Calling All David Ryans

Chapter 20

                                                                              XX.

A man's uncontained joy is perhaps the most attractive quality.  Peering into a box, Dave smiled, and when he smiled, I could not cease from smiling with him.  "Oh wow!" Dave exclaimed, his voice jumping with excitement.  "I haven't seen this in such a long time!"

Despite my inward resolve to ignore his attempts to gladden my sad countenance, my curiosity piped up.  "What is it?"

Dave looked at me with a huge grin.  "Come here.  You have to look to find out."

Crawling up to the box, I looked inside.  Nothing laid within it.  I wound up and smacked Dave in the chest. 

"Ow."  He rubbed the sore shot and sucked in wind.  "What was that for?"

"You're such a trickster."

"That does not give you the right to abuse me."  With his lip puffed out in a pout, Dave looked at me with rounded eyes.  "Say your sorry."  He said in a joking manner.

I gave him a small shove it.  "Stop it."  His pathetic expression only intensified.   "Oh, alright, I give.  I am sorry for hitting you, but only one condition, if you apologize for getting my hopes up and then showing me an empty box."

Turning the box on its side so that I could spy the bottom clearly, Dave ran his hand along the cardboard as if he was showing me a game room car.  "Oh, but there is something there.  Look more closely."  He flipped the box back over and mimed as if he was pulling out an object.  "It's my mother's wedding dress.  Can't you see?"

"Um, Dave, there's nothing there."  My eyebrows arched up.

Dave's mouth moved to show surprise.  "You don't see it?"

"No.  There's nothing there.  I am really questioning your sanity right now."

Dave waved his hand to banish the thought.  "I am not crazy."  Standing upright on his knees, he placed one hand on his hip as he continued.   "Excuse me, miss.  You should not make accusations like that when you do not know the facts.  This is a dress that my mother wore on her wedding day.  It's just made with a thread that only a wise man can see."

 Rolling my eyes, I made an indignant snort.  "If that is true then your mother walked down the aisle naked."  I clicked my tongue and shook my head.  "Tut, tut.  C'mon, you have to do better than that.  My mother use to read my sister that fairy tale.  I know it by heart."

Dave's hands dropped from the mime.  "Just your sister?  Why not you?"

My shoulders rose and fell.  "I was too old for mother to read stories.  I was expected to read myself to sleep.  But, I worked around that strict rule.  Oh gosh, I can remember everything so clearly.  It's so vivid.  I was so happy back then.  You know, this picture may be silly to you, but I use to sit outside my sister's bedroom door with my back pressed against the panels.  My ears tuned into my mother's soothing voice as she would tell the fairy tale.  Sometimes it would be about frog princes and even emperors who were foolish enough to parade naked in the streets.  Yeah, that was me." Blushing, I shrugged.

With a smirk, Dave's voice held a joking tone.  "Sounds like a rough childhood."

I met his stare.  For some reason my confidence swelling in me, and I was starting to feel better.  "Well, I would gladly take a childhood void of fairy tales.  It's not too scarring."

"Yeah," Dave agreed, "Considering most fairy tales are pretty scarring."

Sounds of ripping cardboard rippled through the bright air as Dave tore into another card board box.  A heavy sigh heaved at his chest as he gazed inside.