Portsmouth, Virginia
Congratulations, Sarah!
Sarah’s Bio:
Sarah Brady has loved writing from the time that she was in the sixth grade. Throughout middle and early high school, she would compose novels in installments, with her friends eagerly waiting to read the next part of the story. After a hiatus from writing of approximately ten years, broken only by the writing of, then grading of, college papers, she has recently decided to pursue her love of writing. Currently, she writes articles and stories in between being a wife, a college professor, and an actress in one-person shows. She looks forward to writing more in the future!
Worthwhile
Anne held back a gasp of approval when she saw it: the perfect suit, a soft blue-gray with feminine details on top and pleats that made the skirt a reminder of the 1940s. The moment Anne saw this outfit hanging on the rack with the “50% off” sign, she knew both that she loved it and that she would look beautiful in it. Well, maybe not beautiful—even if other people described her as beautiful, she had a difficult time believing that word was an accurate portrayal of herself. But she had to admit that the suit would bring out what she considered to be her best feature: her eyes.
Then her best feature honed in on the price tag. Even at its marked-down price, the suit was still eighty dollars. Eighty dollars! She’d never owned anything that cost eighty dollars in her life. In her family, fifteen dollars seemed extravagant, and Wal-Mart was the store of choice. “Money doesn’t grow on trees” was her mom’s favorite over-used expression. She sighed and started to move toward the more economically-motivating stand that had “75% off” plastered in huge letters on a sign in the air.
But her fiancé, who stood by patiently as she trolled through the clearance section, had already noticed her interest. “Why don’t you try it on?” Then he smiled—and Anne went to the dressing room.
A few minutes later, she stepped to the door leading back into the store. She smiled shyly as he raised his eyebrows and whistled. “You look beautiful.”
“Yeah, but it’s so expensive.” She looked down at the floor, ready to hear the all-too-familiar words from her childhood: “if only,” “put it back,” “we’re not that sort of people.”
Instead, she heard, “It’s only eighty dollars, and it’s a nice suit. It brings out your eyes perfectly.” He paused and stepped closer. “Besides, you’re going to be my wife; you’re definitely worth it. I’ll get it for you.”
Years later, Anne looked through her closet, searching for that perfect outfit for the evening. Her eyes fell on the blue-gray suit—the one she’d worn on the interview for her first job out of grad school, the one she’d paired with pearls on her first day as a college professor, the one that had survived the purging of many seasons because of its lesson to her: that she was worthy of a good man’s love. What better to wear on their tenth anniversary?
As she walked downstairs, he smiled. “You look beautiful,” his lips and eyes told her.
That’s all she needed to hear.
***