.   When Zachary saw all the fire engines, he asked,

“Mummy! Is Daddy there?”

“I don’t know, baby. I don’t know.” I walked over to Zachary and caressed him as I frantically scanned the engine numbers unable to find his. Suddenly, the tower collapsed.

Author's Note

In my hometown, there was a fire and two firemen were trapped in it. One lost his life and the other was severely wounded. Thinking about what fire fighters do fo us and about my friend Mick, this is what the result was. What do you think? Please be as brutally honest as needed. :-)

Reviews

[Bailey C. Writing]

Can you please continue this D:
I think I'll die not knowing what happened!!!

[zynaaa]

I love this so much!