Last Anniversary (Part I)A Story by Colton Warr Her green eyes caught his blue... A late 1930s twisting tale of a love that was never meant to be... Last Anniversary A Story by Colton Warr Street
lights passing him by as he raced through the soul of the city. He weaved in
and out of alley ways, and intertwined with vehicles parked on the side of the
street. He was running from something he had done not too long ago. A greedy
mistake he had once made, now finally catching up to him. If this was, then how many more would soon run him down as well?
He kept running. He hadn’t run this much since high school. He couldn’t stop now. He sprinted on through the darkness. A darkness that was ever
illuminating. The city was buzzing with all things lifelike and beautiful. He
would pass through the occasional crowd of flappers dressed in starry dresses and topped with assorted designer hats. “Excuse
me, ladies.” Or
crash through the sprinkled in couple that was out on the town on a perfect Friday
night. “My
apologies.” He
was slowing down, he had been running all night. He had to shake his pursuers
while recovering at the same time. He needed rest. As he exited a dark and windy
alley, he caught glimpse of a haven, The Castro Theatre. He didn’t indulge in
wasting any time to think it over, he couldn’t afford the luxury. It looked as
if a show was about to begin which is exactly what the doctor ordered. He could
blend in and lose his tail, perfect. He was already dressed in a sort of
fashion that would suggest he was going out to a show, he always was. He
stopped and readjusted himself. He straightened his jacket and dusted his
shoulders off. He reestablished his bow tie and padded down his pant thighs. He
ran his hand through his already slicked back hair until it felt sufficiently
styled. He took a deep but short breath, slid his right hand in his pocket,
said out loud to himself “you’re alright” Accompanied by a grin, and began to
walk ever so strut-like toward The Castro. As if he wasn’t being chased at all, as if he was anticipating a marvelous evening, as if he belonged amongst the
crowd. The scene almost felt like fate, like it was his destiny to arrive here
on this very night. He shook the feeling aside, and purchased one ticket to the
splendid “Phantom of the Opera”. A show he had seen once before, on
a much more relaxed evening. Although he didn’t finish it, as he recalled he
had to leave early for some reason. Perhaps this time, he would get to finish
it. He
entered the theatre, scanning everyone that was walking in around him to assure
himself that this was a good decision, to assure him that they hadn’t followed
him in here. The theatre was so grand; it had just opened a few years back if
memory served him well. “Robbie…Robbie!” He clutched tightly a switchblade that he
concealed in the inner pocket of his jacket and turned to cautiously greet whoever
was calling his name, and saw that it was an old friend from high school. “Hey…Robbie!
Hey how have you been?” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Walter
Frank, I haven’t seen your sorry a*s since that old hay burner of yours broke
down just outside the city,” he cracked at him. It was nice to see a familiar
face amidst his night. “Now
why do you have to always live in the past Rob, come on, and in front of the
Jane too?” He pointed to a brunette that was accompanying him. “My
apologies Walt, I didn’t know you had finally fallen for a doll,” he retreated.
“What’s
the lovely lady’s name?” The Jane replied “Audrey.” He
responded “Well it’s an absolute pleasure to meet you Audrey. In all honesty
Walt’s a good guy. I’m happy for you both.” As
the Jane smiled, Walter replied, “Well look at that, you can be nice and decent
sober!” They all laughed. “Listen let’s keep moving to our seats, no sense
standing around,” Robert implored. Walter
quickly responded while stopping Robert “Actually me and Audrey were heading
down to that new juice joint down the street, want to join us, Robbie, for old
times’ sake? We can find you a doll on the way.” He
mulled the thought over in his head. If he exited this theatre now, odds are he
would run into those who were chasing him. Decision made. “Ah
geez, Walt, I’d love to but I’ve already purchased the ticket for this show,
perhaps I’ll meet up with you afterwards. Promise you’ll save me a drink or
two?” He then looked at Audrey “Make sure he saves me a drink will ya? I’m sure
you know this man’s love for juice is second only to his love for you,” he said
with a smile. She
smiled in return and said, “I know exactly what you mean, I’ll make sure you
have one drink, but that may be all I can promise you.” He
turned to Walter with a smile “Listen, one drink is all I need. I’ll see you
guys over there; I need to grab a seat. We’ll catch up down the street Walt.” The two shook hands as Robert finished the
sentence and then he turned and headed to the door leading into the theatre. Walt
replied under his breath as he walked away, “We most certainly will.” As Robert approached the door, he quickly went
back to scanning the crowd, to assure no one had slipped in while he was
distracted. As he looked at all of the individual faces, he saw something that
stopped him dead in his tracks. A ghost from his past, and it wasn’t Walter
Frank. It was something far more beautiful, a beauty he had once seen, a beauty
that was once his. A one in a million type of doll, one that if you ever have
her in your grasp, you don’t let her go…but he did. She had a wave of blonde
hair that ended at her shoulders, and the top of the black dress that she wore.
It went down to just above her knees. She had the face and look of perfection,
with the most glorious green eyes that you would ever see. Her smile lit up any
room that she was in, including this one. He found himself staring, staring at
the first girl he had ever stared at since…since her. His
thoughts began to race. “Should I go talk to her?” he asked himself, “Absolutely not! That would be out of line, plus you
don’t even know what state she’s in after what happened…wait, what happened?
What would I even say?” He was intimidated and confused, as he stood in a crowd
of people, just staring at her laughing and smiling. She was glowing. As she
continued to smile and laugh with the group of people that she was with, she
turned her head and broke eye contact for just a second, but a second was all
that was needed to unlock a lifetime full of memory and love. Her green eyes
caught his blue. A feeling ripped through his soul, he wanted to move, he wanted to run
away but he couldn’t. For several seconds they looked at each other, as if in
disbelief as well as relief. Finally she raised up one of her gloved hands as
if to motion him over to her and the people she was accompanied with. And
accompanying the wave was one of those smiles of hers. There was no running
now, as if he could. He smiled, and began to walk with his weak knees toward
her at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the balcony seats. She grew more
beautiful as he moved closer, and the butterflies in his stomach grew with
every step he took towards her. She
spoke first, “Oh my God, Robert, is that you? I haven’t seen you in ages.” He
was tongue tied at first, but then responded while casually nodding his head, “Marie,
it’s been a few years.” That’s it? That’s all he could muster up? He was
nervous. “Well, Robert, let me introduce you to my two
friends here.” She
held out her hand to point towards the couple she was talking to, “This is John
Howard and his new bride and one of my oldest friends, Julie Anne. We were just
catching up about how the wedding went.” He
turned to them and replied, “It’s a pleasure to meet you both, I trust that
since you both are standing here tonight the wedding went well?” They all laughed as his confidence in the
situation started to rise. The
couple replied with a resounding, “Yes!” the bride then said, “Well listen, it
was nice catching up but I believe the show is about to start so we all better
get in there. It seems you have a handsome gentleman here that you need to do a
little catching up with as well.” She
smiled and replied, “It’s always a pleasure, you all enjoy the show.” As
they left she turned to him and asked, “So,
where is your seat?” Robert
replied, “I believe I am down here in the general seating area, where are you?”
She replied, “I am up in the balcony, would you like to come sit with me?” He
wanted to say yes but for some reason he didn’t. “Oh I don’t know if we need to do that, I mean
I don’t want to bother you during your favorite show.” The very fact that he
remembered that after all of this time made her smile and blush. “Nonsense,
didn’t you hear the woman, you have a pretty lady here that you need to do some
catching up with.” She
then turned and started upstairs. He smiled at her playful comment and started
up the stairs behind her. As they arrived at the balcony seating level, they
sat in prime seating, off to the left of the center of the balcony. “How did you manage these seats?” he asked. “A
very early birthday present,” she said back with a smile. “Well
isn’t that nice of them.” He
was trying to pry at the question of if she was married or was steady with
anyone, but failed. The lights went down and the show began. He
leaned over and said, “This is a magnificent theatre, have you been here
before?” She
replied, “Yes, once before. Will you be talking the entire show?” He
turned and looked at her and could tell she was smiling through the darkness of
the theatre. “Well this wouldn’t be much of a date if we couldn’t talk to each
other.” He
fired back with a smile of his own. “Who says this is a date?” she asked back. “Well
you did invite me up here, you know?” they both laughed. “This
is not a date, this is two old friends catching up,” she stated. He still
couldn’t tell if she was steady with anyone or not. He
then leaned over after a few seconds and said, “Well now how are we supposed to catch up if I can’t talk to you?” She
looked at him with another one of her smiles and rolled her eyes, “Hush!” Outside
of the theatre we find three cars parked on the side of the street across from
the Castro Theatre. There were men standing in suits surrounding them. Walter
Frank was walking with a quick step towards the vehicles. An old man emerged from
the back seat of one of them. As
Walter arrived at the cars he proclaimed, “I’ve got him, he’s inside the theatre
watching the show.” The
old man took a deep breath, reached into his inner jacket pocket
and pulled out a long Cuban cigar. He began to light it. Walter
anxiously asked, “So should we take him now? I mean he’s just sitting there.” The older man looked up from his cigar at
Walter and spoke. “Well that would be awful foolish of us now wouldn’t it?
There are too many people in there for us to do anything discreetly. And that’s
the whole point, to bump him off, discreetly.” Walter
then replied, “Look boss, I don’t like it. What
if he gets away again?” The
older man took a large inhale of his cigar, removed it from his mouth, and then
exhaled the white smoke. “He’s no longer running. We have him caught up in one
spot, trapped. This was a mistake on his part. Besides, wasn’t it Napoleon who
said it best: “Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake?” He is
trapping himself, now let’s not interrupt him. We have him right where we want
him…a dead man watching his last show.” He
put the cigar back in his mouth and blew another puff of white smoke. “You want
to do something useful, go in there, make sure he’s still there and then go
around back. I’ll have Joe and Mick meet you back there.” Walter’s
face lit up. “Yes sir.” He
gave an awkward salute, and started back towards the theatre. The older man
turned and looked at his right hand man and cracked, “That guy, there’s nobody
home is there?” The
right hand guy laughed and shook his head, “Nobody at all.” The
older man looked at some of his men and shouted, “Joe, Mick, to the back of the
theatre and cover any exits.” As
they began sprinting towards the back of the theatre he said loud enough to
where everyone could hear it, “We’re taking this prick tonight.” Back
in the theatre, about 25 minutes of the show had passed. Robert leaned over to
her, “Why don’t we get out of here and head down the street to a place I know.
I’ll take you out on a date since you won’t take me on one.” She
looked at him and tried to convince him to stay. But he insisted with one of
his smiles this time, “Come on, you can see The Phantom any other time, and I know you’ve already seen it once, how many other times
are you going to get to see me?” She
started a sentence but then stopped. Perhaps his powers and charm were finally
taking its toll on her. She smiled and looked deep into his eyes. They were
locked, again. She finally said, “Alright, let’s go.” They
both got up and left the balcony seating area, and headed for the stairs
leading back down to the main lobby area. “Can
I use the ladies room before we venture across the street?” She said to him. “Yes,
definitely the one across the street is just terrible.” She
replied in a sarcastic tone, “You’ve seen the inside of the ladies room over
there?” He
then realized what it had sounded like he had said and quickly tried to
backtrack. “No no, I just meant in general, it’s kind of trashy down there.” She
laughed and so did he, and she went into the ladies room. As he waited for her,
he paced back and forth going over their conversations so far this evening.
They were just like the ones they had back in high school. He couldn’t help but
smile. Everything that he had once felt for her had all returned in one night.
They had so much more catching up to do. He began to go over romantic places
around the city in his head that he could take her and they could talk. As
she exited the bathroom she noticed the smile on his face. “What are you smiling
about?” she asked curiously. “I
have a couple things in mind for tonight…you’re one lucky gal,” he replied
with a grin and an outreached hand. “Oh
yeah, tell me more,” she replied as she took his hand for the first time in
years. She
was feeling just as he was; a kind of overwhelming feeling of connection and
emotion. Neither of them had any idea how they could just step right back in
where they left off, but that’s exactly what they were doing. As they made
their way to the bottom of the stairs, Robert noticed the main doors to the
general seating opening. A figure appeared out of the open door, it was a man
in a suit. As he held the door open for two more figures, Robert noticed that
one of them was Walter. He also noticed the other two men from early today,
they had Robert caught if it hadn’t have been for a car accident that allowed
him to escape. Part II coming soon...
© 2015 Colton WarrAuthor's Note
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Added on October 10, 2014Last Updated on March 17, 2015 Tags: Love, Romance, heartbreak, Anniversary, Kiss, Heart, Story, Love Story, City, Lights, Short Story Author
Colton WarrMorgantown, WVAboutRolling Stone... Twitter: @colton_warr Instagram: colton_warr Facebook: Colton Warr more..Writing
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