Friday, December 09, 2011

The Books They Gave Me

The Books They Gave Me is a delightful blog wherein one can post a short narrative about and image of a seminal book given by someone loved - or once loved. The stories are sometimes sad, often inspiring and every now and then downright funny.

MURKOFF.

He was my sweetheart all through high school. Not much of a reader, but a hopeless romantic, always leaving notes and presents in my locker. We had very different plans for life after high school; he was enlisting and I was going to college. He had your typical fantasy: a house with a white picket fence, and he would come home to dinner on the table and children there to greet him. I wanted to chain myself to trees in the rain-forests of Brazil. It was easy to put these things away when we were in high school; I mean, why worry about what’s happening in 4 years when we have now and we love each other?
The day before I was set to move into my dorm, he came to my house and gave me this book. I was speechless as I opened it, wondering what he meant by it. His chicken-scratch handwriting on the inside cover: “We’re going to get married and have babies. You are my one and only.”

I knew at that moment that we could not be together. What was real had been made into a fantasy by time and false hope.
When I looked up from the book, he was on one knee, with a ring (it was really just a piece of costume jewelry) in his hand.
He took the book with him when he stormed out my house. We haven’t spoken since.

Many more at the link.

Found via Coudal Partners

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