MARTHA’S STORY

As the shadows of a mid-summer evening began to fill the room, Martha Kent began to speak.

For the last time.

"It’s funny.  Jonathan and I knew each other all our lives.  Played together as kids.  Went to church together.  Started school together.  Learned to read together. 

But we never had eyes for each other.  He was going to marry Jeannie Miller, and I was going to marry Luke Patterson.  It was just the way it was going to be.

I’d barely even seen Jonathan in the two months since we’d graduated.  I was three weeks away from marrying Luke.  Jonathan and Jeannie were set to get married that September.  We were all set to go down the road that had always been there waiting for us.  And that was just the way it was going to be. 

But the way things are going to be are never the way things are.

It was a Saturday afternoon.  I was in Tucker’s Boutique trying on my wedding dress.  My mother was with me, and we were giggling like schoolgirls and having a good old time.  I had on my dress, and was looking at myself in Mrs. Tucker’s big mirror, when up in the corner of it, I saw the strangest sight.  A face was floating there like ... a ghost or something, and it took me a second to figure out what it was. 

When I did, I couldn’t believe it. 

It was Jonathan, standing outside, his face pressed into the store window.  To this day, I can’t describe the look he wore.  It was like he was ... seeing me for the first time. 

Maybe I can’t describe it, but I knew exactly what it meant.  I turned around to face him, and he didn’t blush or move or flinch or anything.  He just kept looking at me.  And I just kept looking at him. 

After a while I just nodded. 

He didn’t have to ask. 

I just went ahead and answered. 

About that time I realized that Ma was talking to me, wondering what was the matter.  I just looked at her and smiled, then hugged and kissed her, and headed out the door, Ma and Mrs. Tucker both yelling at me because I still had on my wedding dress. 

But I knew I was going to be needing it.