LOVE IS SO SHORT, FORGETTING IS SO LONG
la letra escarlata
A one-shot story is inspired by the quotation below by Pablo Neruda.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
Pablo NerudaScarlett O'Hara Butler sat down with a cup of black, steaming Arabic coffee in the comfortable seat in the veranda of her magnificent Peachtree Street house. She winced before looking out to the grass esplanade in the garden. Don't be silly, she told herself. The jumping post had long been removed and time had allowed the grass to grow again as if it had never been trampled where the pony's fat legs had formerly trodden it. That's better, she thought, reclining herself in her seat and enjoying the weak but still warm winter sunrays. She deliberately spread the quilted blanket over her voluminous skirts and stretched luxuriantly, enjoying her strong coffee and her peaceful solitude. Wade and Ella were at school and would not be home for another couple of hours. The store, which she had visited in her daily errand, was doing better than ever, despite the galloping economic crisis. The trick had been replacing the most expensive articles with cheaper alternatives anyone could afford. All in all, the ledgers were still showing profits, one of the rare daily occurrences in her bleak life that never failed to put her in a good mood for the rest of the day. The visit to the store had been just what she needed after yesterday's stressful day. Ella was getting at her nerves more often than ever. How did Rhett manage to play with her for hours at a time without losing his mind? The last couple of days had been harder than she expected, with silly Ella whimpering because Uncle Rhett had not returned in time for her birthday. At least he had sent her a gift from Costa… Costa… Rich… something like that… yeah, Costa Rica, that was what the parcel said. Typical Rhett, being in a place Wade had to locate in the orb in the library so that Ella knew where it was – not to mention their Mother, though Scarlett knew better than to show her ignorance in front of her children. Wade took after the Hamiltons and was very much into books, so God forbid should Scarlett appear in the eyes of her only son as an ignorant brute. But, at least, Wade kept to himself and did not bother her with insistent questions Scarlett had trouble to answer.
Rhett had been gone two full months already. Time enough for Scarlett to miss him acutely but not so long that there was gossip about his absence. Certainly his failing to attend Melanie's funeral had generated some nasty comments but Scarlett was already back at Tara to pick up the children before they reached her ears. And, anyway, the respite in Tara had done her a world of good, as she knew it would. Now, if Rhett only gave some notice of his return in advance… She would make a fool of herself if she claimed that Rhett would not be back in one more month or so and then only to have him show up the very next day. On the bright side, she could always say, in that case, that Rhett had misled her on purpose so as to give her a pleasant surprise. Yeah, that would do very nicely. Though keeping the children ignorant was being no piece of cake. Wade already suspected that not even Scarlett had neither a clear idea of Rhett's supposed return, not even an approximate idea or a calculated guess, nor any clue about his whereabouts. Hadn't she subsequently claimed that Rhett was in Charleston, London, Paris, Richmond, up North and been proven miserably wrong with the damned parcel for Ella? Ella, of course, had failed to register Scarlett's shock at being caught in such a fragrant lie after a week of telling Ella that Uncle Rhett most probably could not come down from his Northern businesses… Wade had noticed, though no word went out of his lips.
Scarlett savored her coffee. For the first time in her adult life, she was completely alone and felt comfortable with her situation. Or pretty comfortable, come to that. Not that she would have chosen her present circumstances herself, given the choice. Oh, how she wished Rhett were here, sitting peacefully by her, smoking one of his cigars! Or even if he were teasing her about the extravagantly expensive birthday party she had assembled for Ella the day before, more like a wedding celebration than a little girl's birthday party.
Yeah, Rhett and she could have had a good laugh at it at the end of the day. Sure, at first she would pretended to be furious with the absurdity of the party and mad at him for not having put an end to it when her plans got way out of hand but eventually he would have won her and they could have had found some amusement in the hilariousness of the whole affair.
Would Rhett return home any time soon? The children were already talking excitedly about Christmas – so excitedly that they caused her a headache and she could no longer hear her own thoughts during dinner. His lawyer kept paying her bills and all the house-related expenses in time, so no chance for her to go berate him and, in passing, casually inquire about Rhett's return. And she was not going to suffer the very public humiliation of going to beg her husband's lawyer (technically, an employee of theirs as much as the house servants) about her own husband's whereabouts, with the improbable excuse of his letters not reaching her with all the regularity she would want to. Suppose Rhett had even asked the lawyer about his chances for pursuing a divorce! Oh, the shame and the humiliation… No, better let matters stay as they were and bear with Wade and Ella's questions as well as she could.
She still missed Rhett terribly and noted his absence acutely but the solitude no longer was the heavy stone on her heart she felt oppressing her from the very moment she opened her eyes in the morning.
She let a small sigh escape out of hr lips. Those had been good times but they were long gone. And there had not been so many good moments either, come to that. Had she known they were so precious, so brief, so very few… She would have made the most of them, treasured them, and hoarded them to replay them in her head endlessly, pretty much as she did now. Why had things turned out so wrong? How could everything had gone so badly? When had their marriage turned into something so nasty? Where had she made something so wrong that there was no way out? At what point could had she made a mistake where she should have done things in a different manner? How had she let things slip so much out of control that now there was no way to work them out?
Stop that, she told herself. Enough of self-mortification, of torturing herself for today. That would change nothing. Rhett was gone and the only thing left for her was to go on living till his return, whenever this might be. She savored her coffee, by now lukewarm. Their love had been so short and remembering the good times with Rhett would have to do in this long wait till he came back home. Maybe even for good if she could manage to lure him back. The kids loved him and would show it when he came. And she was still pretty in the new dresses she had already bought in preparation for his coming. She would get him back but, in the meantime, she wouldn't fret over his absence. Rhett would come back and meanwhile she would just enjoy the sunny day and her rich coffee.
~THE END~
Author's note: This is still a one-shot but in my new story "Returning" (still in progress) .net/s/6272061/1/RETURNING I have imagined what happens when Rhett comes to visit. I hope you enjoy it too!