She's the One

Four years they had been together. Four glorious, fulfilling and special years they had wondered through life at their own pace. Never getting phased by anything around them and never allowing outside influences to spoil their contentment with each other. He loved her so much that at times it really did hurt. He chuckled to himself remembering how someone had once told him that love hurts and how he had dismissed them flatly as being over dramatic. But all that was before Sarah and now he appreciated his advisor’s words.

The pain of being apart was, for him, the ultimate agony any man should have to endure. He despised being booked on the courses, or away at one of the numerous information technology conventions that led to them being hundreds of miles away from each other. It was a job though, and a job that was securing their future together.

He had always been a romantic, leaving her loving notes to find on the door for when she got in or was leaving for work in the morning. He would call her and tell her how much he loved her and how he couldn’t wait to see her when he got back. Even the emails they sent could not be printed in any family newspaper, although a tabloid or two may have exposed them had they been a more significant couple to the world.

The love was total. He found he could just sit and stare at her for hours at a time. In a comfortable silence that both could enjoy without feeling the need for mindless and mundane conversation about the day at work or the need for titillating gossip of which friend is cheating on which partner. He would have died for her in an instance had that been the only way to prove his devotion.

Sat on one of his courses, Effective Project Management, his mind wandered to Sarah and the joyous weekend he had planned for them both. It would be their four year and three month anniversary on Friday and he had intended to arrive back and meet her with a dozen red roses. Then he was to whisk her off to the Lake District hotel where they had first spent a weekend away together. He had specifically booked the same Garden Room and had asked for a bucket of chilled champagne and two glasses to be laid on the bed before arrival. Everything had to be just right, for the surprise didn’t end there.

It was a January when they had spent that long weekend at the hotel. A light snow had blanketed the hills and villages of the district during the night and when they had risen the following morning they had been greeted by a picturesque scene that could surely have graced any Christmas card ever sent. It was one of life’s perfect moments and they had shared it together. He had looked at her, her golden hair flowing in the breeze and her eyes, the deepest blue, had shone with delight. It was the eyes he had first noticed of her. It was from that moment that he knew. Knew that he would spend the rest of his life with her and the feeling of utter joy that washed over him was a feeling he had felt almost every day since.

Of course they had had their arguments, what couple doesn’t? It was the making up that had proved to be the greatest asset of any confrontation they had ever had. In one particular instance they had even endured a short break from each other. It had been sixteen months into the relationship. That had been the worst time in his life. The gut wrenching pain devouring the pits of his stomach and the stupidity of his wandering mind had led him to contemplate the only way out at the time. He had even picked out the car park and the clothes he wanted to wear, all of which Sarah had bought for him. The letter he had written to her, on scented notepaper and in his neatest lettering, had read like a poem he had thought. Luckily he had withstood the temptation and a phone call to Sarah had put everything back on track. Young love he had thought at the time. This really was what love was all about.

Sarah was his first and only love and he had experienced little in his life before. His father had abandoned his mother and him when he was five. Some barmaid at the Social Club had obviously got more to offer than both his mother and he could give. It had been hard on them both, but she was a tough woman and determined with it. Her vow to raise him properly from that day forward had never left him.

“You look after the people you love,” she had told him. “Abandon them and the point of life is lost forever. You stick with me John and no-one will ever hurt you the way your father has, God help them if they do.”

She was true to her word. John’s life from that day had been a sheltered one. Never wanting for anything and never getting emotionally hurt by those around him. He was sure his mother had conditioned him to deal with any hurt that was directed at him and he thanked her for that. He had told her all about Sarah after a couple of months. How he had fallen in love with her eyes, drowning in their depths, and how he had fallen totally after they had spent the weekend away together. His mother, used to the traditional ways, had been unhappy at the thought of them away together, though, he suspected, was more upset about him lying to her. He had said it was a weekend seminar on e-commerce.

His Sarah, on the other hand, was from a modern, liberal thinking family. She had had a few boyfriends before John and was quite experienced in a few areas that had made John blush when he had heard her tales. Her mother and father were still together and had been for some twenty-eight years. This was John’s idea of bliss and he had pictured himself and Sarah in twenty-eight years time. The thought warmed his very soul and he was happy. The family had welcomed him in as part of their own from the first time he had met them. He liked her family and was sure that they liked him. John wanted to be a part of that family. The family he never had.

His mother had been a little suspicious when the two families first met. But, truth be told, she had seemed even more suspicious, and even hostile, towards Sarah. John had put it down to a mother’s love and the threat of losing a son. He had spent the following day reassuring her that Sarah was not a replacement, but an addition to the family and how he loved them both equally, but in different ways. He knew she had been reassured by his words and life with Sarah and his mother had settled.

On the Friday of that week the course had finished just after lunch and he had been pleased. This had given him enough time to catch the earlier train from King’s Cross for the three-hour journey back to Leeds. He could then go home and prepare everything for the heavenly weekend he knew it would be.

When he arrived at the house he quickly showered and changed into his best suit. This was a special occasion and he wanted to look every bit as good as the first time they had met. He gelled his hair and straightened his tie in the mirror, smiling knowingly at himself when he caught his eye. It was close to five in the afternoon and he knew where she would be. Racing down his stairs he paused only to pick up the dozen red roses off the table and a small box that lay next to them. Though he was a little excited with his treatment of the flowers, the small box had been carefully slipped into his side pocket. A reassuring tap on the outside of this pocket told him the package was safe inside its confines.

Locking his door behind him, John briskly walked to his car. It was more of a jog than a walk as the excitement crept through his body and he felt the way he had on that perfect day in the Garden Room.

The drive was slow. The rush hour traffic of a Friday’s Leeds was strangling any hope he had of reaching Sarah by her six o’clock finish. He was sure he had never used his horn so much during the whole of his past driving experience as he did on that drive to Sarah. He doubted he had had quite as many ‘V’ signs either. His total disregard for the other drivers was only matched in his total love for the girl he was trying to get to. They would have understood if they knew.

With ten minutes to spare he finally made it. He parked the car in his usual spot and quickly made his way through the arch and over to where she would be. He really wanted this to be a surprise; it was the surprise that was the romantic key to it all. There were still plenty of people around, even for this time on a Friday. He acknowledged Mark and Julie with a slight nod as he walked past them and even managed a smile to old Albert in the corner. As he went round that corner he caught his first glimpse of her. She was side on, which was good as she wouldn’t see his approach and the surprise would not be lost. She had no idea what was coming, he had been sure to be totally discreet about the whole event.

He walked slowly over to her. Ignoring all the others around her, he only had eyes for his Sarah. Within seconds he was standing directly in front of her and she looked radiant. Sparkling and true, and just as lovely as the last time he had seen her, on the day before his course.

“ Hello darling,” he said. “Surprise,” he continued as he handed across the dozen red roses. Sarah was rooted to the spot and he could see the joy in her.

The surprise must have worked he thought and before anything could be said John slowly lowered himself on to one knee. Looking directly at her John continued.

“Sarah, you have known me and I have loved you for a lifetime. You are, and always will be, my one and my only. Would you do me the greatest honour and allow me to take your hand in marriage and let me love you forever as I have since the day we met?”

Slowly, John slipped his hand into his suit pocket and removed the small box. He turned the box around so it was facing her and gently opened it. The diamond inside was as brilliant as it was large.

Taking the ring from the box he slowly reached out to Sarah. With the diamond balanced between his thumb and finger he delicately placed it on the soil of her grave.

Tears rolled down John’s face as he looked at her.

From the inside pocket of the suit he removed the booking slip for the Garden Room and placed this gently next to the ring.

“Sarah Richard. Born 26th January 1974. Died 16th March 2001. Loving Daughter to Jane and Kenneth. Loved by many and missed by all,” he whispered aloud.

He sat in his comfortable silence, staring at her, thinking. How he loved her. How he cherished the very ground she walked upon. Though the image, looking back now, of how she was found still haunted his thoughts. The throat slit so violently it had almost removed her head and her pretty face sliced apart beyond recognition. The knife wound through her heart that had been pushed with such force it had broken her ribs and penetrated through her back. Her golden hair cut in such a frenzy that it had more often than not taken the scalp with it. Horrendous. Though it was the fact that her eyes had been removed that preyed on him the most.

Sixteen months he had been seeing her when she had died. They had been on a temporary break. A temporary finality, though to him they would be together forever. The police never found the killer but the words bellowed through the caverns of his mind.

“…and no-one will ever hurt you the way your father has, God help them if they do.”