Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Hot and Cold (04/09/09)
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TITLE: The Proposal | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laura Pattillo
04/15/09 -
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The summer weather is searing in a cruel way. It felt as if someone had turned up the heat on an oven baking bread. The bread is burning, and Liz is the bread. She continues to walk down the long dusty road. She is hoping that the package she is waiting for would be at the end of the road waiting for her.
It has been almost a year since she has last seen her boyfriend. Todd is in the Navy, and he has been deployed to Japan for a one year tour of duty. Their relationship had been getting hot when she left him at the airport. Their friends had called them the hot and heavy duet when they were together. Everyone had expected them to be married by now.
Liz is in her silent reverie when her cell phone rings. She ignores it and keeps walking. Since Todd left, she has been in what her friends consider to be a cold icebox. She hardly goes out anymore. She doesn’t take phone calls. Most days she stays at home and pines away for Todd, looking at his pictures and hugging the stuffed animals that came as Valentine’s Day gifts. She gives the cold shoulder to everybody.
The cell phone rings again. This time she answers it. “Hello.”
“Hello sweetheart.” The voice on the other end of the line almost makes Liz hit the ground. She has not heard that voice in almost a month. Todd has been on a mission that had kept him from calling or writing her.
Liz swallows the air caught in her throat. “Oh my God! Todd, Oh my God!” Liz screams.
Todd laughs. Liz stops in her tracks. She is a couple of feet from her mailbox, which is shrouded by the only trees left green by the drought—dogwoods. “Where are you?” asks Liz.
“I’m somewhere,” he answers.
“Somewhere doesn’t tell me much,” laughs Liz. “You could be in Antarctica, and you wouldn’t tell me unless you could.”
“I could tell you, but I don’t want to,” said Todd. “I like hearing you trying to figure out what in the world I’m doing.”
Liz walks on toward her mailbox. She looks at the ground as she talks to Todd. She knows the way to the mailbox all too well. “So what are you up too?”
“Nothing,” said Todd. “What are you up too?”
“I’m walking to the mailbox.” Todd smiles as he thinks about what he was about to do. He can barely hide his excitement as he hides behind the trees. He watches as Liz opens the mailbox. She doesn’t even look his way.
“Do you remember that verse that Brother Terry recited at Daniel and Maddie’s wedding?” asks Todd.
“Matthew 19:6, ‘What therefore God hath joined together, let man not put asunder,’” replies Liz. “Why?”
There is no answer. The phones disconnect. Liz looks at her phone in disbelief. Her blood turns cold. How could Todd say something like that and hang up. “Will you marry me?” The familiar voice comes from out of nowhere. Liz looks up from her cell phone.
Her eyes grow in disbelief. There is Todd down on one knee in front of her mailbox. He has a ring and rose in his hands. “Will you marry me?” Liz can’t believe her eyes. She shakes her head yes. Todd smiles, and he jumps up and hugs her. Liz starts to cry. She pulls out from the embrace, and she looks into his eyes. The two of them do not notice the gray clouds brewing. As Todd leans down and kisses his future bride, the cold rain that the earth has been waiting on begins to fall. The rain falls, and Todd and Liz’s relationship begins to grow hot.
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