Garage Sale Find of a Life Time

Garage Sale Find of a Life Time
Written for “The Real World” contest using both prompts #1) Lost love and
Prompt #2) You attend a garage sale (I wonder what could happen).
Word Count: 1,501

    “So Sidney, have we decided which mall we are shopping at today?” Kate asked her friend as she backed down the drive way.

    “Oh, it doesn’t matter to me.” Sidney said, as she dug through her purse for her sun glasses. “I’m just glad to be getting out of the house.”

    “Ok, what’s wrong?” Kate glanced over at her as she drove.

    “Oh, I guess I’m just feeling lonely and sorry for myself again. I’ve been having dreams about Blue again and thinking about what could’ve been or should’ve been.” Sidney stared out the window remembering a time of peace and love in the 1970’s.

    “Sid, you have to let go now and start making a new life for yourself, while there’s still time. Don’t you want a family of your own? This pining away over a love lost is just a big waste of your precious time.” Kate’s eyes were pleading with her.

    “That’s easy for you to say. You married your high school sweet heart and had three great kids. It’s a little too late in life for me to start having kids, don’t you think?” Sid chuckled.

    “So what ever happened to the “love of your life”, good old Blue, anyway? Why don’t you just try looking him up or something?” Kate asked with a glance to her passenger.

    “Kate, you’re a freaking genius! Why didn’t I ever think about doing that?” Sidney rolled her eyes and let out a big sigh. “What happened was Blue got drafted into the army and was sent off to Vietnam. Before he left we had a horrible break up. He dumped me. I think he knew he wasn’t ever coming back. He was an artist not a fighter. His real name was Brian but they called him blue because, all of his paintings seemed to be centered around the color blue. Anyway, after breaking my heart he went off to war and I never heard from him again. It took almost a year for me to finally pull myself together and I moved three states away and started college.  After college I got a great job and got wrapped up in my work and tried to move on. Now here it is thirty-four years later and I’m having dreams about the guy. Maybe I should see a shrink!” She brushed away a tear from under her sunglasses and hoped that Kate didn’t notice.

    “So, he died in Vietnam?” Kate asked in almost a whisper.

    “Well, when I went back home for my sister’s wedding many years later I ran into an old friend that told me the last he had heard was that Brian was missing in action and never made it back home.”

    “Hey, look over there! It’s a garage sale and it looks like a big one. Do you mind if we stop?”  Kate asked as she pulled over to park.

    “I guess not since you’ve already parked the car and all.” Sid laughed as she unbuckled her seat belt.

    “Oh come on! Where’s your sense of adventure? You can sometimes find real treasures at these things.” Kate explained to Sidney as they walked up the driveway and into the three car garage that was filled with items, priced with masking tape and a black marker. “If you see any comic books let me know because, Jerry collects them. I’m in search of tea pots, pottery, art and quilts. Ok let’s get started! I will find something here for you too, you just wait and see.”

    Sidney looked up and she was eye to eye with a sword fish mounted on a piece of mahogany. “Whatever you say Kate, whatever you say,” her eyes traveled across the table in front of her. There were games and puzzles, a box of tools, an eight track tape player and next to that was a small record player. “Wow, here’s an antique for you. You don’t see many of these any more.” Next to the record player was a stack of singles she began to leaf through. “These are all songs from the 70’s. I love it! Do you remember Incense and Peppermints?” She asked Kate without looking away from the stack of records.

    “Never mind that, get over here and see what I am buying you!” Kate stood gazing at an oil painting on canvas, as Sidney scooted around the tables to get to her. “Look at this oil painting it’s gorgeous and would look fantastic in your entrance way.” The painting was of a young woman sitting in a field of wildflowers in the sun. Her head was tilted to one side and her long flowing hair partially covered one of her crystal blue eyes. Her sun dress was a shade of blue as deep as her eyes and on one side the strap slightly hung off exposing a creamy white shoulder. 

    “I do love it! Are you sure you don’t want it for yourself?” She asked without taking her eyes off the painting.

    “No way it’s a gift for my favorite shopping buddy. I’m ready to head over to the mall now if you are.”

    “Sure, I’m ready…” Sidney started to say as something caught her eye.

    Kate paid the home owner for the treasures she had found and turned to see Sidney holding a piece of pottery with paint brushes sticking out of it. “Sid what is it? What’s wrong?”

    Sidney turned with tears in her eyes and yelled at the young man who was busy bagging Kate’s purchases. “Where did you get this?”

    The young man was stunned. “What?”

    “You heard me! I need to know where you got this from!” Now she was visibly shaking. “Please just tell me where you got it!”

    “I’m sorry I don’t understand…” he stammered.

    “This is mine! I made this a very long time ago.” She was shouting.

    “What the hell are you doing Sidney? Have you lost your mind?” Kate was so embarrassed.

    “You must be mistaken lady. That belonged to my father. He used to paint when he was younger. He did that painting your friend just bought.”

    She turned it upside down dumping all the paint brushes all over the table. “Look!” She pointed to a heart carved into the bottom of the vessel with the initials SB and BM.
“That is my hand writing and it stands for Sidney Bennett and Brian Manning.”

    “Brian Manning is my dad. This is his stuff I’m selling.” He paused a moment and then a big grin crossed his face. “Oh, I get it now, you must be Sidney! I’ve heard so much about you growing up I should have recognized you from his paintings and photos.”

    “Now I don’t understand. Brian never made it home from Vietnam how could you be his son?”

    “What? That’s what you thought? No, he was wounded and they awarded him a purple heart and sent him home. He was in a wheel chair for a very long time and he met my mom in physical therapy and they fell in love. They were divorced when I was about six. It was because my mom just couldn’t deal with trying to compete with his memories of you. He was always telling us stories about when he was young and they always included you.”

    “I’m so sorry.” She hung her head clutching the pottery to her chest.

    “Oh no, don’t be, they are so much better now, as just friends. I always loved hearing those stories he told me about you guys. Why don’t you come inside and we’ll have a cup of coffee and exchange stories while we wait.”

    “While we wait?” a dazed and confused Kate finally spoke.

    “Sure, he should be home anytime now. I’ll just close up shop here and we’ll go inside so I can put on a pot of coffee for us.” He said, as he pulled the garage door down.

    “He’s alive? I mean…I thought he must have recently passed away since you are selling off his belongings,” she gently said.

    “No, he started having some dreams about you and decided that he was going to set out to find you after all these years. He was planning on traveling light so he told me to sell off everything I could to fund his mission. He said, ‘life is just too precious to waste another minute of it without you’. I’m so glad that you two were my first customers of the day because, he really would have been mad at me if someone had bought that jar you’re holding. I didn’t realize it’s value.

    “Well, you can’t have the portrait back. I’ve already paid you for it. It’s mine!” Kate snapped.

    “Oh don’t worry, I wouldn’t think of taking it back. I heard you say that you bought it as a gift for your shopping buddy here.” He smiled as he looked over at Sidney. “Ironic as it may sound, Sidney is the girl in the painting.”