He stood in the rain staring bitterly down at the wedding invitation. He held it gingerly, a faint look of revulsion on his face as if it were a snake about to deliver the killing strike. He appeared suddenly old, years of future loneliness weighing down his features into a seemingly irreversible frown.
Diane!
His immobility belied the fervor with which he had torn open the envelope. He had thought irrationally that it might be a letter saying that she had forgiven him and that it could once again be alright between them. Hadn’t it only been three months since he had last seen her? The invitation was postmarked Boston.
Boston? Diane!
He and Diane had once been lovers a short eternity ago. Their’s had been the dream world of timelessness. Happiness abounded, and he knew nothing could destroy their perfect relationship — or so it seemed. A chain of events bordering on unreality that had begun with his laughing off her suggestion of marriage had led to her sudden departure on a cruel winter morning. After one week he was ambivalent; after two, he was deeply sorry but could find no trace of her to apologize. She had escaped to parts unknown.
Boston?
He had even bought a house for them to live in when she came back, as he had been always sure she would. The invitation said the wedding was the day after tomorrow. He watched the invitation become blurry and washed out by the rain, or was it his tears? It slipped from his hand as he turned and began the quarter-mile trek from his mailbox at the side of the road down the driveway to the house, now forever empty.
The rain stopped and the sun emerged to taunt him about his loss. Birds tittered his agony and the puddles through which he splashed were the tears of nature’s sympathy.
No! It didn’t have to be like this, did it? What if he wished — what if he truly believed that things were different? Could his belief change the past? What if he hadn’t laughed at marriage? What if Diane were his wife? Grief fed his purpose. I truly believe that this has happened.
Then. It. Is. True.
He broke through the trees into sight of the house. She stood on the porch of the house — their house — as she always had. His eyes misted over as he ran to her. His smile shown bright enough to dim the morning sunshine.
“Why are you so happy?” she asked.
He took her into his arms.
Wow. This, conceptually, is a great story. It actually brings tears to my eyes. It might need more fluff to be great, but I really, really like it.