Saturday, October 31, 2009

One And True

“Oh, my gosh! You were able to make it, Lenny!” she said as Lenny came in escorting a blind, elderly lady at his arm.

“I hope you don’t mind that I brought along an old friend of the family,” Lenny commented as he juggled his present with the other arm, “This is Agnes.” Teresa smiled as the two came into the house.

“I’ll take ‘old’ to mean that we’ve known each other for awhile,” Agnes commented, “as opposed to meaning that I am the one that is old.”

“She has a knack for correcting my grammar,” Lenny sarcastically remarks to Teresa. Meanwhile, Agnes sneaks off into the living room with no assistance to the amazement of Teresa.

“Is she going to be okay?” Teresa asked.

“She’s more capable than you think. In fact, she was the one who guided me here, Agnes is better than GPS,” Lenny remarked as he took his coat off.

“I guess that means no drinks for you tonight!” Teresa teased. Lenny put the present down and the two hugged each other.

“I can’t believe you’re getting married already!” Lenny exclaimed.

“Why does everybody keep saying that?” Teresa replied, “Is me getting married that unbelievable?”

“Well, everybody assumed you were going to marry--”

“I know; everybody assumed that I was going to be marrying Kyle. So did I… once upon a time. But Eric’s the one for me.”

“I’m happy for you, Teresa. So who else is here?”

“Everybody from school is here. In fact, Kyle is here,” Teresa scans the room and spots Kyle talking to Agnes.

“It looks like Agnes is a step ahead of us already.” Lenny smirked to himself.

As the two walked to greet Kyle, Agnes took Teresa by the hand and led her outside. Confused but not surprised, Lenny let Agnes take Teresa as he went over to catch up with Kyle. Teresa was frightened not only by the urgency of the elderly lady’s tug, but also by the look on Agnes’ face. Any trace of congeniality in Agnes’ smile had been drained by whatever she discovered about Kyle.

“You’re one and true love will be taken from you tonight.” Agnes finally said.

“Excuse me?” Teresa didn’t know whether to be worried or offended.

“That young man who I was speaking to will be responsible. I urge you to listen to me carefully. You have one and only one and true love.” Teresa didn’t know how to react at this point. The words were too frightened to even come to Teresa’s mind let alone the tip of her tongue.

“Let your heart speak to your one and true love, lest that young man I was speaking to does the unthinkable,” Agnes continued.

“I don’t understand.” Teresa thought the ability of speech had returned to her until Agnes uttered one last thing before going back into the house.

“Kyle will be responsible for the death of the one who loved you most.”

Agnes began to walk away from the house. She stopped and turned to Teresa who was still looking at her. “Tell, Lenny, that I decided to walk home. You’ve been a lovely hostess, I’m just a bit tired,” Agnes said in a voice that seemed to be a whisper that only Teresa could hear.

Teresa walked back into the house and could not find Kyle anywhere. She went upstairs, and still Kyle was nowhere to be found. Out of the window, she saw Eric’s truck pull into the driveway. She smiled at her from the window and raised her hand to wave at him, but before Eric could look up, Kyle met him at the walkway. Teresa raced down to talk to Kyle, but found only he husband-to-be standing at the door.

“Where was that guy you were talking to in the driveway?” she asked him.

“Oh, Kyle?” he asked, “He went into the bathroom or something. It looks like the party’s gone well so far without me.”

“Yes, of course,” Teresa replied blankly. Her face was smiling at Eric but her mind was lurking to wherever Kyle was. She wandered into the downstairs bedroom hoping to find him and talk him out of whatever it was Kyle had planned. There was no one there.

A photo of her and Kyle caught her eye. She wanted to smile at it but couldn’t bring herself to do it. How could she smile knowing that he was going to kill Eric? The question rang loudly in her head. Her neck felt cold, and she thought she felt the presence of someone else with her in the room She turned around, nobody there.

She looked into the hallway, hoping to see if it was Kyle. Nobody was there but the cold breeze coming in from an open window at the end of the hall. Teresa walked over to shut the window. The drapes danced in the wind entering the house. As the window slam shut, a hand reached over on her shoulders and she jumped with a scream.

“I’m sorry,” Kyle replied, “I just wanted to congratulate you. I realized that I never got around to wishing you and Eric good luck.”

“Thanks, Kyle,” she replied wide-eyed. “Kyle, how are you doing?”

“Good, I guess,” his answer wasn’t half as convincing as he wished it was.

“It’s just that… I don’t think we ever got the chance to clear things up properly.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re with Eric now, and you two are getting married. Who am I to stop any of that? I’m happy for you two.”

“Are you sure?” Teresa could always feel the sincerity in Kyle’s voice.

“I’m sure.” Kyle walked out of the house and got into his car. Eric came into the hallway and saw Teresa. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the lips. They whispered to each other how much they loved the other. A tear rolled down Teresa’s cheek.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Eric asked her. Teresa explained what Agnes’ so-called prophecy to Eric. “So you were afraid of what a blind woman said about me… someone she’s never met?”

“She’s a friend of Lenny’s. According to her she has never been wrong before.”

What the loving couple didn’t realize was that their canoodling could easily be seen from the hallway window. On the other side of the window was the street from which Kyle was driving on. He saw the two exchanging kisses, and he reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a loaded gun. BANG!

Teresa and Kyle looked out the window and found Kyle’s car outside. The window was stained with blood. Kyle indeed did the unthinkable. He left no note, nor any sign of what he was going to do. It was then that Teresa realized that Kyle was her one and true love.

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