by Shanan King

Created on: January 22, 2012

He never even saw it, the gift that she bought him for no particular occasion, only because she thought the scarf would look great with his sleek black trench coat.  He will never know that she was thinking of him, picturing how distinguished he would look, loving how much the red would light up his handsome face and give even more depth to his thick black hair that she loved to run her fingers through while they kissed.

Believing that gifts are not only for special occasions, she had the piece of red velvet gift-wrapped. He has no idea that that is what was taking her so long. He doesn’t know about the slim rectangular box that an elderly homeless woman found beneath a dark green pick-up truck during all of the commotion. This woman only knows how tooting lucky she is to have found such a beautiful red velvet scarf, all wrapped up and brand new, during the blustery month of February.

He had his head down reading the local newspaper. He’ll never know that she was fussing with the bow -it wouldn’t sit just right- when she slid on some ice, lost her balance and smashed her head off of the sidewalk’s curb. That’s when the scarf, the luscious red velvet one that she had bought just for him, went for a slide of its own, coming to a stop a block and a half away downhill, beneath their dark green truck.

She never woke up to tell him.

Learn more about this author, Shanan King.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.