TUESDAY TALES - WORD PROMPT "HOLIDAY"

 

Welcome to Tuesday Tales, where writers create stories to word prompts. This week our word prompt is "holiday". Rather fitting, don't you think? I have another installment from "Sam's Decision."  Don't forget to hop on over to read the other stories by our talented writers. You'll find them HERE.  

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After dinner, Caleb raised his eyebrows and stared at Sam.

“Well?”

“Well, what?” Martha asked, her sharp glance darted back and forth between Caleb and Sam.

“Nothin’, Grandma. Thanks for dinner. I best be goin’.”

“Goin’ where?”

“Now, Martha, let the young man be,” Caleb said, pushing away from the table.

“I’ll help clean up, Ma,” Abigail said.

“Fine.”

Sam slipped out the door and set his feet in the direction of the Wilcox home. As his mind worked, her slowed his pace. Somehow he couldn’t get up much enthusiasm for the task at hand. He recalled how he counted the minutes until Becky opened the store the day he decided to propose to her. He’d been all het up, his breath comin’ quick, his heart thumpin’ like a racehorse on the home stretch.

Now he kept a steady even pace as he plotted out what to say to Mr. Wilcox. His breath was even and steady as was his heartbeat.

“Is this what it is to be a man?” he asked himself in hushed tones. “Doin’ the right thing?”

He knew it was, but that didn’t make it any easier. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Violet Wilcox. He did. She made his blood run hot and he could barely take his eyes off her beauty. But she didn’t capture his heart like Becky did.

“I’ll learn to love her. That’s what  Caleb said.” Resigned to his fate, he plodded ahead. “It ain’t like I’m going to the gallows.” Yeah, but it also wasn’t like a big holiday neither. He finally arrived at their door. He swallowed, then raised  his fist to knock on the door. Mr. Wilcox answered.

“Why, Sam, how nice for you to come for a visit,” Abiel Wilcox said, as he took Sam by the arm and ushered him inside.

Maybe this was a little like a turkey felt the day before Thanksgiving, Sam thought, as he stepped across the threshold.

Thanks for stopping by.