I feel I ought to apologize for going all sappy on you all today, but this is how it came to me this morning… 🙂
Photo Copyright – John Nixon
The Perfect Dress
Times are tough when a lady sells her wedding dress, but they’d eaten through the leanest of months. He stared at the gown in the thrift store window – the same one, down to the wine stain on the hem, that she’d worn half a century earlier.
She’d always said there was no sense in wasting money on fancy clothes, but it was only $50. He’d always said one ceremony was enough, but maybe it was time.
It overwhelmed Esther’s withered frame, but her eyes shone as brightly as they had half a century earlier when Ike leaned down to kiss his bride.
AND, for the sake of redeeming myself after the sap above, here’s a bonus story based on the same photo:
Always the Bride
There was a certain genius in his plan. She was on display, forever the bride she so longed to be, and he was free to water his grass in peace. So long as her children didn’t come looking for her – and they hadn’t visited in all the years she’d been his neighbor – he was in the clear. Even if they did ask questions, he’d been found innocent of sorcery years ago.
He tapped the last of her essence from his cane and shuffled out the door of the thrift store.
“Always the bride,” he chuckled to himself.
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Lisa Dunn 
Very cute. I get the feeling there is going be a lot of sap this week….I think I’ll get my tissue now.
Yeah, I kind of want to go back and write some horrific paranormal thing in which… I don’t know… the ghost bride won’t let her groom go or the old man has trapped his unfaithful bride in the mannequin or something. I really hope someone decided to scare the socks off all of us.
To paraphrase Darth Vader: the sap is strong with this one.
Yes, it is… I’m trying to compensate by writing another story. We’ll see if I can redeem myself.
I’m glad she got to wear the dress for a second time – lovely
Thank you!
Hey, nothing wrong with some good sap every now and then!! After all, we don’t want our lives to be filled with horror and sorcery (at least I don’t.) 🙂
janet
No, I don’t want all horror and sorcery. I just always feel all goofy when I write sappy stuff. 🙂
It might have been sappy but it was good. That second one was too. I had a neighbor he can practice on next. 😉
The photo begged a sappy response. Your second story was like a breath of fresh air, loved it.
🙂
Dear Lisa,
I vote for the sap. Sweet and poignant.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Dear Lisa,
I liked the first story very much. Orfeo would be proud, yea, even ecstatic, at your work. (Read A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin for clarification.) The second offering was sorcerific but did not cast the same spell as your first.
Aloha,
Doug
Thanks, Doug. I haven’t read A Soldier of the Great War, but it looks like a poignant sort of story. Thank you, too, for being honest about the second story’s shortcomings. I didn’t take much time to develop it, and rereading it… meh. I can see why it cast no spell. Ah, well… such is life. 🙂
I have to disagree with some of the other commenters; I liked the second story better!
Thanks, Jan! (Even though I just told Doug I can see why #2 didn’t cast a spell over him). I do think it’s a fun idea, but maybe it should have been better developed… Anyhow, thanks for reading!
Lovely and sappy – no apologies needed or accepted. 🙂
Nothing wrong with sappy.. think you are not the only one…(hrmmpf) and I liked the sappy one better 🙂
Needed help from the dictionary to get the second story – really spooky. For me as a German it´s not so easy to read between the lines – I liked both stories and it´s great that you wrote two totally different versions on the theme.
,Regards from Germany.
Carmen
It’s a lovely story! (The sappy one)! And well written. There are a lot of wedding dresses in second hand shops these days – as contemporary marriages tend to last only a few years.
I vote sappy, too. 😉 I think it’s pretty amazing that you can come up with two very different stories in the same post.