Mystery Galore

It was raining. He walked alone. The hood of his sweatshirt no longer flapped in the wind, instead it clinged stubbornly to his back. His hair hung over his eyes and kept him conscious with the simultaneous drip that ran from his scalp, down the strands of hair, and into his right eye. He was shivering uncontrollably. That didn’t matter. His heart was shattered.

As the train trudged along and hummed, he thought back to when things were more than all right. He found her! She was girl of his dreams. She had effortless beauty. The kind where she woke up in the morning, tucked her hair behind her left ear, pulled on a tee and jeans and out the door she went. No need for stuffy perfumes, she smelled naturally like a fresh spring morning.

He had been watching her at work. She worked at the local coffee shop. It looked to be a draining job, but she delighted in every moment. How was it she saw such purpose in making and hand delivering coffee to half driven persons day-to-day? He didn’t care much for the bitter taste of coffee or the stale feeling it left on his tongue, that was until that Wednesday morning when she brought him a cup.

Their eyes met and he knew. It was in the way she gently gave the coffee cup over to him, the way her mouth curved, and how she spoke. Wow! She had the voice of an angel!

And that’s how it happened! That’s how they met. He won her over and they were in the deepest of love, a love that he had never felt before.

She was new in town, so every date they went on he was her lover and her tour guide. He had fun with their dates. He showed her the hottest places to eat, the best poetry corner, where not to mingle, and the best hiking trails. They were lost in each other. Then the day came. She wanted him to meet her parents.

Together they saved up to get a bus ticket to travel north. She reassured him that the few days would all be okay. She went on and on about growing up and he could tell that she was Daddy’s little girl through and through. He distanced himself from her chatter and began to wonder and hope that her father would approve of him. After all, he was a “nobody” to everyone except to her.

They arrived and he found it difficult to regain balance. It was partly because they sat in their seats for the five hour trip, but mostly because he was out of his mind with worry and uncertainty. 

There they were in her parents’ living room. It was nothing he had ever seen before. She lived like this? She grew up like this? He had never felt carpet so plush or seen a house without one spec of dusk. He met her father and knew right away he didn’t approve. He tried to play it off, but was as transparent as a ghost!

A yelling match  broke out just as he stepped out of his daydreaming of how to sway her father. All he could see was the steady glare from her disapproving father. Her father repeated how he wanted better for her, how he couldn’t approve of such a low life kid. He demanded she move on.

Tears streamed down her cheeks but she never went against her father. She hung her head low in shame. Never once did she try to waver his thinking. He couldn’t take the hurt. Didn’t she love me? Her father showed him the door. Still she gazed down.

He had fallen in love with her and her way but all this was too good to be true and it all ended as suddenly as it had begun.

Walking alone in the cold rain. Screaming inside about how stupid he was. Dying inside as he thought of all he could’ve been. Now, he was alone and trying to mend his shattered heart…

<inspired by S.P.>…woof…