LINDA’S CLUMSINESS


She sat staring into oblivion for such a long time that she did not hear him come in. He sat in the darkness with her, not daring to talk as she was in a lousy mood. She felt something move and glanced just for a while and saw his silhouette. She did not speak up, but sank back into her thoughts. He decided then that the best action was to walk away and that’s what he did. He went into their bedroom and jumped into bed.
Linda was a hard person to please. She was always concerned about her image and what people would say that it affected her relationship with her friends and family. On this occasion, she was unhappy because her husband had forgotten to attend her birthday party. She had to lie to her friends that he was out of town to avoid the questions and the glances. Mark had tried to explain to her that he had a deadline to beat and that it escaped his mind that she had a party organized. The minute he remembered he had rushed home only to find the last of their friend pull away from their driveway. Linda found it hard to understand him, how could he forget such an important date. She was furious and refused to argue with him and had walked away from him and sat in the darkness thinking through what she would do next.
She heard her phone ring and picked it up. It was Mark trying to reach out to her. She ignored it and left it to ring for a while. Finally, it stopped ringing and she sighed with relief, at last, he had decided to leave her alone. She had it buzzing and checked, he had sent a message. Curiosity got the best of her as she swiped her phone to see the message and there it was.The three words that she had longed to hear the whole night.”I love you”. She smiled for a while and saw the futility of being mad at him and yet the party had been a blast.
She stood up and walked to the photo gallery and let her finger lazily touch one photo after another until she got to one particular one that was her favorite. It displayed mark holding her hand as they walked out of church on their wedding day. He had been so happy on this day and it showed by his smile that it brought the warmth and the love he felt for him. She went to the bedroom then.He found him rocking their child to sleep. Oh God !!! Sweena! She had forgotten about her in that moment of anger. However, Mark had not and there he was showing his best fatherly gazes. She sat on the bed and let him put the baby in her cot.
Mark then went to his closet, opened it and came out with a big box wrapped with a red ribbon and handed it to her. “Dearest, I forgot your party and not your birthday, here you go”. Linda looked at the package in awe and smiled.”I am sorry” she said momentarily. Mark came towards her and hugged her. “Don’t worry about it, open your gift” and she did just then.
She saw the blue dress and smiled …she had seen it while they had gone shopping liked it but did not have enough money to purchase it. He had bought it for her and that is what made it special. She began to walk towards him but did not get to him as she fell forward and hit her head. You could hear the laughter all the way downstairs as she stumbled to stand with him holding her hand. Linda’s clumsiness at that moment washed away the pain and anger.

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