New year, new short story

With school back in session I've been driven back to responsibility like a mouse to its hole. So in order to maintain sanity I've be spending free time editing, playing with my camera and forming sentences in my mind that would confuse Robert Langdon ("protagonist" of the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown) and make Roald Dahl feel proud.

In my editing I've finished a short story that should have been finished a century ago! Okay a month ago but still that's enough to gather dust on an object.

So now a little explanation to this short story; I personaly like it and at the same I have no idea my exact thoughts on it. Oh well maybe by the day that I can choose my favorite color I can also tell you what I think of this short story. (No need to feel nervous, this one if fairly up beat). Enjoy!

Amber Waves of Change

Bells whorled, crowds rushed by with ruddy faces and force. Teary eyed good-byes were being said, but one scene was different. Anna looked over her brother and his family. Relief was visible in their appearance. They were getting rid of their biggest burden.

She bent down to hug the children. She gave them each a stick of peppermint. Her eyes lingered on her nieces and nephews. She stood up straitened the bodice of her dress and faced her brother and his wife. It was easy for her to give Charlie a hug, kiss and causally slip a letter in his hand. As for Alice her sister-in-law the hug was brief. A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth as she waved to them then boarded the train.

With weary hands she assessed the damage of her hair and hat the analysis wasn’t good. Her golden hair was falling out of its Edwardian bun. Her hat that she had bought expressly for this occasion had almost been completely trashed due to the thrashing of the crowd. But this was an adventure the very thing that she had been thought she wanted.

She looked around at the passengers that were sitting next to her. A young lady that wore the a very fashionable dress looked with stars in her eyes at her traveling partner that was reading the newspaper. A young man in his mid-twenties sat directly across from her. He had soft brown eyes and the expression of a gentlemen. His bag of golf clubs sat next to him. Anna realized that she had been staring when he looked up with wonder in his expression. Trying desperately to soften the awkward moment she held out her hand and said in a voice hardly above a whisper “Good afternoon sir my name is Anna…Anna Hemmington.” He looked at her hand for a second then took it, gave it a stiff shake and said in a strong voice “Nice to meet you my name is Jeffrey Black.” Their met eyes for a few seconds. Then with a blush she looked down at the hem of her dress and muttered “Nice to meet you.”

The stress of the past few days was enough to make her sleepy and in want of a nap but it wasn’t proper for lady to sleep in public, so the laws of propriety kept her from a much deserved rest. To help her stay awake she looked out the window and watched the scenery change with rapid pace. Seeing the lush emerald trees for the last was hard on her. The landscape of Vermont was her favorite thing that home had to offer.

Tears came to her eyes as night came. With blurred vision her green eyes frantically searched for the first star so she could have the wish of her heart, but it was a cloudy night. After everyone was asleep she finally she fell into an anxious rest. With a paper clipping in her left ungloved hand. Jeffrey woke up when he heard her moan. He scanned the room to see if there was anything in it that would agitate her. Just when he was certain that she was having a nightmare and nothing more he saw the paper clipping slip through her fingers.

He picked it up with great interest and searched it for an answer to the many questions that swam threw his mind. It was tattered and the corners showed signs of a being rubbed. The printing was fading from being folded and re-folded. With the little light that was in the train car hallway he was able to make out what it said.

“Needed: A women who isn’t afraid of work.
Can teach kids, and open to marriage
with a forty-five year old man living in
Nebraska with three kids all under the age of eleven.”

He tucked the add back in her hand and studied her face. It looked young yet clouded with worry. She was beautiful to be certain; Golden hair, green eyes, red soft lips. It all seemed so strange that a lady with so much promise was throwing herself away. But as he began to ponder on their awkward introduction today it wasn’t to hard to see why. A girl that so obviously needed grace wouldn’t be wanted. With one last glance of pity he fell asleep.

Then next morning she was the first to awake. She sleepily looked around and rubbed the kink in her neck as she looked around the room. Nothing had changed, with hope she looked out of the window to see fields of wheat passing by. Her arm slowly dropped to her lap as she stared at strange yet phenomenal surroundings. “Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain.” She jumped when she heard that same self assured voice speak. She flashed a glance at Jeffry and nodded good morning. But this wasn’t enough for him. “Forgive me,” he started out “but I saw the add in you hand last night…it slipped out of your grasp…” as he fumbled for word she looked at him and searched his being with her green eyes then cut in to his monolog “Yes, I know that I should be patient, but its easy for one to know when they are no longer wanted around. I felt like this was my only option.” During this little speech of hers Jeffry stared at the floor embarrassed at her bold and unguarded words, a lady would have known not to speak so freely. He was shocked to see that he felt a since of freedom that came from braking the stiff rules of propriety. Anna soon found that she could talk to him easily. And he likewise discovered that there was something about her that made attention draw to her. HE trusted her a feeling relatively new to him.

Sunflowers soon blurred past the window as they talked. Directly at twelve lunch was brought. Everything was normal with their sandwiches except for Anna’s. She bit in to it find a twig but on further examination she discovered that it was a sprig of rosemary. With a nervous laugh she waved it off as an accident she opened the window to her left and threw it out. With the drawing on of the day there was a notable weight added to her countenance.

Promptly at three her destination was called. She gave Jeffrey a brief nervous glance then she grabbed her hat box and carpet bag and said goodbye. As she left she turned and said “have fun in California Jeffry, my prayers are with you.” With out another word she turned her back on the room and walked out, a sense of poised duty followed her like a perfume. But no one saw her quivering ankles or how her breath caught when she exhaled.

On the platform she waited for him…..Earnest Hill. It was sunset when a broad shouldered man appeared in a buckboard. He walked up the steps to the platform and took off his straw hat and said “Anna?” “Yes. Mr. Hill I presume.” An emphatic “NO” was her answer. “Oh” she said with her cheeks reddening “Mr. Hill is down with a broken leg I’m his hired hand James Callahan.” With this he took her luggage and helped her in to the buckboard.

The bumpy dirt road made her even more weak then she already was. It seemed like they would never find the farm, they’d die from lack of provisions here in the wilderness, of course it didn’t help that dusk was setting on the dusty surroundings. When she saw the white house lit up with roses in the yard she wished they had died in the wilderness. “Go ahead and going with out knocking. Mr. Hill is waiting for you.” Her stomach twisted and cramped. She grasped the pillar on the porch in order to make it up the three small steps.

To her astonishment a little girl meet her at the door and helped her to her new room…until the wedding. Lilly told her that her pa was waiting for her to have dinner with them but to go ahead and freshen up. This she did with great pleasure, at last something that wasn’t foreign to her. Right as she was putting the finishing touches on her hair a shadow appeared in the doorway. Her hands quivered and the color drained from her face. The figure entered the room. A man with a leg in cast on his right leg came wobbling in.

He had dark eyes and thick wavy hair. With a smile as he held out his arm and said “May I escort this lady to the dance?” Her eyes lit up with joy. “Why of coarse you may!” She said. His winter blue eyes twinkled. There was something about him that seemed familiar. She rested her small hand in the crook of his arm. She looked at him, his smile of genuine goodness seemed to radiate, she smiled back. A new smile.

Love always, Stephiphany