Whispers Of Memory: Jenny's Story

Jenny sits on her porch drinking a morning cup of tea. She watches the neighborhood kids chasing each other while giggling and shrieking. Her memory kicks back to a time of gentler and kinder days. Back to the days when she would run and giggle and shriek.

She and her cousin Gracie would spend summers on their grandma’s farm. The farm next door had three brothers that were around the same ages as Jenny and Gracie. After morning chores were done they would meet in the field between their farmhouses.

The boys, being boys, loved to chase the girls. They also loved to hear the girls shriek. While the girls were sitting in the grass making daisy chains or laying in the grass looking at the clouds the boys would hunt up a snake or a frog. Then they would chase the girls around while the girls giggled and shrieked knowing that the boys would never really hurt them.

Jenny smiled wistfully. Ah the simpler days of youth. She got up from her chair and walked inside. It was time to start her day. Jenny sat down at her desk and turned on her computer. She felt her cat twisting its way around her ankles. As she waited for her computer to boot up she drifted back to that farm.

It was another summer day 2 years later. She was an awkward preteen. She and the oldest neighbor boy, Chris, Chris had left the younger kids behind while they went to his barn. He wanted to show her the mother cat and her kittens. The kittens were almost old enough to leave their mother and were tumbling all over each other. Jenny squealed in delight and picked up the black one. It gently swatted at her nose. She giggled and kissed the top of its head.

Back in her office Jenny looked at her feet. The cat that wound its way around her ankles was the daughter of that black kitten from long ago. Patting her cat on the head she got to work.

A few hours later Jenny heard rain hitting the roof. She couldn’t believe she had been so absorbed in her work that she hadn’t noticed the storm rolling in. And it was past lunchtime. She wandered into the kitchen and popped her TV dinner into the microwave. While she waited for it to cook she listened to the rain and thought back to another rainy day.

She was 15 that summer. She and Chris were inseparable. All of the other kids were too young to appreciate how important being 15 was. She and Chris spent their days down by the creek with their feet in the water catching minnows. On this particular day a sudden summer thunderstorm caught them out in the open. There was a small outbuilding that they hid in to protect themselves from the lightning. Sitting there in the semi dark, giggling and out of breath, Chris suddenly kissed her.

The microwave dinged startling Jenny back to the present. She smiled fondly at the old memory and sat down to eat her late lunch. After lunch she went in to town to shop. While she was walking down the street she suddenly smelled pizza.

She and Chris had their first date at a pizza place. She was 16 that next summer. He had nervously asked her out. They had sat in that booth and laughed like there was no one else in the world. When Chris dropped her off that night he had told her he was going to marry her someday.

Jenny was jostled out of her daydream by a passerby. She quickly finished her shopping and headed home. After putting away the groceries she sat in her favorite chair on the porch again. She had bought a cupcake in her favorite flavor. As she took a bite she was transported back to her wedding day.

Chris had been right. There they stood in front of their family and friends tasting their wedding cake. She was a vision in white and he had never looked more handsome than he did in his tuxedo. She laughed joyfully as she smeared cake all over Chris’ face.  

Jenny suddenly sucked in a breath. She placed her hands on her stomach and rubbed. She whispered softly, “Don’t worry baby. We will have many more days of laughter to come.”