Issue 10.1 Fall 2014

issue 10.1 cover image

 

 

Allie

 

Megan Schmitz

 

 

Allie was sitting on the park bench, just on the outskirts of Mobile, Alabama. Checking her cell phone every couple of minutes, just so she was on time and in the right place, because Will had something to tell her.
 She secretly already knew what was going to happen, she had seen the ring a week earlier. Found it more like, in his sock drawer as she was leaving some food for him. She hadn’t meant to see it, but he left the drawer open.


She smiled at the thought of her Will, just graduated from law school, with a good career already. He was the sweetest, most sincere man she had ever met. They had met in undergraduate school at the University of Alabama.

 

She was the lonely freshman, far away from Wisconsin that she called home, and having trouble understanding anyone. Where she said “calm”, everyone else said, “cah-alm” in the South. He had noticed her because he said she had the weirdest accent. Allie thought that Will was ignorant and back woods, until he began to get better grades than her and when he wanted to, his pronunciation was perfect. Yet outside of the classroom he never forgot his roots, and always used the slang he had grown up with. They had been friends for their first three years of college, but by senior year they were inseparable.

 

When graduation day came, Allie had a tough choice. Should she stay in Alabama where it was hot and though she had lived there for four years, it was still unfamiliar but it had Will. Or she could go back to Wisconsin, the beautiful winters and be surrounded by words and things she knew yet that world did not hold Will. In the end, she had kissed her parents goodbye and stayed in Alabama.

 

She had gotten a job and started her career. She had gotten her own apartment and he had his, and they periodically slept over at one or the others for the four years that it took for Will to graduate from law school.

 

Now they were really all grown up. Allie was 28 and so was Will. They had talked about life, children (they wanted 5 children), and even politics (they were both conservatives, though Allie was slightly liberal in some areas).

 

Just then she saw a movement from behind her eye. Will walked up to the bench, his warm brown eyes staring into hers. His brown eyes always did that, they just seemed to see all of her. Enveloped was the only word she could describe it. He smiled, his quiet smile but Allie knew that underneath all that shyness was a passionate soul. She smiled back, her insides turning to butterflies, still at the sight of him.

 

He walked over and took her hand. He kissed her cheek and seemed to stare at her a long time. She fidgeted a little, because this was not going as planned out in her mind.

 

“Allie, do ya ever mist homme?”

 

She thought about it a minute. “Sometimes, but after 8 years here, Alabama has captured me with her charm. I miss the snow though.” She smile ruefully.

 

He laughed, a throaty laugh and her breath caught. His laugh was so sexy.

 

“Welll then”

 

Then he got up and faced her. He dropped to one knee, and took her hand. Her cheeks burned and she began to smile.

 

“Miss Allie, I love you. I always have. My careeah is always going to be in the South and I want you to know that and be okay with it. Yet I have to ax you this question.

 

Will you marry me and make me the happiest man on the earth. I want to make you so happy Sugar.”

 

Allie smiled so much as she nodded her head. “Of course I will marry you. I love you so much”

 

He stood and folded her into him. He placed his arm around her waist, and drew her to him. He kissed her hair lightly, as she wept quiet tears of joy. Then he began to kiss her cheek, edging closer and closer to her mouth. She looked up and met his lips halfway. Her hands spread out across his chest, and his right hand, came up and enclosed her hand in his in a gentle grip.

 

They remained like that for some time. Passerby seemed to realize what was going on, smiled, and silently wished them all the joy in the world.

 

 

<< Back

Euphemism Campus Box 4240 Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4240