Fireside Memories

As he sat next to the fire, watching the flames flicker, it put him into a type of trance that brought back memories of how times used to be. He takes a sip from his coffee mug filled with hot cocoa. His mind starts to think of his kids when they were younger. He remembers the good times and then some bad. He starts to wonder if he was too hard on them. Maybe he did not show enough love. He tries to deduct the reason for his kids not calling.

It had been well over a year since he last talked to either of his sons. The last time he talked to his oldest was the last time he had talked to either of them. It was right after their grandfather, his father, had died.

Neither of the boys were close to his parents. But he never blamed the kids for that. His parents never made the effort to be close to the kids. Whether it was because of the distance, or if they were too busy. He did not know. It did not matter now. Both are gone and his kids are not talking to him.

He takes another sip of cocoa. Bella, his ginger, short-haired cat, jumps on his lap. Bella was his best friend. Always there for him. She leaped onto his lap as if she knew he was thinking of the boys. She curled up on his lap and started to rub her face on his hand as if she were encouraging him to pet her face, which he did. Another look into the fire takes him back to when he first found Bella. She was only about six months old. She had been abandoned in a house that the previous owners had moved out of. She was in the shelter when he found her. He was looking for a small dog and instead came home with a small kitten. They say we do not pick our pets; our pets pick us. And after that encounter at the shelter, he believed that to be true. He remembered when she was only about two years old and climbing the old tree in the back yard. She climbed all the way to the top. He thinks she did that because she did not know how to climb down, only up. When she got to the top, she started to meow. He did not have a ladder that could reach that high, nor did any neighbors. He ended up renting a motorized cherry picker from the local hardware store. They were kind enough to drop it off and operate it for him. He kept calling Bella's name and trying to comfort the kitten. The closer they got, the more excited Bella would get. He was scared she was going to fall out of the tree before they reached her. When

they were about five feet away, Bella's eyes got so wide, and she got so excited that she leaped into his arms. That was the last time she had climbed that tree. She never showed any more interest.

Oh, but he remembers so many good times that Bella was with him and he loved her companionship as much as she did. Another sip of cocoa, another stare into the fire, and another memory is bound to appear in his head. He looks intently into the fire, and a tear starts to develop in his right eye. He was not prepared for this memory. This one will hurt just a bit. (Your turn... Finish the story.)

Springtime Romance

Kelly was working at her store. It began as a typical day. She checked the register and made a quick glance at the inventory in the store. Nothing unusual. With spring finally here, and it is the first really nice day in quite some time, she thought it was going to be a good day for business. Hopefully, a lot of people show up for the spring sale. Here it was mid-day and sales were steady. She finally had a break where she could spend some time cleaning and refolding some of the shirts that were taken out for patrons to try on. She was looking down, folding a shirt, when a feeling came over her. It was a feeling she had not felt in well over thirty years. The last time she felt like this was when her then-boyfriend,

Jim, was with her. She felt the feeling several times right after they broke up, but it had been a while since she felt that way again. Kelly thought it was because she was folding shirts. It was in her mom's t-shirt store where she was working when she had met Jim.

Her memory faded in and out of the good times she and Jim used to have with each other. However, she found it strange that the feeling had returned. She had folded shirts many times since and never had the sense that Jim was there with her. She started to think if she had made a mistake leaving Jim, and a tear welled in her eye. Back then, though, she had to leave him. She was already married to another man. Jim arrived in her life about two years too late. That did not stop her, though, from dating Jim on the side. He was so much more a better man than her husband ever was.

As she grabbed another shirt to fold, she heard the small bell from the front door ring alerting her a customer had walked in. From where she was behind the counter, she could only see the top of the door open and close, but she could not see who walked in. Being polite, without looking up, she yelled, "Welcome! Feel free to look around and let me know if you have any questions." There was no response. Kelly started to walk in front of the counter to find whoever just walked in. As soon as she turned around the corner of the counter, she looked up to see a man standing there. Her heart stopped a beat. Her knees grew weak. Her hands covered her mouth and her eyes grew large as she stared at the man. She could not believe who had walked in. 32

There in front of her stood Jim. Thirty years later, he finally returned. Kelly's only reaction was to run to him and hug him and this time she was not going to let go.

(Your turn... Finish the story.)