• I’m 5’6 feet tall. I look average. I dress average. I am average. So I don’t understand why everyone is staring at us. We are average young people. I think now is the time to drive, so we get in the car and go. The road home is full of nostalgia. Our first this, our first that. Our first memories.

    The T.V is blathering at me, right in my ear, but I’m not paying attention. I’m waiting for him to come home, as he always does, at this time while I’m watching this show. Just like clockwork, he barges in our home, kisses my cheek and asks about my day. I tell him the highlights of my day, he tells me the highlights of his, and we feel a sense of happiness. All our lives we waited for this, the chance to be completely enveloped in one another, day in and day out. No longer did we sleep alone. We are newlyweds, and my real-life knight in shining armor’s name is Josh.

    Fifty years have passed and the excitement that once consumed us has long vanished. I suspect he’s with someone else. I suspect he’s with a younger woman. But all my troubles vanish once he barges in that door, as he always does, and our routine starts once again. We once visited family and they mentioned that we don’t go out much and that we need to get out more, to which he replied “we have all we need at home”. That night I asked why they would think that, he just calmly held me in his arms and soothed me. I’ve noticed recently that he avoids my questions as if he isn’t listening, or responds in a very calm voice. I begin to panic at the thought that he’s grown tired of me, tired of my questions. But he reassures me with a tender kiss to my forehead and all my thoughts subside, and I wonder when it became night time.

    Morning again just as the day before, I say “good morning” to my newfound love, but just as I say it I feel a sense of de ja vu, I ask if I said this already and he warmly smiles and responds “yes honey”. I laugh and brush off my language blunder, and we continue on with our day. I sit and wait for him to come home as he always does. The paranoia strikes again when he does not come home, but just as it came, it leaves when he stumbles into our home. Today he looks restless, I ask what is wrong, he explains that his sister is coming to live with us for a short amount of time, I agree and it’s settled.

    Rays of light pierce my eyelids and I greet morning with open arms. I’m so happy today and I don’t know why, I wonder where he is. I walk around my house looking for him. He calls my name and I rush over. There is a woman beside him, whom I recognize as his sister but question her presence. He explains that she will be staying with us for a while and I agree. The whole day while he is at work, she is glued to my side. Watching my every movement, I ask her why she is watching me so intently to which she replies “I have nothing else to do”, and we both laugh and wait for him.

    I begin to notice that he is being called in to work many times throughout the week and day, and every day his sister is here. I also notice how skinny he is becoming and how much of his hair is gone. He is aging. They are over-working him and I ask him to stay home. He explains that he needs to go in order for our lives to go on the way it is now. I fight back hoping my thoughts reach him, but he gently kisses my forehead once again and leaves for work. I soon forget this worry when he calls me from work, telling me that he loves me and things along that line. I tell him I love him more than anything in this world and that I’ll be waiting for him at home. He tells me not to wait up because he will be home too late; I protest but eventually do as he says.

    He hardly comes home, and he never calls. It feels as if I never see him anymore. His sister is constantly watching over me, but in time she has to leave too. The days go by and I don’t receive calls from him at all. I stop tending to the house and myself, waiting for the telephone to ring or for him to barge into the door. Just when I’m about to cry from the overwhelming sorrow I am feeling, I suddenly hear his voice and I know he’s inside the house. My mind and heart are at rest once again and I make my way to bed.

    The next morning I wake up and I remember that today is his birthday. I run to the kitchen and make a list of what to buy for his birthday dinner. I hear him hollering and telling me to hurry up and that I always take too long getting ready. We laugh at the thought of him having to wait over a century. We climb into the car and go to the store.
    We are average people, we don’t look out of the ordinary, were at a normal store and yet everyone is staring at us, or more specifically me.

    She stands there in tattered clothes with a lost expression as she walks away from the crushed car behind her. She’s muttering unintelligible sounds and is looking at all of us frantically. A person tries to approach her but she yells in fright “Josh”. She looks as if she hasn’t eaten in days and she’s holding a sock tightly in her withered grip. The crowd wonders what to do, someone eventually calls an ambulance. The paramedics strap her in and drive away with her. We all wonder where she came from and why she was here. But we all continue on with our day and soon forget her.