A Little Pussy

Alice tapped on the glass to see if I needed anything. I indicated I wanted her to come out. She sat beside me and held my hand.

I asked "Will you please read the letter to yourself? I only want to know if she still loved me and wanted to remain my wife."

"I don't need to read the letter to answer that. The answer is Yes to all of it. Marcy and I talked about that a lot. That letter is private between you two; if you want me to read it after you do I will, reluctantly."

I told her "Today is about us. I don't want to do anything that will take any of the joy out of our day. I have waited years to receive this letter, that I never knew existed; a few more days will not hurt anything. I will read it when I have had time to prepare myself." I placed the letter in my luggage.

When I did read the letter it was everything she promised it would be. I was finally able to close my life with Marcy.

The wedding was on the first Saturday in October. The ceremony was small, at Alice's insistence. She had no real family left. My Mother stood for her and Dad stood with me.

To this day they still talk about the party that we held that evening. The hotels and motels were filled for many miles around with friends from Nashville. There were tour busses and limos all over town. There was a large wooden barrel inside the door for wedding gifts and cards. We asked that donations be made to the drug center, rather than to waste money on us; we had everything we could possibly need. Five large companies offered to each match 20 percent of the total of the donations. They were very surprised to find out that they had to match 3.75 million dollars. They all, gladly, agreed to increase to increase the donation to 1 million dollars each. That made the total just over 8.75 million. On top of that Alice and I donated another million. The donations started at a dollar and went up from there to astonishing amounts. 4 different bands pledged they would do a concert as a fund raiser for the facility.

We were busy for months hand writing thank you notes to everyone.

The weather that evening was exceptional. The orchestra was wonderful; when they took breaks a few well known country bands played short sets. They only played songs written by Alice. As they played she explained what she was thinking as she wrote them. All, except one, were written about me or inspired by how she loved me. I was astounded at her love for me; I only hope I can return the love half as well.

The one song that I was not the inspiration for was the last one; we danced to it. When it was over she explained how it was written for Marcy after she died.

At 33 years old we both felt that we were on top of the world.

We were too tired that evening to do anything. We went straight home and fell asleep in our new bedroom, in the addition I had put on the old house. There were too many good memories in the old lady, as we called our house, to start over in a new place. We wanted a new place to consummate our love.

Consummate we did, the next morning. After laying in each others arms all night we made slow, wonderful love; the likes of which I had never felt before. Alice came to our bed a virgin. That afternoon she said she could only make love with the man she loved. How could I be so lucky?

My wedding present from Alice is a signed copy of each of her poetry books with notes about her thoughts on each page.

I continue to fight fires, she continues to write songs; many of them are in demand from artists in all forms of music. (I hate the word genre, so I won't use it there.)

We made up for lost time and have 6 children now. Alice and Fred were twins; we had 2 sets of our own. My friends at the station kid me about having to do it twice in one night to get twins. I tell them we just might make love 3 times on one night and have triplets to shut them up.

Each of our 4 girls has the same middle name, Marcy. We kept our promise.

The 2 boys both have the middle name William, after both of our Dads. You didn't think we would use Fred did you?

Stripe, Smokey and Flash lived long, loving lives too; lasting well into their late teens. We still have pets from each of their last litters. Thought you would like to know.

Be kind; be gentle with your remarks. Vote as you see fit. Hopefully the trolls will find something redeeming in this story.

I write about what I know, I know about loving families and spouses.