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At bedtime Aunt Marion remembered the white envelope in her pocket. "Charley," she said, "Liddia was buying a hat in Martin's Millinery Shop today, and she left this Charley undressed and put his head on the pillow before he opened the white sealed envelope. It read... Dear Charley: I have left Manti for good. I want to see the world! I want to do things, see places, how city folk live. I cannot just stay in this town and only make Bread and Babies. I will always love you Please forgive Liddia pocket for years. No one ever read the contents until Charley passed away; a niece found it in his trunk along with other keepsakes. He never courted another girl... Fifty years after Liddia left, one morning while reading the Messenger, a name caught Charley's eye. Sterling. She was laid to rest in the Manti Cemetery." Late one evening, when the sunsets and shadows fall, when streets are empty, no clarion call, when no one would notice, a man stooped and gray, carrying memories and a small bouquet, went looking for a headstone, one that would say: "LIDDIA, LOVED YESTERDAY AND TODAY!" 87 |
