“John, dinner is ready”, called out
my wife, Mary’s sweet voice. I stood up and wiped my grease covered hands on an
old rag. On my way to the door I over looked the engine I was just hunched over
a few seconds ago. When I walked through the door, I took my boots off. I
started to make my way up the stairs, and to the kitchen.
In the doorway to the kitchen, I
watched Mary spoon some spaghetti into a bowl and bring it to the dining table.
She looked up at me with a smile.
“I made your favorite”, she said as
she started to fill another bowl.
“Ooh, smells delicious.” Suddenly a
ding rang through the room. Mary perked up, and went to the oven. “You even
made my favorite cheesy garlic bread. You would think that it was a special
day, or something.” She put the tray of bread on the stove top, and said, “Well
it is a special day.” Mary walked over to me, put her arms around my neck, and
gave me a kiss. “Happy birthday, sweetie.” I could feel the corners of my mouth
curl into a smile.
During dinner we talked about lots of
stuff, such as the highs and lows of our day, the project that Mary was working
on at work, and the preparations for the camping trip this weekend. I was right in the middle of telling her about
a story that a co-worker told me about this morning when a clash of lightning
appeared out the window, and rain started to hit the glass.
“Was there supposed to be storm
tonight”, I asked.
“How should I know? I don’t watch the
weather channel.” Mary laughed a little. I laughed along with her. Laughter was
a very familiar sound to the walls of this house. It was almost constantly in
the air. Our laughter was accompanied by a roar of thunder. Another strip of
lightning shot from the sky again, but this time it struck a power line. A
flash of light turned into total darkness.
“Well this is great.” The sarcasm in
my voice was very recognizable. “Now I can’t see my delicious spaghetti.” Mary
giggled some more. I could hear her chair slide across the floor, and then the
squeak of the kitchen drawer opening. The sound of a match scraping across a
rough surface, and was closely followed by the sight of a young flame. My wife
brought to the candle that was on the dining room table.
“Now you can see your delicious
spaghetti.” I took a great big bite.
“Yummy. This is the best birthday
yet.”
“You know”, started Mary. “You
haven’t opened your birthday gift yet. You’re never going to guess what it is
this year.” She went to the hallway closet to grab a box that was wrapped in
blue paper. I took it in my hands, and gave it a little shake. She didn’t
cringe at all, so it wasn’t anything fragile. It was only about 1 ½ to 2 inches
thick. I ran my fingers down all for sides. There were two seems that was
constant all the way around. I looked up at her.
“It’s three movies”, I said. She had
this look on her face like she wanted more. I fingered the present as I spoke. “They
are probably movies that you think I would enjoy. I’m not saying your selfish sweetie,
but you knew that I would want to watch at least one of them tonight. With that
being said, you picked movies that you as well would enjoy.
“Within the last two months we have
rented about ten movies. Only six of them we agreed were worth watching twice. Three
out of those six we were most impressed with.” I looked up at her. A very
slight smile was starting to cross her mouth. “But, you knew I would come to
that conclusion.” I took a slight pause. Her smile faded, and one crept up onto
my face. “The three movies are Going, Going Gone, Out of This World, and Star
Wars III. The only Star Wars movie I don’t own yet.” Mary shook her head, and
giggled.
“How in the world do you do that”,
she asked. I smiled and ripped open the paper, and sure enough there were the three
movies.
The power was still out for the rest
of the night, so we had to watch the movies on our little portable DVD player. By
the end of our last movie, Mary was out like a light. I shut the DVD player,
and set it aside. Then I just closed my eyes, and fell asleep with my wife
while I thought about how lucky I am to have utopia for a life.
To Be Continued
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