MEMORIES

I twirled it round and round on my wrist as if to remind myself it was there,my very dear coral bracelet given to me as a gift by my late mother.She always said I was a constant reminder of the love of her life,Atticus Kade,a man I never met as he died before I was born but I understand he was my father.My basset hound ,Trix,shifted closer to me as if understanding that I needed the comfort.I stared at the dying embers at my fireplace with teary eyes as I reminisced. I could see it as clear as day, the day my mother told me her story,I remember the sound of her voice as it shook with emotion as she told me of the time they met.
February 13th,1991.
I was riding down the road in my pink bike, just wanting to get away from everyone and everything.Tears were falling down my eyes and the wind would blow them away from my face so they never reached my cheeks.My vision was blurry hence I never really saw him when I almost ran him over with my bike
''Hey,hey hey"he shouted while shooting a hand out.I stepped on my brakes immediately as I swerved to avoid him.
"I'm so so so so so sorry, Iwasn'treallylookingwhereIwasgoingandIalmosthityouandIwasalsoridingreally fast andmymumalwayssaysdon'tdrivewhenyou'reupsetoryoucouldhurtsomeoneifsheeverhearsaboutthisshe'llsurelytakeawaymybikeandI'llbegroundedforareallyreallylongtime..."I took a deep breath and looked up from my pacing to see that he was smiling at me,"Why are you smiling?" I asked him,"Aren't you going to report me?"
"Now why would I do that?"
" because I almost ran you over?"
"But if you're grounded,how will I see you?"
I was very confused and even more so when he flicked my cheek and said,"See you around" and went on his way.
That same evening there was a knock at the door,"I'll get it" I told my mum. I opened it only to find him standing on the other side with the widest smile on his face and single red rose flower in his hands.
"Come out with me," he said.I was fully prepared to say no and he must have noticed because he added "or I'll tell your mum you ran me over!" "Almost! Almost ran me over!" I corrected.He just stood there smiling and by now my mum had come to check if I was okay.
"Ma'am,my name is Atticus Kade"he called politely and innocently as he handed the flower to her,"May I take your daughter out to dinner?"
My mum smiled and said"Call me Angela please,thank you for the flowers and yes,Debra here would very much like to got to dinner with you."
I don't remember much of what happened next all I know is that the next thing I remember is, we were at a dinner table at a very nice restaurant. When I asked him how he knew where I lived he just shrugged his very impressive shoulders. We talked and talked through dinner and I kept noticing little things about him.Like how he used his hands when narrating a story or how he waited for me to finish speaking before he did,never interrupting me,how keenly he listened.
Halfway through my story he got his pocket watch out to look at the time.A part of me was surprised because who still owns a pocket watch in this era while another part was annoyed."You have somewhere else to be?"although I asked it as innocently as I could I still heard the faint trace of annoyance accompanying my voice. He must've heard it too because he looked up with a smirk on his face and said,"We...we have somewhere to be...you didn't think I'd be satisfied with just having dinner with you.Come on"he said as he took my hand while fishing notes from his pocket to pay for the meal.We left and he drove us to the beach.The sun was just setting and it was a beautiful sight to behold as we took off our shoes and sat down to watch it."Here" I turned around as he took my hand and placed a very gorgeous coral bracelet on my wrist.
"Its beautiful" I said,"Just like you"he replied so I leaned in and kissed him.
After the sun went down and we had stayed out as much as we could without freezing or bringing our parent's wrath onto ourselves,we left the beach and Atticus drove me home.
Present Day
I wiped away my tears as I turned another page of my mother's scrapbook away from a picture captioned Atticus,my love and pulled the blankets closer to me.I made myself comfortable on the couch as I knew I would be spending the night there.I took a sip from my glass of wine and allowed myself to miss my late mother.I always had trouble with the anniversary of her death which was coming up tomorrow which was why I had locked myself up in my cabin in the country with my faithful friend,Trix and was currently drowning myself in memories.