LOVE STORY
The Wrap of the Magi
A Short Story
The sun shone brightly, illuminating the freshly paved streets and rows of new houses in the emerging Magnolia Groves subdevelopment. A handful of workers were doing some touch-up painting and landscaping on the remaining units still up for sale. But it was a Saturday, so nature and play were doing most of the work that day. The sounds of chirping filled the air, signaling nature’s return to what had been a construction zone for most of the spring and summer.
As Jim walked the new sidewalks, he could see young families playing in their front yards, children riding bikes, and neighbors chatting over newly painted fences. It was a promising glimpse of what he hoped was to come in this freshly minted community.
“Hiya! Welcome to the neighborhood,” a man shouted ahead to Jim, while scurrying along the sidewalk to catch up. Jim was heading on foot to check out the new community center that would be finished in the fall. “My name’s Randy, and I’m so happy to meet you,” the man said.
Jim and Randy exchanged a firm but friendly handshake.
“I see you live with your mother. I think that’s nice,” Randy continued. “I haven’t met her yet, and sorry I missed her this time. I saw you two walking your dog earlier in the week. Make sure to tell her that we have an active garden club, and Wednesday night bingo. Oh, and there’s a group called The Silver Singles that goes on power walks every evening, in case she wants to do things with people her own age.”
It was an honest mistake, but Jim fumed!
Della was NOT Jim’s mother. She was his wife! She just happened to be twenty years older than he was. They had met when she was a professor of his in grad school. Della had a soulful and adventurous spirit. She had introduced Jim to classic literature, including authors like O. Henry. She wasn’t afraid to go skinny dipping in public pools after hours, and enjoyed skydiving, hiking, and snowboarding. The piece-de-resistance? The awesome rendition of “4 Minutes,” a song that Della and Jim would perform on karaoke night. She did a great rendition of Madonna, and he was awesome imitating Justin Timberlake. Della may have been older than Jim on the outside, but inside the two shared a common spirit. And that’s all that mattered.
“Screw bingo night and garden club,” Jim thought to himself while still feigning pleasantries with Randy. It was Jim’s feistiness that attracted Della to him in the first place. Men her own age were too stuffy.
Of course, this exchange with Randy wasn’t an isolated incident. Everywhere the couple went throughout their marriage, it seemed, people made comments about how they looked more like son and mother than husband and wife, oblivious to the rudeness and invasiveness of their comments. This caused discomfort and anger for Jim and Della. They were equal partners in love. People made them feel like some sort of freak show.
“Those A-holes can mind their own business,” Jim said to Della, knowing she was a bit more sensitive to it than he was. People were so age-conscious and liked to make a big deal about it. “Age is just a damned number,” he continued.
But after a while, all these comments started to really eat at Jim. He didn’t like how their age difference was the first thing other people noticed about the couple. To render it a non-issue, he decided on something radical. He’d undergo cosmetic surgery to make himself look older and more distinguished. He’d have a few wrinkles and age spots added, his hairline raised, the size of his nose and ears increased slightly, and maybe a few stray hairs implanted in random places. That, along with some strategically placed “moonstone gray” hair dye around the sideburns and temples, would age him by 20 years. The issue would finally be behind them, and they could start focusing on the things that mattered.
Jim didn’t tell Della about his plans. He wanted it to be a surprise. To have it done, he would go away for a few weeks, pretending to be on an overseas work trip. He could stay with some old college friends in Boston. That would give the incisions time to heal, so Jim could take the bandages off before making the grand reveal to Della. He planned to surprise her at the neighborhood holiday party. He didn’t consider it a Christmas gift; it was more like gift wrap.
Jim’s flight back home into Savannah that Friday was a couple hours delayed. Storms in Charlotte caused him to miss a connection, so he had to wait for another flight. Taking an Uber from the airport, he arrived home after Della had already gone to the party. Before heading over, Jim put on a crisp white dress shirt and a forest green sweater with brown elbow patches, wanting to enter the community center looking like a distinguished professor himself.
Recognizing the back of Della’s familiar festive red dress as she faced the punchbowl, Jim slowly snuck up behind her, extending his hands out in front of him while smiling. He couldn’t wait to show off his new distinguished, more mature, look. He was ready for the time when age would no longer be an issue.
Reaching out around Della’s face, Jim placed his hands over her eyes and playfully said, “Guess who!” in his familiar voice.
Except, as he put his hands over her eyes, something didn’t feel quite right.
When Della turned around, Jim hardly recognized her. It seems she too had gone to a cosmetic surgeon. Only in her case, it was for a neck lift, dermal resurfacing, some Botox injections, and a little eyelid surgery. She looked twenty years younger!
Their jaws dropped! Their eyes opened wide! Their brows were raised! But before Jim and Della could say anything to each other, Randy came up to the punchbowl and introduced himself to Della.
“Oh, I see you live with your father,” he said, welcoming the woman to the neighborhood. “I think that’s nice.”
Thank you for reading my story. If you are inclined, please clap for me, follow me, and join my email list. I write stories like this every week.
