Dearest Edward

This is a short flash fiction addition that I made to a competition campfire for my friend Acme while she was participating in "Tourn-a-Rounds"  [ASR]. The full campfire can be found here - "Invalid Item"  .

This was the premise we were given to begin:

Sadly, we are seldom remembered as we are, because we are always someone different to those who know us. Sarah McLean is dead. Sarah was a woman of very little importance to the world. However, she meant the world to those who knew and outlived her. These are their stories.

Here is my entry:

~~

Edward sat idle, still in his pajamas, watching the melting icicles outside the living room window. Glancing down at the pale yellow paper he held in his hand. He slowly brought it to his nose, inhaling the sweet scent of Sarah's perfume.

Dearest Edward,
          The past three days have been so long without you my dear. When I close my eyes, I can feel your tender touch, the taste of your lips against mine…

As he read her words the memories flooded his brain, passing before him like a picture show stuck on fast forward. He struggled to slow his mind, trying desperately to savor each moment. Unable to stop, unable to escape, his tears fell like warm summer rain down his cheeks.

         The safety and security of your arms is all I need to make me feel complete in this chaotic world.

His reading is interrupted as the phone rings across the room. He lifts his head and looks at it knowing he will not answer. He hasn’t answered it since her death, why start now. The only voice he wants to hear is Sarah’s, the soft melodic sound that he had grown to love so deeply.

          Our favorite movie is on today, An Affair to Remember. Do you recall when we saw this together the first time? It was August the fifth. Why did we never go back to that theatre way out in Charleston? We could have sat in the back, holding hands again… oh how I love that memory.

His hand dropped the letter back to his lap, as his mind floated back to that day. A light rain falling over them, hands clasped together tightly, they ran up to the window. They had been spending the day there and spotted the theatre to get out of the rain that had just begun to fall. Neither of them knew what the movie was even about. He vividly recalled Sarah wanting to see all of Cary Grant’s movies after that one fateful day. Edward went out the very next morning, buying a copy of that movie and had it waiting there just for her. All he wanted was to make her happy, it was all he dreamed of.

          I’m going to pack your favorite sandwiches for our get-a-way tomorrow. I can’t believe you have me eating those now too. Who would of ever thought peanut butter and bacon would taste that good together? I love you dear…

He could imagine her smile as she spoke those words, that beautiful, angelic smile that lit up his world. Besides new foods, there were many things they had done together that neither had experienced before, or ever would again. He thought of the many secrets they shared over the past two years. He wished he had just one person that could hold him and understand his loss but no one knew his pain.

Edward cradled his face in his hands, heavy tears falling through the cracks of his fingers, thinking softly to himself… That thoughtless, drunken poor excuse for a husband didn’t deserve her. He didn’t love her even half as much as I do…