Reality Moves Forward from the Past

Reality Moves Forward 

from the Past 

Elizabeth sat in the middle of the tiny bedroom that held remnants of  her past. From videos, books and tapes and to the crocheted picture made by her aunt decades before. The videos and tapes were no longer usable, but still saved. Classics that she had enjoyed and shared with girlfriends.

After leaving her childhood home, she had tried to build something out of her life by purchasing bits and pieces putting together a home from the inside out. She hadn’t known then that much would no longer fit the lifestyle she would move into with Rudy. 

It was new Year’s Eve. She had a new slinky floor length black dress - watered silk with tiny diamonds flowing from her left shoulder where fine pleats were encrusted with rubies, her right shoulder bare. The diamonds faded in starlight streams twinkling gently over her bosom, waist and hips. A narrow, but slightly flaring, skirt caught a very few of the diamonds in the midnight black folds. Besides her wedding ring, tiny ruby earrings and a pendant were two of the three pieces of jewelry she would wear. Her hair, silvered and gently waving, soon would be done in a fashionable chignon and held in place by antique silver combs. The evening promised a formal dinner and dance, begging her to wear her low, black satin pumps. A very tall woman, she preferred wearing flats but chose on occasion to wear pumps. Elizabeth had no illusions that her figure was anything but that of a mature woman, however she still had a youthful gleam in her eyes.

Rudy, her Prince Charming, was still elegant and charming. He hated wearing the penguin suit with the bow tie that threatened to strangle him. Preferring walking shorts and a golf club, he felt completely out of his element at formal affairs. Brushing back the consistently wayward curl from his forehead, Elizabeth had convinced him that he was wearing the tuxedo only for her, with a promise that he could play golf without question any time at all. (Not much of a promise as Elizabeth never challenged him about his golf games.) He had kissed her tenderly and said ‘Only for you, my love. Only for you.’

Her reality was now and just as joyous as those days gone by. Her past was tucked up comfortably in this little spare bedroom, one of many in this grand home where Elizabeth and Rudy had raised their children. Her own parents had never dreamed of the future that had awaited their only child. They only saw the twin bed with the quilt her grandmother made for her, and the Ann and Andy porcelain dolls in the old rocking chair belonging to her great aunt. Good solid furniture that would last.

So many joyous memories made before she and Rudy had even met. A time when diamonds and rubies were merely sparklers seen in jewelry store windows. Gently putting her old dolls back in place, she checked the time. Closing the door gently on her memories, she smiled and began preparing for the New Year to come.

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language.

and next year’s words await another voice.”

~ T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets