Fifteen Love

Fifteen Love

Copyright Oggbashan January 2018

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

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The following are fifty-word stories. The title isn't counted.

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01. Hope

Sending a Valentine card can mean far more to the sender than the recipient. It can be a heartfelt plea asking for love. When received? Will it be answered? Ignored? Rejected? Dismissed with contempt? Or will the sender's hope be rewarded with the start of a relationship? One never knows.

02. Who?

Elaine received an anonymous Valentine card today. The card was simple, bland and as anonymous as the sender. She asked George directly. What did it mean? Who could have sent it? Had HE sent it? He hadn't but he kissed her. That's what she had wanted when SHE sent it.

03. Choice

It was large, padded, and came like a parcel in a white box. He had signed it with a flourish offering his love. What he offered was as false as the card itself. He wanted her as a trophy to show his success. She chose love simply expressed, not ostentation.

04. Abroad

I had sent the Valentine Card two weeks early when I left for a six month tour of duty abroad. I had thought we would become engaged on my return. It wasn't to be. The card was returned with the 'Dear John' letter. Absence had made the heart grow cold.

05. Indecision

Should I send a card to Rebecca? Would she like one from me? Had I any hope of Rebecca reciprocating my love? Does she even like me? Although I talked to her every day I have no idea what she thinks of me. Should I send a card to Rebecca?

06. Cat Lady

Valentine's Day can be cruel for those who are unloved. She hoped each year for a card from someone, anyone. Each year the postman passed her by or left advertising. She dropped a tear for her lonely state. She had wanted love, marriage and children. All she had were cats.

07. Stalker

Why had he sent her a Valentine card? She didn't love him. She couldn't love him as he wanted. He knew that, yet here was his card expressing his love, again. She ripped it up as she did every year. His card reminded her of the abuse she had fled.

08. Anniversary

She desperately wanted a Valentine card from John. He wasn't romantic. He thought cards were ridiculous and sentimental. John loved her . He would say 'I love you' but only in bed. This year no card came.

He walked into her workplace with a dozen roses. Twenty-five years are special.

09. The one

Sandra was the office beauty and she knew it. She expected a dozen cards on Valentine's Day and usually received at least that many. She knew they had been sent by men who meant nothing by them. But Don's card WAS there. That one card she cherished.

10. Diva

Tens of thousands love her singing and her performances on stage. Bouquets of flowers shower down at the end of every production. She is mobbed by admirers wherever she goes. What she appreciates is her husband's after curtain call cup of tea and his annual single rose on Valentine's Day.

11. Inarticulate

He doesn't tell her his love. Sometimes she wishes he would, just once or twice. But she knows how much he loves her. He will do anything for a fleeting kiss. His face brightens each time he sees her. His arms wrapped around her show the love he cannot speak.

12. Married Love

He is her carer. She relies on him for every bodily need. He feeds, washes and changes her. Without him she can do nothing. They married for better or worse, in sickness and in health. His daily care shows that he meant his marriage vows. He loves her, always will.

13. Faithful

She knows she is dying. Her flashing memories cover all her past lovers. Some were passionate, demanding, hectic, wonderful and delightfully arousing. She had lived dangerously as a young woman. She married patient David who had waited for her. His love had been constant. It still is, faithful until death.

14. Oration

No one expected the widower to cry at her funeral. It wouldn't be like him to show so much emotion. Instead he stood in front of the congregation to tell them of his love, her love, and what they had shared together. His words were carefully measured. Our tears weren't.

15. Past

Wrapped in a red ribbon carefully preserved in a drawer were the Valentine cards he had sent her, from the first much thumbed one. His carefully crafted poetry reminded her of his promise fulfilled to love her all his life. On Valentine's Day she laid red roses on his grave.