Lost Kindship

It is December 31; only seven minutes till midnight. Everybody in New York City is anxious for New Year’s to come. At a French restaurant, to celebrate their five year relationship, Arthur and Rhonda are enjoying themselves and the fine dining by eating their French cuisines silently. Arthur Sharp is a Computer & Information Systems Manager at a well paying company. He is good hearted, loyal, but often socially awkward. Since he could remember; Arthur had grew up believing that he'd never truly be happy until the day he met "the one." Rhonda Lumen is a High School English teacher who makes less then when what Arthur makes. It often displeases her because is sometimes makes her envious of his happiness.  She is very stern, stubborn, reluctant, and often controlling towards Arthur. She enjoys reading quietly, watching old movies with tragedies, and collecting crystals. Rhonda however does not share Arthur’s belief in love and has been unsure if she even wants to continue their relationship for some time now. 

​ As they sit silently, Arthur attempts to break the silence with some small talk. “So, Jack told me to say “hello” to you at the office today.” Rhonda speaks in a monotone voice, “Oh yeah; how is Jack doing these days?” “He’s good. I think he’s getting promoted soon. If you ask me it’s about time it happened. I mean the guy been working there for what, five years now? He should be getting something out of this.” Still reluctant and not even looking at him, “I didn’t ask you.” Arthur keeps his cool and still attempts to break the distant feeling Rhonda is bringing towards him. Arthur has the waiter bring them both more wine to the table. As the waiter is pouring the wine into Rhonda’s glass, Arthur stealthily pulls something out of his pocket. As Arthur tempts to make dialogue to Rhonda again, the famous ball drop is soon to be lowered on tower.

​“So Rhonda I have a question for you,” Arthur says willingly. “What,” Rhonda says carelessly. “You see, when a man and a woman love each other for a certain amount of time, they form a special bond with each other. Am I right?” Looking clueless Rhonda looks at him; "Yeah sure, if you say so.” Arthur continues; “And if they have that special bond they never want it to break apart. Do they?” She becomes confused; “Where are you going with this?” Arthur then stands up from his seat. He walks over to Rhonda and stops at a three foot distance away from her. The people in the restaurant main attraction is the famous ball drop at Times Square countdown.

The people start the countdown; “Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!” Arthur then kneels on one leg and presents the thing he kept in his pocket, reveling to her it is an engagement ring. “Six! Five! Four!” Arthur then say in calm, but confident tone “Rhonda Elizabeth Lumen will you marry me?" “Three! Two!” While feeling nonplussed at the moment Rhonda immediately says “I’m sorry Arthur, but I can’t take your hand in marriage.” “One! Happy New Year!” Everyone in the restaurant starts singing the traditional song Auld Lang Syne while Arthur is still on the floor in sudden confusion. “It sounded like you said you said you can’t take my hand in marriage.” Arthur shouted over the noise. “Yeah you're right. That's what I said,” she shouted as well. “I don’t understand. Well, why the Hell not?” She then gets up from her chair for her to say to him “It’s just not proper enough!” She then leaves the restaurant angrily, leaving Arthur to only sulk in his misery. 

Months go by after that depressing night. It was very hard for Arthur to get over what Rhonda did to him that night, but he did find the strength to still show his love for her. Rhonda however shows a larger amount of reluctance towards Arthur, and she keeps herself more distant from Arthur than she did before, after that one night. It is now the middle of June and New York is having a summer heat wave. To spend both there day off, Arthur takes Rhonda to Jones Beach to beat the weather. At the beach Arthur spent his time there cooling off in the water, playing volleyball with some other people, and even made a sand castle, while Rhonda was just sitting under her umbrella reading a book of poetry. 

Arthur, who doesn’t want to feel abandoned, tries again to make small take. “Hey if I didn’t tell you, Jack did a good job yesterday as new assistant manager.” “Cool. Tell Jack I said hello when you see him,” Rhonda replied showing no interest. “Fine, I’ll do that for you. So what are you reading today” asked Arthur. “It’s a book of Emily Dickinson’s poems.” “Who’s that?” Arthur said. Rhonda suddenly gives eye contact to Arthur. “Emily Dickinson was a female poet who kept her life in solitude. In her entire life she only published five or six poems, but when she died her family found close to fifteen hundred poems locked in her drawer.” Arthur speaking as if he is interested “wow, that’s a lot of poems.” “Well throughout history, readers call her one of the greatest poets who ever lived,” she says to him and then goes back to reading. “So ugh, did you see today’s article on gas prices?” Arthur said. Wanting to avoid him Rhonda then tells him jadedly, “Ok, I’m going to take a little nap and enjoy some of the sun.” She then tunes out Arthur. “Ok. Well if you need anything let me know, ok babe,” said Arthur, which Rhonda doesn’t respond.

Time flies by as Rhonda slept on the beach till five a’ clock in the evening. There are not too many people still around the beach area. As she is slowly waking up, she sees the words “Turn around” written on the sand. She turns around and is very surprised to see the words “Marry Me” written enormously in the sand with some romantic drawings around the letters. She looks down and sees Arthur down one knee on the sand with the engagement ring in front of her. “Arthur, what are you doing” she asked. He looks up at her, “Rhonda, I don’t know what I did wrong a few months ago, but I’m willing to forgive and forget. I do want to spend the rest of my life with you. Rhonda Elizabeth Lumen will you marry me?" She rolls her eyes at him; “look Arthur your really a nice guy, but I just really don’t want to be with you anymore.” “I don’t understand. How can you say that?” “This is just not proper enough, ok. Listen I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now and I really think we need to take a break” she says arrogantly. She starts walking away from him. Arthur, who starts repressing his traumatic emotions, says to her “Rhonda Please don’t do this.” She turns around and says “I’m sorry Arthur, this is just not proper enough. When we get back to New York City, I think its best that you find your own apartment and we just go our separate ways.” As she is walking away from him, feeling traumatized Arthur, at that very moment, then fell into a deep depression.

Months go by and Rhonda had Arthur move out into a new apartment. While Rhonda had immediately moved on with her life, Arthur sits in his apartment feeling alone and depressed. Arthur doesn’t even do any of the things he liked to do with his friends because he feels his depression is not suitable for any other happy events. As Rhonda leaves for work early she is startled to find Arthur waiting for her on the stairs. “Hi. Rhonda,I missed you.” She tries walking through him, “Arthur for God sake; please just go home.” Arthur than grabs her arm and says, “Would you just talk to me.” She tries pulling her arm away from him. “Arthur, let go off my arm or I’ll start screaming for help.”

He then says “will you just shut your mouth and please talk to me. I just want to know how I could be proper enough for you.” She still tries to pull his arm away from him. “Arthur, just take the hit. I just didn’t feel the same emotions for you as you felt about me. OK!” “No, I refuse to believe that.” “Well, believe it” she says. “Look into my eyes and tell me you love me” he says to her. "What?” Arthur angrily responds, “Look into my eyes and tell me you love me!” She looks dead into his eyes showing Arthur that she is true for what she says. “No Arthur, I don’t love you. I’m sorry that I hurt you, but I don’t love you and I could never be with you. Ok?” Arthur sadly let’s goes off her arm, and he walks away from her silently.

A few weeks go by; it is Rhonda’s day off. She enjoys her morning by making herself a side of eggs and some French toastand serves herself a cold glass of orange juice. She sits on her couch watching James Dean’s drama film Rebel without a Cause. As she gets up from the movie, she then walks outside her door to see if there is any mail in her mailbox downstairs. She opens to find a stack of letters, a magazine and a delivery box in her today’s mail. She goes upstairs to sort her mail. She then reads them; Three letters where bills, a letter from her mother, an invitation to a party, a Rolling Stone magazine, and there was the mysterious box. It was a small brown that came from the post office, but it had no address on it. She then starts shaking it next to her ear and hears something rattling inside of it. When she stops shaking it Rhonda opens the box noticing that there is some dried blood on the inside of the box. Turning frightened and confused she opens the too pull out a bloody, rotted, severed finger, wrapped in toilet paper, with a wedding ring worn around it. Horrified, Rhonda drops the finger and the box, noticing a blood stained note was inside the box before it hit the ground. She than picks up the bloody note and it only says; “Is this proper enough for you?”