The image shows an earthen jug filled with red tulips. The vase/jug is sitting on old stone steps. Written in response to Sadje‘s What Do You See #127 Photo Prompt.
Today was the day, Carlos decided. The tulips were blooming. He sighed with delight. Such beautiful flowers, the colour of love. Perfect.
He hoped a year was long enough for her. But then he’d waited forty years. If only he’d hadn’t been so shy. He would have been the one to ask her to dance. It would have been his coat she held over her head as they ran for the bus in the rain. And her three boys would have called him papa.
Carlos missed Ramon, probably as much as Dolores did, but it was time to move on, to stop being so shy. He picked up the jug, the one he knew she admired, and lovingly arranged the blossoms. Then, under cover of the pre-dawn light, he crept across the street and placed his gift halfway up the stone stairs that led to her front door.
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A week later, he stood in the church with her grieving sons. His tears flowed when the priest spoke of how Ramon and Dolores were together again, how nothing could keep them apart.
Not even him, thought Carlos. Their union started when he had pointed her out to Ramon. Her beauty left them spellbound until Ramon found the courage to approach her.
And now, Carlos’ carefully placed vase, and her lost spectacles, had brought them together one last time.
Ella Craig 