Too Late?: Creative Writing 06.2020

Dearest readers and writers, welcome to Creative Writing 6.2020.  As I said before, that title sounds like the name of a community college personal enrichment course.  For this post, I am finally – happily – linking up with Dee at Grammy’s Grid for her sixth Short Story Prompt of the year.  As Dee explains, “this is a creative writing exercise for fun and without a lot of editing. Just start typing and see what you come up with!”

Creative Writing 06.2020

Here are some short story writing link up reminders from Dee:

• No story is too short!
• Prompt is posted at least a week before party starts.
• Plan ahead. See the 2020 prompt list here.
• This is a creative writing exercise for fun and without a
  lot of editing.

Get Started

 

• Start with the beginning sentence prompt below
• Create a story or as many as you like using the prompt
• Add your story post to the linkup at Dee’s; this particular link up party closes on 06.09

As soon as I read this 5 word prompt, I knew what I wanted to write.  While this is a piece of fiction, it is loosely based on reality.

So, on your mark, get set…here’s the prompt:

“She carefully walked down the…”

And My Story:  Too Late?

She carefully walked down the aisle.  The toe of her heel caught on the well worn carpet running between the two sections of pews.  She paused a second to draw a deep breath and regain her balance.  The young woman glanced to the left side of the aisle, traditionally reserved for the bride’s family.  But her parents, in their attempt to thwart this union, had forbidden the bride to share her wedding plans with anyone.  Only her sister and best friend were seated on a row mid-way between the back of the church and the altar.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

The bride took several more tentative steps forward.

The church with its tall stained glass windows and dark wood trim was unfamiliar to her.  It had just been one available on the date they’d decided to marry.  Not her place of worship as she hadn’t been raised in the church.  Yet, not the church of the groom’s family either.

He stood before the altar with the minister they had both just met an hour earlier.  On the right side of the church were the groom’s parents, his grandparents, sister and her boyfriend and several old family friends.

Her dress wasn’t a wedding gown at all.  Rather an ivory prom dress.  “Gunne Sax” by Jessica McClintock.  But from last spring’s collection marked down for the end-of-summer clearance.  She wore a very slight veil secured with a plastic comb into the crown of her head.  At her neck and ears, the pearls her parents had gifted her for high school graduation.

Under the gown, just above her right knee, the bride wore her mother’s blue lace garter with its tiny seed pearls.  It seemed somehow contradictory that her parents refused to come to her wedding, refused to acknowledge to anyone else that she was marrying at all.  And yet her mother had loaned her daughter the garter for something borrowed, something blue.

A Rose

She took several more steps, hands visibly shaking as she the held a single red rose.

A rose she had hoped to present to her mother during the exchange of vows.  At the altar, her boyfriend held a similar rose for his mother.

The bride nodded in the direction of her soon-to-be in-laws who smiled back at her with the approval she had wished to have receive from her parents.  They had been kind and very accepting of her relationship with their son.

But her parents had bigger dreams for their oldest child.  When they had learned that the couple was living together during summer school in a ramshackle apartment off campus, her parents had been very disappointed.  Their daughter?  Living in sin?

At that point, the couple had been together almost a year and moving into his apartment seemed like the next step in the natural progression of their relationship.  His parents were younger than hers and seemed comfortable with the relationship.  Hers were definitely not.

Their Dreams for Her

She stopped to smooth her dress before continuing down the aisle.

Her parents were conservative.  And greatly valued an education.  They had married in their mid-twenties after both had graduated from college and were successfully established in their careers.  When they discovered that their daughter was living with a less-than-highly motivated young man, they gave her an ultimatum. Living together was not an option.  After all, what would her parents’ family and friends think if their daughter was shacking up?  Break up with her boyfriend and never see him again or marry him.

She chose to marry.  Surely, if she showed her parents that she could maintain her grades, work full time, keep up the house, they would come around.  They would realize that she wasn’t given up her plans and dreams.  But just adding onto them, expanding them.

Too Late?

Just steps from the altar, the bride heard the doors of the church creak open behind her.

She turned to see her father and mother closing their umbrellas and shaking the rain from their coats.  She gasped almost inaudibly.  Her sister rose from where she was sitting, and slipped out of the row to stand at the bride’s side.  No one was sure what was about to happen, everyone seemed to be collectively holding their breath.

But then her father spoke.  “Are we too late?” he asked, his voice cracking.  He grabbed his wife’s hand and they moved down the aisle slowly toward their daughters.

The bride’s sister moved protectively in the space that was closing between the bride and their parents as they approached.  “Why are you here?” the bride questioned, choking back tears.

“I asked if we are too late,” the father repeated.  Then he continued, “Too late to give our first born daughter away?”

YOUR TURN

What story would you weave from the prompt Dee provided for us?  If you are looking for an exercise in creative writing, Dee is always hosting thought-provoking link ups.  Please stop by to read her story and the stories of others joining the fun this month.

It feels good to be writing again.  And I am always thankful to have you stop by to read!

Hugs and kisses,