RIGHT ON TIME

chapter 5

As Mrs Righteous Green turned into another intersection on the road, the car trailing her followed from a safe distance.

She was still in deep thought, remembering the day her foolishness started. Her driving became sort of an automated running through the motions. 

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Righteous agreed with the statement from her father. She loved Henry deeply. Her feelings for him had a profound effect on her, even to the extent that her pulse sped up at the mere thought of him. 

He was her first love, her first experience at the game called love, and she couldn't help but feel like she'd been reborn into a new world. A world that could only exist as a fantasy. Her own perfect, happily-ever-after fairy tale. 

Oh, but this was no game. No fantasy. It was as real as the skin covering her bones. 

Henry latched onto her thoughts ninety percent of the time. She once contemplated that she could be obsessed with him. Even if that were the case, which she believed it wasn't, she wasn't sure of what she would do about it because she never wanted the feelings she'd developed for him to taper. 

"Your mother and I were so happy for you for falling in love. We became more pleased when you confided in your mother and explicitly told her that you've never had any sexual relations with Henry," her father continued. "We believed you, not just because you told us but because we can still see the innocence we saw in you prior to your relationship with him." 

That statement from her father was also true. At the start of her relationship with Henry, she'd told him in no uncertain terms that she wanted no sex before marriage. 

She had also told him that she wanted to live that way because it was part of her moral standards and her Christian conviction. 

That was when she noticed the surprised look on his face and how it had morphed into eagerness to hastily marry her. 

Without a waste of time or any engagement ring in hand, he had dropped on his knees, proposing marriage to her, telling her how much he loved her and how he would die without her in his life. He had implored her to say yes, promising that he would immediately rush off to buy her an engagement ring that same moment. A gorgeous engagement ring. Silver, gold or diamond. Henry asked her to name her choice, telling her that her wish was his command. 

She didn't detect any negative signal from his abrupt behavior, only that the moment made her feel special, wanted and loved by this man whom she would gladly give her life for in a heartbeat. 

His impatient and funny behavior made her laugh gleefully. Without a second thought, she replied with a "yes" to his marriage proposal. 

Henry had excitedly pushed himself up from his kneeling position, swept Righteous off her feet, whirled her around and smothered her face with kisses, shouting happily on top of his lungs as he did. 

For Righteous, that moment was a time of pure ecstasy and she made up her mind right there and then, that he was the only one she wanted to love and give her heart and body to. 

It was supposed to remain like that but her parents stepped in to dissuade her from carrying out her heart desires with the love of her life. 

"At first, at first we didn't have any problems with you marrying Henry," her father continued, "But there was this unusual unrest that fell upon us like a heavy blanket each time he visited with you or whenever his name was mentioned in the house. 

"We thought it was that overwhelming feeling any loving parents always have each time they came to the realization that their children had come of age and would be moving from under their control to begin a life of their own. But as time went by, the weird feelings became more intense. Your mother and I could no longer ignore it.