Two Graves

Note: This is another old story of mine that I believe was the turning point of the things I wrote and something I am to this day, still very proud of.

Two chairs are sitting in the backyard. They are filled with an old couple; a table between them holding two glasses of lemonade. They’re laughing and talking, thinking back on the old days.

“Hon, remember when we were young?” The old man asked.

The old woman laughed the memories flooding her mind.

There’re two kids in the backyard, playing tag. The boy is chasing after the girl, and they’re both laughing. They run over to the table in between the two chairs and they both grab a glass of lemonade.

“Dear,” the old woman asked, “remember that night when we first danced?”

The old man smiled, thinking back on that night.

There’re two teens, a boy, and a girl, in the backyard. Both dressed up on a Saturday night; the girl in a beautiful blue dress, the boy in a tux. They’re smiling, laughing, and dancing to the music that only played in their heads. Christmas lights still strung up around the yard. The girl is tired from dancing so they sit down in the two chairs. A table between them, holding a box that has a corsage in it.

The old man smiled, thinking back on another day, “Remember when I went away?”

The old woman smiled, her eyes crinkling at their corners, and her face not looking wrinkled as she thought back to that day.

A young man is standing in the backyard, hugging a young woman, who is crying. He has on a white navy uniform, the lady dressed in a white summer dress. They sit down in the two chairs, the table between them holding two glasses of lemonade, the last glass until he comes back.

The old woman wipes a tear from her eye, “I remember when you came back.”

The old man smiled once more, his smile wide.

He ran all that way just to greet her. Little did he know that she left to go greet him. He sat in his chair for an hour until she came home in tears. He surprised her and hugged her. Now her tears are from happiness. They sit down in the chairs, the table between them empty.

“I can still see the lilacs and hear the wedding bells,” the old man said.

The old woman looked around the backyard, remembering them as well the vision still fresh in her mind as if it were only yesterday.

Lilacs are set up all over the backyard, she in a pretty white wedding dress, and he in a white tux. Kissing under the wedding arch, and then having rice thrown at their backs as they left; later that day sitting in the chairs, the box that held the wedding ring still there.

“I can see Jimmy running around,” the old woman said with a smile, looking around her backyard as she sees her son running around.

A boy of five years is running through the sprinklers, laughing and spinning. A man and a woman sitting down in the chairs watching him with a smile, the table between them holding three glasses of lemonade and a pitcher.

“I can remember his wedding day,” the old man said still smiling.

The chairs still in their rightful place, an older man and woman sat a table between them. Their son at the altar with his wife, smiling as they both said their ‘I do’s.

“Ah, living here has been a pleasure,” the old woman said.

“Yes, living here has been a pleasure indeed.”

Now the old man is sitting in his chair. The other chair empty, the table next to him is holding only one glass of lemonade. He’s thinking back on his old memories, of him and the love of his life.

“Boy, do I miss my wife,” he said to only the wind and the trees.

A tear rolls down the side of his cheek. Thinking back to when they were young and that one other day they had danced in the rain to music that was only heard in their heads.

Not much later, that chair was empty too. Now both chairs are empty, the table between them empty as well.

A man went over and took them away, his wife just standing there. Not long after he put two graves where both of the chairs were.

“Now you two will always be here, with me and my wife. Remember your memories here. You both grew up here and now you will both live here forever.”

Not soon after the man had put the graves there he put the chairs not too far away, with the table placed in between them. So now he and his wife can sit in the chairs with the table between them, sitting in the backyard, and thinking back on their memories for when they get old.

There in the backyard were two graves. One read: “My beloved mother sat here, remembering her old memories of her childhood, and her life Now she can stay here and think of them forever.” The other one read: “Here sat my loving father, who loved my mother dearly. Here he sat next to her, thinking back on their memories together. Now he too can be here forever, with my mother, thinking back forever.”

Now sat two graves where the old man and woman used to sit. No table between them, but not far from those graves sit two chairs with a table between them; the table holding two glasses of lemonade. And in those two chairs, sits a man and a woman.