When night fell

8 | becoming one

Beige, slightly high-waisted trousers, with a white button up tucked into it. Clarks on my feet. My brown hair combed neatly, but strands had fallen disheveled as I had just played a little between the trees as Papà and Salomé were shooting wedding photos.

Sometimes I gazed at them, my heart feeling heavy. Then, I would focus on the rustling leaves and the singing birds, wondering if they felt my melancholy.

The photographer asked if I wanted to be in a few photos, after that Teddy would take me away to the location where we would meet with our day guests, so Papà and Salomé had a moment together to take more photos.

I had posed for a few photos, then gladly stepped inside the car with Teddy. He handed me a chocolate bar, which I gratefully took. I unwrapped the wrapper, starting licking the bar rather than biting right into it.

"Had fun?"

I shrugged, stared outside the window. "How long does a wedding take?"

"Depends, but I guess your head won't hit the pillow until after midnight." He ruffled my hair, gave me a, somewhat, sympathetic smile.

"So.. we will have lunch, then church, and then the reception, right?"

"That's about it, right."

"Unc Teddy, do you think you could ever fall in love with someone who isn't Rosie?" I referred to his wife, genuinely wondering about the answer of my question.

Teddy sighed softly, pulled onto my earlobe. "Love is an odd thing, Benji. Sometimes the most unexpected, will come to the surface."

"I didn't ask that." I frowned, glanced at him. "Could you ever fall in love with someone who isn't Rosie?"

He chuckled and waited to talk until we left the roundabout. "Benjamin, you may not know this about me, but before Rosie.. I was deeply and madly in love with someone else."

His answer took my interest. I looked up at him, tried to read things off his face, but all I could see was a small smile, full of memories. "Oh? What was her name? And where is she now? Why didn't you marry her?"

"We were about to marry.." Teddy swallowed, fiddled with the corsage that was attached to his suit. Gypsophila, some green, some soft yellow colored little flowers. "We had been engaged for a few months, were busy with our house. Rebuilding, redecorating, painting, whatsoever. It was a few days before our wedding, we sat by the fire after a long day of working in our house, holding each other.."

"Then what happened?" I gave him no time to think, eager to know what had happened. Eager to know about his feelings, but above all, eager to be able to understand the things I did not.

"Well, we both went our separate ways as we went home. I had kissed her, told her to be safe, she told me the same, and we went home. It was a drive of forty minutes for me, twenty for her." Teddy parked the car at the location, but kept sitting still, looking down at me. "While she went home, as did I, snow started to fall. Quickly. Soon after, everything was white, and slippery.. As I came home, the news had warned for the slippery roads, I had called Mary's parents, but they informed me that she hadn't returned home yet."

"Your drive was forty minutes, and hers was twenty."

Teddy nodded, ruffled my hair. "She had an accident. Never woke up again."

"She fell into a coma?"

"No, Cowboy. She passed away instantly."

"Oh." Later I found out that she had been driving those lonely roads between the hills and grassland, most likely tried to dodge a deer standing upon the road, to which the car slipped and she hit a tree. "I'm sorry."