The Book

The gift he gave her on their wedding night before they drifted off to sleep was a book…an empty book…which she didn’t get to keep. I will keep this book, he told her and throughout life’s different stages whenever I shall make you sad…I’ll write it on these pages. I will record it in this book…indelibly…in pencil or in pen so I’ll be sure I’ll never make you sad that way again… It was a beautiful gesture…and she still remembers his look that night…so many years ago…when he didn’t give her that book. But life has a way of moving on…like an eagle it takes flight and she never gave a second thought to the book he mentioned that night. Until after a lifetime together he was gone…and she was cleaning out his drawer when she happened on that little book she remembered from before. It was a little weathered…worn around the edges…she thought as instinctively she sighed… It’s a little wrinkled here and there she mused…but, you know what…so am I. And just as he had promised…written in this pad were the dates and times and reasons he had ever made her sad. Chronicled together…her heart aching at the sight were a lifetime of disagreements, little squabbles…little fights. Completed in his handwriting some in pencil…some in pen all followed by the same pledge…This will never happen again! She held the book close to her heart…and shed some silent happy tears when she realized he hadn’t made an entry in over 30 years.