Her Daughter's Big Day

[Lincolnshirelass]

Susan hadn't slept well, but she hadn't expected to, and was relieved when it was time to get up and apply herself to the sequence of prosaic tasks that needed to be done, no matter else was happening.

She had chosen her outfit with care, and had bought a new hat, but had no wish to draw attention to herself. After all, it was Melanie's big day, not hers. Melanie often told her she should spend more on clothes, but she never had, even when she was younger. She had always taken delight in dressing Melanie in pretty clothes, though. Secretly, she had always been glad her daughter was what people called a 'girly girl. She knew you weren't supposed to think that way, but still maintained liking pretty colours and hair ribbons and dolls and ponies with pink manes didn't mean a girl couldn't grow up to achieve whatever she wanted.

Involuntarily, Susan sighed. Melanie had always been a big reader, and despite her rebellious streak had done well at school and at one point was set on being a teacher, though her mother fancied she had rather a romanticised notion of it. Then Peter came along, and he wasn't at all happy with the idea of her teaching. He was, as he proudly said, a bit of a rebel.

It wasn't difficult to see why Melanie had taken to him and let him have such an influence over her. Susan gave a rueful little smile. He really was tall, dark, and handsome, and - most of the time - he had lovely manners and a winning way about him. She felt she should disapprove of him, and yet she hadn't. She still had moments of being angry with him, but also realised that for all her feminine little ways her daughter was her own woman and it had been her own choice.

She wondered how he would dress that day. Maybe something outlandish, or maybe he would recognise the solemnity of the occasion and of the location - surprisingly, he was quite a religious man in his own way and had said more than once that the little church was 'awesome'.

It WAS a lovely church, there was no denying it. The stained glass windows depicting Bible scenes had a softness and brightness about them that filtered and flickered down onto the polished wood of the pews, and the lectern had been carved with love and care by a local man nearly a hundred years ago.

In many ways, it would be a very conventional service - red roses and lilies, and the kind of hymns people expected like 'Love Divine, all Loves Excelling'. The minister - a woman, the Reverend Alice Groves - had taken time to discuss everything and go through the order of circus, and they knew she could be trusted to say the right words in the right way for Melanie's big day.

It would be a small service, with only the family and a few intimate friends there, and Susan was relieved about that. But she had to draw a deep breath and gather her courage at the thought of any small talk and well-meant words.

It was her daughter's big day - and Melanie had devoted herself to making sure that big day would be perfect.

No, she would not blame Peter, would neither snub him nor speak harsh words to him.

He had not forced Melanie to inject the drugs that killed her.

[DATo]

Now THAT'S my kind of short story. Killer twist! (no pun intended).

Here's one that is similar. Before I was a member at this website Scott held a short story contest and the story (link below) was the winner. As I said this was before my time and I did not know the author but I think you will agree that It was a very well written "short".
forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php ... &t=239

Excellent story and I really like the phrasing you use in your construction ... but I repeat myself, I think I say that about all your submissions. *LOL*

[Lincolnshirelass]

Hi, @DATo and thanks for kind words, also for directing me to the other story, which was brilliant and very moving, - and Guide's Honour, I wasn't plagiarising I wonder if I should have a go at any future short story competitions.

[Rosemary Wright]

Nice story, good concept and grammatical structure but the characters lack connectivity with the reader. The characters were not introduced and poorly described, leaving the reader to figure a lot all by himself/herself. The story, though a short story, seems vague to me. No interesting events.

-- 18 Nov 2017, 10:35 --

Nice story, good concept and grammatical structure but the characters lack connectivity with the reader. The characters were not introduced and poorly described, leaving the reader to figure a lot all by himself/herself. The story, though a short story, seems vague to me. No interesting events.

[Jiya bothara]

Nice plot and story.The twist was awesome. The whole time I thought the day was the wedding day but it turned out to be a funeral.

[Wanja Hannah]

To be very sincere, I skipped some bits where I found a disconnect of characters. The beginning was wonderful until I got to the second paragraph and I got confused. Maybe you can restructure the story. It is an interesting one though.