She placed her hand on Lawrence’s face wet with tears, and put her arms around him. He turned away and faced the ocean. “Please Lawrence; for tonight be happy, for this moment and for now. Please remember me with my hair in curls and my white dress. Do not forget me after this date or our last date. Will you love me now and tomorrow and after I leave the ship?
Lawrence’s hands shook and he gave her his gift. “Promise me you will wear this every day after tonight. Ann opened the gift and read the words “Listen to your heart, it speaks, hear its words” Lawrence placed the bracelet above her other bracelet. “Ann, I will always love you. Will you write me after you leave the ship?”
She took his hand and they walked toward the elevators. Lawrence held her waist tightly, walking slowly to the excursion desk. She looked at him while he hugged her and she hummed the lullaby one more time.
“Our song, our special love. Lawrence, don’t forget me.” She walked down the hall. Lawrence looked at the excursion team who were crying. He nodded at the camera and walked away.
Lawrence walked fast, his feet pounding across the carpeting, slamming his penthouse door behind him. He threw his tuxedo jacket on the floor, opened the desk drawer and lifted the feather from the envelope. He ran up the stairs to the chapel, filled only with darkness and a few branches lit with small lights. Reaching to the highest branch, he took down the star, the star he had made for Ann on the last cruise.
He held the ornament and the feather against the lights each filling with a golden tone. He touched the ornaments with the feather, a tiny fragile wand confirming each hanging ornament. He swiped the glue stick from the craft basket into the inside of Ann’s star, the tip of the feather reaching out from the edge. Lawrence pressed the feather into the glue; the glue climbing over its thin spine formed a drying seal.
Lawrence held the ornament to his lips, brushed the ornament over his eyes and held it to his heart.
