Welcome to Tuesday's Tales
This week's Tale is written to the picture prompt - library.
[This has been tweaked to fit the 300 word max ... nearly :-) ]
None of it mattered to him any more. But he, like her, had faced decisions, made his choices in life. After all they’d known each other for more than sixty years and had celebrated their golden wedding anniversary together, days before the accident.
She was fifteen, and Jim seventeen, the first time they met. Not through the usual, dropped your books in front of the dishy boy all the girls dreamed of.
Her lips curved up. No golden god would have given her a second glance back then. Not with braces on her teeth and the horn-rimmed glasses she hid behind to cover her debilitating shyness.
Jim, sadly, was an accident waiting to happen and she’d fallen hopelessly in love the moment he tripped over his feet in the library and spilled his coffee all over her research papers. She could almost smell the books again, that unique blend of books and fusty bodies you found in every library.
She’d turned on him in a fury. Months of work diluted and vanishing beneath the brown haze of coffee. And then… She’d looked up, seen the furious blush on Jim’s face, noted the blend of chagrin, shame and embarrassment in his eyes… and melted. She’d tried to stop him from bundling her scattered papers together, but he was too intent on collecting them up to realise he was spreading the stain to other papers.
“Stop.” In her frustration she’d yelled at him, bringing the wrath of several librarians down on them both. The shushing from other students reminded her of an express train in a tunnel.
She’d smiled and feathered a touch over the back of his hand. Poor Jim. With both hands full of dripping papers, he’d reminded her of a rabbit caught in car headlights.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
