The Brooch

A Kiss Goodbye

It was a full moon in the booming city of Aurelia several hundred miles away from Ponchas Avenue Row. And there was Maple in her bare toes and soft blue night gown. It was May and in the dark of night while the rest of the world slept, She sat outside on Leslie Anne's backyard residence. A restless Maple was swinging away like a child on the swing porch that sat on the wooden veranda. There was no doubt she was deep in thought.

"Landsakes alive Maple!" Leslie Anne came barging out her back screen door in her nightcap and robe. "Whut are you doing up on the veranda in this hour?" She said fussing in a loud whisper!

"I'm sorry Lez. Did I wake you?"

"Only me and half the city's block!" Leslie Anne fussed. "Scooch ova will ya?" She said nearly losing her fluffy slippers. "I swear you come alive in the weirdest hours of the night."

Maple giggled.

"So?" Leslie Anne asked handing Maple a slice of peach cobbler. "You gone tell me? Or do I have to torture it out of ya?"

"Handing me that cobbler will be torture enough."

"Pifft!" Leslie Anne muttered smacking Maple.

She took a bite out of the cobbler and spit it right back out on the plate.

"Told ya." Maple giggled amused.

"Bleck! Last time I let my husband cook." Leslie Anne winced. "He maybe a great businessman. But good Lawd almighty, he's a terrible cook. Like eatin a bowl of salt!" She gagged.

"Perhaps he had taken cooking lessons from Georgia Pine." Maple jested.

"Em." Leslie Anne groaned wiping her tongue with a napkin. "Nasty..." She cringed. "So why are you stirring in the late hours? Is the guest house not comfortable enough?"

"It's perfect. But..."

"But..."

"It's time for me to go home Lez." Maple said looking at her friend.

"You tried that two years ago. At Josephine's weddin."

"I know. But I wasn't ready then. I am now."

"Whuts changed?"

"Me." Maple confidently said.

"But the way you jest abruptly left the reception at the Wellington estate, I dunno." Leslie Anne said questioning her friend's state of mind.

"I had my reasons."

"But why? Andrew?"

"Yes." Maple woefully replied.

"You don't have ta explain, I saw you kissin him."

"It wuz a kiss goodbye, Lez."

"I see. So you weren't over him?"

"At the time? I admit part of me wasn't."

"I ain't never said whut I saw. I never told anyone. Not even Mo. And if you needed to kiss him, well Maple, it aint none of my business, but for you to do that to Jo__"

"There was some em that happened that night, I didn't tell anyone. And I'm tellin ya naw. But I whut I tell ya, it must remain between you and me. Promise?"

"I already know bout the kiss." Leslie Anne attentively replied.

"But you don't know why..." Maple said. "And I can't keep it inside any longer. I kin never tell Josephine so I'm tellin you."

Maple began to confess.

MAPLE: "That evening at the reception of the Wellington estate, after I had danced with Andrew, I felt in sorts mixed. At the same time, I wuz happy that he had found love. And that he found it with Jojo. I remember thanking to myself, maybe, jest maybe, I could return home. Josephine wuz happy and movin on. She wuz leavin with Andrew to Everly after the honeymoon. So I was joyful for that. But there was one thang I had needed ta do that I hadn't done yet. So I went out to the foyer and I got their weddin gift. I remember placin it in the dinin room with all the others. As soon as I turned around...