It was while driving home
from work that Warren realized it. Something had been at the back of his mind
all day and he hadn’t been able to put his finger on it until now. Quite what
it was that shook loose the old memory, we may never know. But halfway between
his clinic and his house, Warren remembered what day it was and it was for this
reason that he made an unexpected detour. His wife was not the type who was all
that interested in flowers, cards, chocolates or jewelry, which meant that Warren
had to make slightly more effort than most married men when it came to
spontaneous romantic gestures.
“Where have you been?”
Shelly asked as she kissed her husband. “You’re usually home by six-thirty and
it’s already past seven.”
“I had to stop and pick
something up,” said Warren, with the smug, satisfied air of a man who is about
to score major points with the woman he loves. Not having had time to wrap the
article, he’d had no choice but to conceal it in the old, slightly tattered briefcase
he carried with him to work. He drew it out now and handed it to his wife. “It’s
nothing, really, but I couldn’t let today pass without doing something.”
“Why not?” asked Shelly,
smiling as she looked at the book on beekeeping Warren had brought her. Her longtime
idol, Sherlock Holmes, had, in his later years, given up detective work and
retired to the country to study bees, so Warren knew that this book would bring
a smile to his wife’s face.
“Well, you know…” Warren
began. But, the blank expression on Shelly’s face led him to believe that she
did not know. “It’s October 9th.”
“Yeah. And?”
“Don’t you remember what
today is?”
“Let me see, October 9th…er…well,
the Washington Monument was opened to the public on October 9th, 1888.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But that’s not why
you gave me this, is it?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Let’s see, October 9th…Battle
of Yorktown,1781?”
“Yes, Shelly, I got you a
gift to commemorate the Battle of Yorktown, as is custom among husband and wives.”
Frantically, Shelly
started rattling off everything that had ever happened on October 9th.
“Henry VI restored to the throne? Harvard begins admitting women? John Lennon
was born? Che Guevara died?”
“It’s the day we met!”
There was silence in the
room. It had been twenty-five years ago that very day that Warren had, as a
small child, stepped into a room in a foster home and met a girl called Shelly.
The day he met his best friend. The day he became her Dr. Watson. The day his
life began.
“Oh…my god…” said Shelly,
looking stunned and ashamed. “Warren, how could I…I can’t believe I would
forget that.”
“Well,” began Warren,
about to tell her that he had only remembered himself about an hour ago…but
then he reflected on how seldom it was that he remembered something when Shelly
didn’t, and decided on a slightly less noble path.
“Well,” he began again, “I
won’t say I’m not a little disappointed.”
“Oh, Warren, I’m so
sorry. I can never forgive myself for forgetting something so important.”
It was at this stage that
Warren intended to put his arms around Shelly and magnanimously forgive her for
the oversight. But before he had the chance, Shelly seemed to become distraught
and ran to the bedroom. Moments later, Warren heard loud sobs coming from that direction.
This was, of course, not
at all what he had wanted. He just wanted to enjoy one-upping the Master
Detective for once. Hating himself, he ran into the bedroom where he expected
to find Shelly prostrate on the bed, crying her eyes out.
Instead, she was sitting,
quite happily at the foot of the bed, next to an object Warren had never seen before.
It was a brand new briefcase with a large red bow on it. The exact one he had
been wanting for months to replace his old one. He walked across the room and
picked it up. He looked at it from every angle. Then he flipped it open. Just
on the inside, there was a small window of clear plastic where the owner could
slip a business card. There was a printed card in this window, but not one of
Warren’s. It read:
Of
course I remembered what today was, you dope!
Love,
Shelly
Warren grinned. He looked at Shelly. She was grinning,
too.
