Story Test

Echoes Of The Past - CH 1 - Engagement

The air stilled around Adelyn. The bustling sounds of the pub became muted, overpowered by two words. The crack and roar of the play-off game, blaring from every screen in the room, was no match for the weight of those words. Nor was the collective groan that followed a missed shot. That brief pause in time collapsed with the sound of a fork clattering against a plate and a beer mug landing on the opposite side of the table, followed by a mother's giddy cry, "Oh my... did you hear that, Tom, she's engaged! Our baby girl is getting married."

"Shouldn't you try datin' the bloke first?" Tom asked with a laugh that drew the attention of a neighboring table.

"Oh Tom, stop that. Okay, honey, give me the details. When? Where did he propose?" Bethany asked as she took her daughter's hand in hers. "The ring? Where's the ring?"

"Give me a tick," Tom interrupted as he rubbed his temples. "I'm getting a vision. I can see it... I see the proposal... past Saturday at noon... in the automotive department at CanadianTire... and he gave you four rings to wear on your car. Michelin?"

"Dad!" Adelyn protested while Bethany reached across the table to give her husband a playful slap on the back of his hand. "That was my birthday you were seeing. And I bought those for myself."

"Well?" Bethany's eyes widened in anticipation. "Let's hear it."

"He took me out for dinner, and he proposed right there at the table," Adelyn mewed but her expression failed to hold its happy facade.

"Your father proposed to me in a pub, so a restaurant proposal is a step up from where we started." Bethany shot her husband a coy smile as he lifted his beer in salute.

"Yeah..." Adelyn added with a sober tone. "Don't be so sure of that."

While Adelyn chewed her lower lip and averted her eyes, Bethany and Tom exchanged glances then trained their eyes on their twenty-two-year-old daughter. There was a distant, almost lost look in the expression that erased the smile she had carried with her into the pub.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Bethany asked as she brushed back strands of Adelyn's brown hair and tucked them behind her ear.

"He came home from afternoon drinks with some work friends, and we just ended up at the A&W. The one across the street from the CanadianTire," she said as her grey eyes briefly met her father's. "It was yesterday at 8:23PM. He proposed with an onion ring."

"Oh..." Bethany's heart sank for a moment as she tried to hold onto the smile that normally kept her face aglow. Her finger pointed at Tom as a silent signal for him not tom make a wise-ass comment.

"At least dad had a real ring," Adelyn mumbled. Tom took his daughter's free hand in his, lifted it then kissed her fingers.

"Was he drunk? Maybe he was just joking around. You know how he gets when he's had a few." Bethany nodded as if trying to convince herself that Roland had just been playing around. Maybe even testing the waters with a silly proposal.

"He called his mother this morning to tell her the news. And... I didn't actually say 'yes' like a real answer. I sort of said it as a question. Like you said, I thought he was joking around." Adelyn sighed and glared at her plate. "He actually proposed. That was his actual, real proposal. Is it me? Am I expecting too much? It's not like I want anything flashy. I don't want a grand gesture kind of thing. No planes sky writing a proposal. No jumbo-tron or— I just wanted... all I've EVER wanted was a simple, personal, romantic proposal. Something meaningful. Is it too much to ask that he might be sober when he takes such a big step in our lives?"

"It's not too much, honey," Bethany said as she caressed her daughter's cheek.

"I always through that dad's was the ultimate in romantic proposals. That pub was where you two met. It's where he sat every day for two months, hoping to see a girl he didn't have the courage to say hello to when he first saw her. And when you walked in, it's where he said he would never be so foolish again. And what does he say to you every morning when you wake up?"