"What I saw today"
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La Neige, La Neige

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The snow had been falling for days now; the road outside Michael’s cottage was covered in ice disguised by a meringue-like snow. The weather seemed to have taken on an ancient wildness about it that year. The snow had fallen for so long that you could hardly make out the individual houses across the landscape. It anaesthetised the air and numbed everything in Derbyshire. The weather had not been this extreme for over thirty years but Michael didn’t mind that, he was getting married tomorrow and he could hardly believe that Caroline would soon be his wife. The village church was not so far away that if he set out early he could walk there, although Jerry a local famer and his friends were ready with the tractor if the wedding car couldn’t reach his isolated house, everything was arranged.

Caroline had moved out of the house so that she could travel to the church from her parents’ home which was nearby. She had first met Michael in the village whilst visiting her parents from London where she was usually to be found. He had missed her so much this week it was almost unbearable, the thoughts of the joyful day tomorrow sustained him.
He couldn’t sleep that night and so he pulled on his boots and coat and went out into the garden to look at the night sky, he sat for a short time on the bench outside the house with a mug of hot coffee reading a poem by Yeats I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows I will have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. He read it out loud and listened to his voice against the night sky with bats and a wandering cat for company. Looking up everything felt pure and clear. He walked far down the garden towards the oak trees. As he turned on the path to return to the house he slipped on the ice floor; as he fell to the ground the world moved in slow motion. He could see the trees towering above him like friends looking on sadly at his plight. Trees had always reminded him of people; he thought he could smell apple blossom as his head hit hard against the old Italian stone he had laid there. As he slept in the snow he dreamt that her arms were around him and that her warm body was close to his on the snowy ground.

Now it so happened that he night before the wedding Caroline proclaimed to her family and friends down at the village pub that she had changed her mind and could no longer consider marrying Michael. Her mother told her that she must have gone mad. “I can’t do it” - people told her that it was just pre-wedding nerves. She said that living with Michael was not what she wanted. She cried a lot and said how could she have let things get this far. Nevertheless she was absolutely sure now that he was not the one for her. She went out alone into the freezing pub garden; it felt good out there away from all the confusion of her thoughts. She looked up into the heavens the stars were so cold clear and bright she breathed in the night air and now that she had made her decision she felt free again.  A man she used to love and had lived with for two years had driven up from London when he heard of her forthcoming marriage and begged her to marry him and she had simply said yes. The snow started to fall heavily again she watched it land on the plants and everything around her pulling the world into a white abyss.

Seeing him again had made her remember how true love and passion felt. She didn’t feel that for Michael. It was more like a deep friendship. Selfishly she had agreed to his marriage proposal almost nonchantly without really thinking things through, such was her nature. She would ring him now. He could have the beautiful Morgan car that her father was giving to them as a wedding present. It was really for Michael anyway, she would give it to him and she knew that in time he would forget her. He had so many fine qualities that she knew that he would find love again. It would not be right to waste both of their lives. The car would help to put things right. That was how simply she looked at it. As she turned to go back into the warm pub she slipped on the icy pavement she grazed her hand and cut her finger; she sat for a moment on the ground and thought how the small cut looked like the letter x, a kiss, and for a moment she couldn’t help but think of Michael’s sweet kisses and what a terrible thing she was doing to him. She thought of the last text she had received from him it simply had only the letter x in.

On the train to London Caroline watched as the houses flashed past, with each mile she felt as if her life and memories with Michael were vanishing. She had realised before it was too late that she could never love him the way you should if you are going to marry someone. She loved David and they were going to live together in London. He had tried life without her but realised he still loved her and wanted to be with her always, he just wished that he had realised it before. Neither of them wanted to hurt anyone but knew that it was the inevitable outcome.

As he slept in the snow he dreamt that her arms were around him, he could see her beautiful face as she kissed him tomorrow they would be married and he would be with her forever. He had never felt happier than today or as full of anticipation as he did at that moment.
She rang him to tell him the awful news. She loved him as a friend and couldn’t let anyone else tell him of this terrible thing that she was going to do to him, and he had to hear it from her lips that she was calling off the wedding. The phone was ringing in the snow besides him; in his mind he thought that he could hear the church bells ringing out for his wedding at the ancient church near to where Caroline’s parents lived.

As he slept on in the treacherous snow he dreamt that they were swimming together in a cool swimming pool up in the mountains of Cyprus on a burning hot day. It was actually something that they had done last year when they stayed at a friend’s villa high in the hills above Polis.
Caroline wanted cherry blossom for her wedding flowers; he thought that he could smell it so strongly as he lay there – he felt a deep sigh inside his body he went along with it and thought of how this was one of the happiest moments of his whole life. He could hear a song in his head that he once sang for her – On Days Like These.

Caroline emerged from the train at Euston station glad that the past was already a little behind her.

When they found him he was almost completely submerged by the snow; his lovely light brown hair was now alpine white and rigid. His arms were wrapped around him as if he was hugging himself; they said perhaps he was trying to keep warm. His phone was buried deep in the snow, now at least his mother would find out that he never got the call cancelling the wedding. He never opened the message from his beloved Caroline. Quite a few of the villagers came to see him as his mother held him in her arms; her cries could be heard through the fields nearby. An ambulance was of no use at all so they gathered around him someone prayed someone sang a song. His mother had grown up in the village, they had their own ways and they understood her. They made a circle around him and his mother as if keeping the outside world away for a little longer as she held him. They say you could hear her cries nearly a mile away as she held her son.

The snow was just beginning to fall in London as Caroline walked along the Marylebone Road in the winter sunshine. She walked in the winter sunshine– she felt free and glad to be away from their life in the country. She knew that Michael loved the classic Morgan and with all of his qualities of which he had so many she was sure he would find someone more suitable to love.

Short stories include: The Webmasters Wife, The Christmas Message, The Partner, The Old Girls Trip To The House of Lords, What Was Left - these are just five of the titles you will receive out of your fifty-two. Click here to read extracts of the stories.

Would you like to go to bed every Thursday night, knowing as you fall asleep that for the next fifty-two weeks you will wake up on Friday morning to an original, unique short story created by me in your e-mail box ,followed by one every Friday morning for the next fifty-two weeks. Pay one pound in total and receive all fifty-two – Lucinda.

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The Webmaster’s Wife

"Anna sat opposite to her husband Mark in the bookshop’s cafe. It felt to her that he was slipping away like a golden magical ball with a momentum all of its own slowly disappearing over green rolling hills silently without drama but definitely, as if by magic vanishing."

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The Christmas Message

"The lift door opened, a woman was already in there, she smiled a little but Sarah couldn’t help noticing how sad and tired she looked. Her hair was pale blond her eyes barely blue – and she was dressed almost in summer clothes, a white embroidered gypsy top and turquoise long skirt with pink sandals; there was a guitar by her feet."

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The Partner

"Mark turned the wheel of the car and drove onto the broad drive of a gothic style house that had been converted into a restaurant and hotel. 'This is one of my favourite eating-places”; He said without looking at her - yet during the four months that she had known him he had never mentioned the place before."

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Art For Sale

Sophie J Rush

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