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I hope that you enjoy reading my short story "The Umbrella"
and wish you a beautiful day!
Excerpt
The Umbrella
It was cold.
Not the nice winter cold—snow
outside, skis waiting close by, sun shining over the mountain.
No.
It was cold and humid like
it is after days and days of rain, shortly before the real winter starts.
The end of a season. Before the start of a new one.
Cold like it is when
things die. Cold like it is when autumn
leaves die into their end, giving space for the emptiness that winter needs to
be able to begin to freeze the rest of everything that one day had been…Spring.
Cold like it is when
dreams die.
The rain knocking on Emily’s
window always made her think about friends knocking on the window’s glass,
asking her to go outside. As would a
window be a door you can see through. But
it was raining. And cold.
Emily didn’t want to go
outside.
She missed her Umbrella.
***
It was a couple of months
ago, the first rainy day in the middle of the summer, when Emily was walking
around in the center of the city, on her way to her appointment with the
dentist. Braces! Every month she had an appointment to
practically spend 40 - 45 minutes just waiting in the waiting room, for only 10
minutes inside the treatment room, to see if all the metal pieces where working
well and tight, making her teeth a little bit more together, or apart, in the
right direction. Maybe to justify the
price her parents had to pay for the treatment, the dentist made it almost one
hour in total.
She did not have an
umbrella, and summer tempests came mostly unexpected. Who would think about buying an umbrella, when
jumping from tree shadow into the next tree shadow, because the air is so hot?
The rain was refreshing
for the first few minutes, but after a while it was too wet. Wet as only water can be, entering through her
100 percent cotton dress, turning her red hair darker, while rain drops were sliding
over her face as would they be competing with her freckles, sliding over her
skin and trying to reach the bones under her flesh.
Emily could swear that she
was wet all the way into her bones.
Emily entered the shop. Lots of umbrellas. The shop owner, unlike her, watched the weather forecast on his iPhone.
Emily’s iPhone was for
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other essential apps. Who needs the weather forecast, anyway?
“Another girl with an iPhone
who didn’t see the rain coming…” mumbled the old shop owner, as she entered the
shop holding her iPhone, of course.
“Another adult that doesn’t
know what iPhones are here for…” mumbled Emily to herself, as she heard him
mumbling.
Emily saw lots of umbrellas,
in different rows, in all colors and designs.
Looking around, she found
a row of beautiful ones, black with a white fringe. A white fringe that was like embroidery,
around the entire edge of the umbrella itself. They had it in all colors: black and pink, black and grey, black and
blue, black and green, black and black and probably ten of the black and white
one, the one she liked most.
Emily decided for the
black and white one.
She picked it up, and once
it was out of the large mass of umbrellas, the umbrella was really cool.
It was nice to walk under
the rain. This umbrella had
something…almost romantic…with the white fringe. It was not too romantic or girly, and it was
not too minimalistic.
But, as unexpectedly as
summer tempests start, they finish.
As she arrived to her
appointment at the dentist, the rain had stopped and Emily was carrying the
still-soaking-wet umbrella in her hands.
During her 45 Minutes in
the waiting room, the umbrella was next to her.
When Ms. Clare, the
dentist’s receptionist finally called her name, she rushed out of the waiting
room and into the treatment room without her umbrella.
Ten Minutes later, rushing
out of the treatment room, Emily completely forgot about the umbrella.
As much as she loved it,
she remembered it only on the next day, as the summer rain came back.
Emily called the dentist.
“Hello, this is Emily. I forgot my umbrella yesterday; is it still
there?”
“No, no umbrella here, I’m
sorry”, said Ms. Angela, one of the dentist’s receptionists.
“Oh, it was so cool. Someone else must have taken it. Can you ask Ms. Clare about it?”
“I will ask her, but I don’t think so, maybe you forgot it somewhere else.”
“Maybe…”
“I will ask her, but I don’t think so, maybe you forgot it somewhere else.”
“Maybe…”
Emily was disappointed.
Needless to say, she was
completely wet for probably 3 or 4 more rainy days, but she didn’t want to buy
a new umbrella. Her pocket money was not
that much and the rain would stop sometime.
On one of those days, her Uncle
Geert saw her walking around with no umbrella, under the heavy rain.
“Hi Emily, where is your
umbrella? You will get a cold, walking
under the rain.”
“Hi Uncle Geert, I lost it.”
“You don’t have another one?” asked Uncle Geert, as would it be the most common thing in the world to have two of everything.
“No…” said Emily.
“Next time, buy two. Hear my advice. Now, go have a hot shower, change and when the rain stops, go and see if you can find the same one again and buy two of them,” said her Uncle, while walking Emily home sheltered by under his own umbrella.
“Hi Uncle Geert, I lost it.”
“You don’t have another one?” asked Uncle Geert, as would it be the most common thing in the world to have two of everything.
“No…” said Emily.
“Next time, buy two. Hear my advice. Now, go have a hot shower, change and when the rain stops, go and see if you can find the same one again and buy two of them,” said her Uncle, while walking Emily home sheltered by under his own umbrella.
“…” Emily could not speak out
her answer immediately.
After a while she said:
“Thanks, Uncle Geert.”
Emily did not go to the
shop to buy two new umbrellas. The next
day was a sunny day.
The rainy days were over
anyway.
Emily did not think about
it anymore.
At her next dentist
appointment, she did not ask about it.
***
She did not think about it
until…
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