Remember the Sunshine
Mrs. Albinny was out of sweet tea. The delectable sweet tea her husband makes that she can never get quite right. He should be home from work soon, anyway. She decided to go and wait on the porch for him.
She sat in her rocking chair, right next to her husband’s empty one, and looked around at their home. The home they made together. Her perfect wrap-around porch with a two rocking chairs and a tiny, round table that had permanent rings from the daily sweet tea glass perspiration. She turned to regard their yellow house. The house was originally supposed to be beige, but the paint store clerk accidentally mixed them the wrong color. When Albert painted the first stroke on the house, he fell backward with surprise and all they could do was laugh. Yellow turned out to be a perfect blessing.
“Hi Mrs. Albinny! How are you? Where’s Mr. Albinny?” Mrs. Albinny glanced up to see a couple of the neighbor kids on their bikes.
“Oh I’m doing well. He should be home soon, Until then, would you like some sweets?” (She had a soft spot for kids and was famous on her street for her homemade strawberry candies.) She ventured inside to grab a few for the excited kids. 5:30 on the stove. He should’ve been home already… maybe they had an arrest that he had to oversee.
“Mmmmm... Thanks Mrs. Albinny. These are fantastic as usual!”
“Oh thank you dear. Run along home now so you aren’t late for dinner.” She watched the children longingly as they scampered to their bikes and cruised down the road.
“I should really start making dinner.” she muttered to herself as she peered up the road for her husband’s tell-tale police car. Her gaze drifted across the garden of pure daffodils beside the porch. She remembered back to when she’d brought them home from Harvest Market down the road. Her husband had scoffed at her. But she had merely smiled and said the daffodils would make their house a sunshine house. The sweet-smelling, radiant look would brighten anyone’s day. At that, her husband had broke into a grin and stated, “Perfect. That way everyone will know how happy we are.”
Where is he?
Then, the top of a car became visible over the hill. She saw the red and blue lights on top and felt relief… but there was no black SHERIFF emblazoned on the side. Her heartbeat quickened as she watched her husband’s best friend walk grim-faced up the drive.
“Dorothy, I’m so sorry. There was an accident…”
***
Mrs. Albinny awoke to a piercing scream—only to realize it was her own. Breathing deeply to slow her heartbeat, she could see the bright lights through her eyelids, smell the sterile, almost too-clean aroma, hear the incessant beeping…
“Mrs. Albinny, are you okay ma’am? Did you have the dream again? You just have to remember that was a long time ago. Are you in pain?” The nurse grimaced as she watched tears roll down the old woman’s wrinkled face. “Not too much longer, ma’am… Just try to think about happy things.”