The older woman smiles and shuffles to the old golden colored couch with cherry carved wooden legs of lions.
The music drifts out of her windows and into the garden. It is the same melody she plays every day.
She sits poised and smiles behind her silver framed glasses. She re-lives the memories of her and the music man.
She was so young then. He was a door to door salesman. He was good looking, charming and talked to her as if they had known each other for years. He stayed longer in her sleepy little town then he had ever before. He tried to woo her.
The older woman struggled a bit to get up off the couch and steps now to the buffet against the wall. She opens the drawer and lifts a key and whistles to the music as the record catches repeating the same words over and over.
She walks down the long hallway and unlocks the door. The dry musty air rushes fast to escape its prison. There beside the bed is a portrait of her and the music man sitting in the garden laughing side by side on the bench. Her hands he holds inside his and his mouth is open matching her in joyous laughter.
The woman slumps holding it as tears run onto the glass smearing the image. It was the day he had proposed to her.
She had closed this room off years ago. The bed she wanted to still keep his scent. She lies across the bed and sobs deeply choking in her own tears.
The record now jumps replaying the same song from the beginning as she sets the frame down and gets up and walks to the closet.
She opens the door and shuffles to the back of the wall. There on one hook hangs a Vintage white wedding gown with tiny beads of pearls and sequins.
She grabs it and clutches it tight. She lays it gently on the bed and removes her clothing. Her body has aged and withered as she adjusts with her hands the excess fabric. She steps to the dresser and places pins in where she will work yet again on pinning the sides and the hem up. She is shrinking in the years.
She was once tall and graceful. She had once held her head up. She had once been so young, so happy, but that was long ago.
The music man had asked for her hand in marriage. Her father was outraged. Her daughter would not marry a mere travelling salesman! Her father was indignant and normally he doted and gave his daughter anything that she wanted but for the first time in her life he said to her "Charlotte, the answer is no!"
Her heart crumbled as she recalls the words her sweet father had said that broke her heart.
Charlotte looked at herself in the full length mirror in her would be wedding dress and spun in a circle like a ballerina.
She stopped and stared back at her face. She remembered how she defied her father's wishes and would sneak out into the night to be with him. They would meet on their bench to hold each other tightly and kiss until the sun was coming up.
He had told her they would run away. He told her that he would not leave without her. He had stared into her eyes as Charlotte wept for she would lose a father. The music man watched her trembling lip as she told him that she would go, that she loved him so but that she would never be able to return back to her father.
The music man held her tight as his chest thudded against her tiny frame.
That night Charlotte packed her bags. She tip-toed up to her father's bedroom where he lay in deep slumber. She gently kissed his forehead and struggled to hold in her tears. She quietly whispered to him in the darkness "father please forgive me, for just as you loved mother, I love this man. I know that you do not think us suited well, but he is who I love and I only hope that one day you will forgive us and take me back. I know you had the very best of intentions for me, you always were a wonderful father but you cannot choose who I shall spend my life with." and she gently closed the door.
Charlotte waited with her suitcase sitting on the porch with her cheeks flush. Soon she would be with him. Soon they would be travelling the world. She stared up at the moon and giggled.
The record he had first sold to her began to spin. She heard the music and stood up worried that it would wake her father. She ran to the window and reached in and lifted the needle then then turned around.
She stood like that all night. A statue. She waited and waited for him to appear but he never did. He had vanished. As the sun was rising she grabbed her suitcase and tip-toed back into the parlor and sank to the floor crying.
She only stopped when she heard her father's foot steps above. She stood and saw a note placed beside the record and grabbed it and ran to her room slamming the door.
Charlotte shook her head then began to unbutton the back of her gown. Her hands froze as she heard the record.
It was playing the whole way through. She stood like a statue as the sounds she had heard so many years ago played softly.
She ran into the parlor and there laying by the record was a bouquet of flowers from her garden.
She ran barefoot lifting her gown not to trip as she ran around the house.
There in the distance she could see a man sitting in a white suit. He stood and ran toward her.
She waved her arms wildly as she tripped and almost fell over the stepping stone path.
She stopped just a pace from him looking at him curiously. His face had changed, his eyes, nose and mouth seemed different to her. She looked at his hands that reached out to her. The uncomfortable silence made the man slide his hands now deep into his pockets.
"Hello Charlotte! It's me!" he said leaning back on the balls of his feet with a sly grin.
Charlotte's eyes went wide as she recalled that musical voice. Her mouth trembled as her hand shot out and slapped him hard across his face.
The music man rubbed his face and jiggled his chin and said "I suppose I had that coming."
Charlotte reached up with her other hand but he caught it and grabbed her kicking and thrashing and kissed her as she struggled in his arms.
Charlotte fought hard in his arms and pounded her tiny hands against his chest. He took her hands and held them until she finally relinquished and kissed him back feverishly. She clawed at his hair as he pressed her body tight.
Charlotte stopped kissing him and leaned her neck back as the music man looked at her now with the eyes she had recalled, the twinkling blue of the sky. Tiny wrinkles formed in the corners as his dimples now suddenly appeared and his tiny dry mouth now turned full and moist. He opened his mouth and with his melodic voice he said to her kneeling down on one knee
"Charlotte, my dear Charlotte. I know I have hurt you so. My Charlotte, my dear Charlotte, how I could never let you go. Charlotte, my Charlotte my rose of Spring Tide, Charlotte, my Charlotte please be my bride."
Charlotte gasped as he held out a ring. Charlotte got dizzy as the music man stood and began to sing. He sang the broken record of her heart. Charlotte, old Charlotte was falling apart.
Suddenly all the towns people appeared around the garden. They were all dressed up and smiling. Charlotte never went out anymore. Charlotte had locked herself up in her house these last few years. She had no idea all these people still were around.
She recognized her neighbors, the butcher and the miller, she waved to her Cousin Clara and the pesky boyish girl in over-all's who would steal her roses.
Her old preacher stepped up and said "Charlotte we all know of what you have gone through, raising you ill father and taking on all that work. We all found out from Reed. He came back for you. He knew you could never leave your father. He also knew his presence would just make things worse. So he made sure you were taken care of. That is why the butcher always took to you you food, and the miller your wares, Clara kept us up on how bad your father was but warned that you were too proud to ever ask for anything.
The girl in over-alls stepped up and handed her a rose she had plucked from her garden and suddenly Charlotte realized she was the one who had been setting the roses down and pulling the weeds off her father's grave in the garden. Charlotte's face turned red as she realized the girl must have seen her all those nights crying on her bench.
"Marry him Charlotte! Marry him now! For none deserve it more than you both!" the preacher screamed in glee.
So Charlotte tiny Charlotte stood now holding her head up high. Charlotte dear old Charlotte shook and started to cry. Charlotte, little Charlotte whispered a choked up "yes" as the town all screamed and hollered that "This day is surely blessed!"
So Charlotte and Reed got married right there her garden filled with flowers. Everyone from the town showed up to see love's infinite powers. The broken record from Reed was replaced every day with their own song. Charlotte was now back in Reed's warm arms where she said she always knew she did belong.