Pamela L. Simmons

Pamela L. Simmons

of North Lima, received a $50 gift certificate for Full Circle Florist in Youngstown

In the end, for many reasons, it wasn’t enough.

As she boarded the plane for a much-needed tropical getaway, it was funny how Mary thought of all of this today. It had been 25 years, but with the bustling of the college football players boarding the plane, the long tucked away memories played like an old forgotten movie.

It had been six months since her wonderful husband of 24 years had passed away. Her editor convinced her to go; Mary reluctantly made the reservations.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the football players’ banter as the plane was about to takeoff. For just a second she thought she had caught a whiff of an old familiar smell. She chuckled, remembering back. Silly, why today?

Mary reminisced how wonderful her life had turned out, even if she never saw another thing, it had all turned out for the best.

Mary awoke to the voice of the captain announcing their arrival at the tropical airport.

The football players, moving from their seats, scrambling for duffle bags, were very animated and kept bumping into her repeatedly as she deplaned.

Even with all the commotion, Mary was glad she had listened to her editor. But just as she made her way down to the very end of the aisle, she remembered she had left her laptop in the cargo hold. With all the excitement, she had forgotten it.

Turning to reboard, the stewardess’s foot caught hers and Mary fell forward catching herself on the shoulder of the college coach.

He fell back dragging his assistant coach with him, all of them being tangled in the seats.

It looked like a pileup on the 1 yard line at a playoff game. As the group began to untangle, they began to giggle. The stewardesses rushed to help and everyone began to chuckle.

Mary began to stand , the coach got up, the assistant coach reached for the seat, Mary looked down to offer her hand as he looked up, and she could not believe what she was seeing. Both were shocked they had traveled 5 hours by plane and had not recognized each other. It hit her, she had remembered that smell as she boarded, not realizing it was Mike! Although she had no regrets, she had always wondered what had become of her first love.

Mike had graduated and went on to coach high school football, recently landing the job of a lifetime with the very prominent coach at Ohio State. His wife, Patti, had left him after a year, leaving for some burnout bartender.

As they both garnered for balance from the “pile-up” and time faded away, the first tear surprised her; the waterfall the followed did not.

Mike went to speak her name. He paused, large pools of tears filling his eyes, and began hugging her tightly.

Little did they know, from that moment on they would never spend another day apart, except for the day before the wedding, when the bride never sees the groom.