Short Story: Starting Over Part 2

Barbara sat staring at the manila envelope on her laptop.  She had come home determined to finish what she had set her mind on, but it was easier said than done.  Could she really muster up the strength to do this?  Just throw all those memories away after all these years?

"Stop laughing!"

"It's funny though," Michael said, clicking on the mouse to zoom in closer to a picture of Barbara, so he could see her teeth clearly. "Look at those amazing set of rabbit teeth!"

"You know I feel insecure about them," Barbara pouted, folding her arms across her chest, "You're such a jerk."

Michael continued to smile, zooming in even closer, "Definitely Facebook worthy." 

He maneuvered the mouse over to the Explorer icon.

"No!" Barbara shrieked, pushing his hand off the mouse, "I won't talk to you anymore if you do that."

"Hah! You say that, but you'll be calling me as soon as you leave here.  You're too weak." Michael said, flashing her his devilish grin again as he closed up the picture and turned off the computer.  He then got up from his chair and pulled Barbara in his arms, "But I don't like to try my luck with you being so stubborn sometimes."

Stubborn.  That's what Barbara was.   Yet, Michael put up with her because he had cared about her.

"Do you love me?"

"You know the answer, so why do you have to ask?"

"I just like to check sometimes, just in case you don't love me anymore," Barbara said puling the car into the parking lot at Harold's, the local grocery store.

Michael sighed.

Insecure.  Barbara was that too.  She tried not to be, but after being cheated on by her last boyfriend, she had never been the same since.  He had broken her heart and she felt as though she could never love again until she met Michael.

"Do you remember when we first met?"

Michael tapped his fingers on his chin for a few seconds and looked up from where he was sitting at the dining table, "Oh, I remember that day.  Man, you were pissed with me!"

"Well, besides that part where you offended me by saying I had an old lady's name," Barbara said as she swatted him  with her left hand, "Do you remember anything else?  I remember you wore a blue dress shirt with stripes and you had a black backpack on.  You wore glasses that day, those old big black round ones...you looked so cute then."

Michael's face cringed up, "I hated those glasses! They were so big and bulky. I can't believe I used to leave the house with those on.  And you found them attractive? Hah! I'm surprise you remember what I even wore then since you didn't seem to like me at all."

"Oh," Barbara responded, "Don't get me wrong, you annoyed the heck out of me.  I noticed you coming from afar though, before you opened that mouth of yours!"

Michael laughed as he moved his eyebrows up and down, in a twitching motion, "So was it love at first sight?"

Barbara never admitted it to him, but it was.  There was something that drew her to Michael the moment she saw him.  Something she could never explain.  Glancing once again at the manila envelope, Barbara took a deep breath and moved it away from her laptop.   Might as well look this up on the computer and get it over with, she thought. The local post office in her area had closed due to budget cuts and she needed to find the next closest one to her.  If Barbara was going to send this envelope, then she might as well have it sent there as fast as possible...before she changed her mind.

Short Story: Starting Over Part 1

Photo Credit: galutah

"So what are your future plans?"

Such a simple question, yet somehow it hurt Barbara to hear it.  What was she going to do next?  All these years she had thought she had known what she would do every step of the way. Everything in her life was planned accordingly.  What college she would attend, when she would graduate, what kind of job she would have, and even when she would get married. All was going as planned until now.  Now everything was different and she found herself caught off guard.  She didn't even have a backup plan.  What could she possibly do?

Barbara let out a sigh, her head feeling a little light from the previous weeks ordeal.  She looked up at Emily, her friend of twenty odd something years, someone she had known since ten years old.

"I don't know," Barbara admitted, "I haven't thought that far."

As though feeling her despair, Emily placed her hand over Barbara's and then slightly squeezed it, "Well you better start now.  You can't change anything by ignoring it.  What's happened has happened.  You need to start fresh and move on."

Barbara didn't want to move on.  She wanted to go back, back to when things were normal and perfect. Back to before this had all happened. If only she hadn't been so curious...

"You know what you need?" Emily said, interrupting Barbara's thoughts, "You need a nice cup of hot tea and  lucky for you, I always carry about a special package in my purse for those you-never-know kind of days.  Come on, get up and I'll make you some.  Then we'll go out for a nice walk...it's such a beautiful day!"

Before Barbara could say anything, Emily jumped up from off the sofa and headed into the kitchen.  Barbara didn't want to drink tea or go for a walk.  She just wanted to go to her room and cry because she was still hurting inside and she just wanted to be alone.  But Emily was right, she needed to leave her apartment so that she could free her mind.

                                                     __________

"Do you remember when we used to play at this park as kids, how we would compete to see who could swing the highest?"

Barbara gently glided her hand over the rusted chains that held the swing together.  "Yeah, I remember that, it feels like so long ago."

Emily sat on one of the swings and smiled, "Because it has been!  I remember how we used to make big plans as kids and talk about moving to Florida so we could go tan at the beach every day, pick up hot guys..."

"But somehow we stayed put and we didn't even move that far.  We stayed close to our old memories, " Barbara interrupted, pushing the empty swing next to her.  She could hear the squeaks of the swing with each push, the chain rattling with every touch.

Brushing her right hand through her brown locks of hair, Emily let out a little sigh, "I guess going to the park was a bad idea then."

Barbara looked at Emily, "No, I'm thankful that you asked me to go out.  I think I know what I have to do now.  I don't want to be like this swing, staying in one spot year after year rotting away until someone decides that I'm no longer good enough...I don't want to be replaced."

Barbara stopped the swing then, grabbing it tightly in her hand until it no longer moved.  She knew what she had to do.  She had to go home and finish what she had started.

Short Story: Starting Over Part 2