It's been a long time since I posted on this little blog. But I wrote a short story not long ago and since I'm not planning on publishing it, I thought I'd at least share it on here. Not that anyone will read it, but at least it will be available if anyone wants to read it.
Something for the Wedding
Part 1
“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” five-year-old Missy chanted to herself as she stood with her small hands on her hips as she’d seen her older sisters do.
“I have a new dress and new shoes and new socks. I don’t have anything old or borrowed or blue.” She wrinkled her nose. “Blue doesn’t match the wedding. I heard Molly tell Randa that when she wanted to wear a blue dress. And a blue hair ribbon wouldn’t work either because that wouldn’t match my dress.”
“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue,” she chanted again. “Maybe I should borrow something first.”
She ran to Miranda and Molly’s room where her sisters were busy reading. “Can I borrow something?” she asked politely with her hands behind her so she wouldn’t be tempted to touch their pretty things.
“Borrow what?” Molly asked.
“Something. It’s for the wedding.”
“No, you have your own things,” Randa said.
“Our things are too big for you, Missy.” And Molly returned to her book.
Discouraged but not daunted, Missy marched down the hall to the boys’ room. Tanner was getting married, and soon there would only be Taylor and Travis in there. She did love Alaina, but she did wish it wasn’t her favorite brother who was leaving.
Knock, knock.
Tanner and Travis looked up at her knock on the doorframe.
“Hi, Missy, what are you up to?” Tanner asked, smiling at her.
“I came to see if I could borrow something.”
“What do you need?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Just something.”
Travis shook his head and went right on folding his socks. He liked them folded in just a certain way, so no one else folded them.
Tanner paused in the box he was packing. “Is this something to wear or carry or to play store with?”
“It’s not to play store. I think–” Missy tried to remember what her friend Lindsey had said. “I think wearing it.”
“Hmm. Did you check with the girls?”
“Yep, they said they didn’t have anything. It had better be something kind of small or I won’t be able to wear it.”
Tanner nodded soberly while Travis laughed.
“I’m afraid I don’t have much, but–” Tanner opened a drawer and dug around. “Well, I have an old tie clip or a red bandana. Everything else is either packed or I have to have it myself.” He held up the offered items.
“The clip!”
“Here you are.” Tanner handed the old tie clip to her.
“Oh, thank you, Tanner!” And Missy flung her arms around his legs and squeezed. “I love you way more than Alaina, ‘though I love her a lot too.” She only stayed long enough for Tanner to give her a little hug before running back to her own room.
She had something borrowed! Lindsey had said you could count one thing as two, but Missy wasn’t sure how old the something old was supposed to be. The tie clip was as old as she was, for she’d seen a picture of Tanner from before she was born and he was wearing it.
“Maybe I should get something else that’s old just in case,” she thought. “But I don’t know what else is old.” With a sigh she sat down on the floor to think.
After some time she got up and walked slowly downstairs. She had a question and needed an answer.
“Daddy.”
Her father looked around his computer and smiled at her. “Hi, Missy. What’cha up to?”
“I have a question.”
“Okay.” And Daddy pushed his chair away from his desk and gave her his full attention.
“When does something get old?”
Daddy looked puzzled. “Well,” he began, “that depends on what it is. Food gets old pretty quickly, other things last a lot longer.”
“I don’t mean how long is lasts, but when it is old. Tanner got a new tie clip from Alaina last week. Will that be old in six years?”
“Some people might think so. Things like that could be considered old in a few years if someone finds one they like better.”
“So it’s old if they get a new one.”
Daddy nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Okay. Bye.” Missy almost danced out of the room, leaving her father looking after her with an amused smile.
It was okay then. Tanner’s tie clip was old and borrowed. Now she just needed something blue. With a frown, she looked all around the room she shared with seven-year-old Matilda. Tilda was shopping with Mom or Missy might have asked her if she had anything blue. But Tilda didn’t always understand and often laughed at her.
“I have to find it myself,” Missy decided. “Blue. Something blue.”
A look in the closet gave her inspiration. “A button! Maybe I could sew a button on the inside of my dress. It won’t show then, and it could be blue.”
With this thought, she ran back downstairs to find the button jar. She had always loved playing with and sorting and looking at all the many buttons in that jar. Many had come from Grandma years ago. But this time she had a specific job. She needed to find a blue button. There were brown ones and red ones, silver and gold ones, plain white ones, yellow, pink, and black buttons, and even some that were shaped like teddy bears and balloons. Finally she found a blue button. It was bright blue, and Missy clutched it in her hand with a smile.
Finally she had something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.
But who would sew the button on for her?
After putting all the rest of the buttons carefully away again, Missy walked back to her room. She could ask Molly and Randa. But they might laugh. Mom was always busy now with things for the wedding and wouldn’t have time.
“I can do it,” she decided. “I can sew things.”
She found a needle and thread. After cutting the thread she tried and tried to get it through the needle, but the hole was too small. Finally she gave a long, dismal sigh.
“What’s the long sigh for, Missy?” Tanner asked, pausing on his return from carrying several boxes out to his car.
“I can’t get the thread to go in the needle,” Missy replied. “Can you do it?”
“I don’t know. I can try.” He took the offered needle and thread. “It’s been a long time since I’ve threaded a needle. Are you planning on doing a little mending?”
“No. Just sewing.” She watched eagerly as her favorite brother did what she couldn’t do.
“Do you need a knot on the end?”
“Yes.”
“Single thread or double?”
Missy looked at him puzzled. What was he talking about?
“What are you going to sew? If it’s fabric you might want a single thread, if it’s something like a button you might want double as that holds buttons longer.”
“Oh!” Understanding lit Missy’s face. “It’s a button, so double. Thank you, Tanner!” She gave her brother another hug as he knotted the thread.
“You’re welcome. Here you are. Happy sewing.”
With a giggle, Missy took the threaded needle and carefully walked upstairs and back to her room. Now to sew it on. Tomorrow was the wedding. Tonight was the rehearsal, and now was the only time to sew the blue button on.
“But where am I going to sew it?” Missy stood in her closet and looked at her dress. “I have to sew it on the inside because blue doesn’t match the wedding. If Alaina had just had a blue wedding we wouldn’t have to think about something blue.”
With that logical thought, Missy unzipped the dress and looked at the inside. Her gaze fell at once on the gathers and the seam that held the skirt and the bodice together. Maybe it wouldn’t be too hard after all.
Carefully, the little girl pushed the needle into the white fabric and pulled. Tanner’s knot held. Then came the button. Remembering what she had learned from watching her mom and sisters sew on buttons, Missy pushed her needle through the button over and over and over. She didn’t want it to fall off and get lost. When she was sure it would stay on, she looked at the needle. How was she to get that off?
“If I cut the thread the button might fall off,” she said. “And I can’t tie a knot with the needle on it.” Tipping her head to one side, like Tanner did when he was thinking, she studied the problem. She couldn’t remember how Mom or Molly kept the button on something and what they did with the needle.
“Maybe if I stick the needle into the fabric here, it will be okay. Then I can take the button off after the wedding,” she decided at last. It was harder than she had expected but satisfied at last, Missy zipped up her dress and nodded.
“Something old.” She nodded toward Tanner’s tie clip that sat on her bed. “Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue. I have everything now.” She put the tie clip into her little purse to take to the church with her. She was ready.
Come back next Friday for the rest of the story.
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