When We Met

Apples and cinnamon with the hint of vanilla and a touch of dead leaves. Matthew was instantly caught off guard. He fell to a sitting position on the old plaid couch and attempted to regain his breath.

       The breathing became difficult as a lump formed in his throat and tears welled, threatening to spill from his eyes down his cheeks.

       “Paw Paw,” the voice of Matthew’s granddaughter came from far off, “Paw Paw, are you okay?” The nine-year-old began to call for her mother before Matthew stopped her.

       “No, Abby,” he spoke with a voice that was still distant as his eyes stared somewhere far beyond the wall, “It’s just… it’s that smell.”

       “The smell?” Abby said with sudden surprise and a bit of self-consciousness, “What smell?”

       “That cinnamon and vanilla scent,” the old man said kindly but with urgency. The scent was bringing back a memory that carried many emotions with it.

       “Oh!” Abby said like a girl who wanted to show off something new she learned at school, “Mamma and I got a candle for you on our way over, Paw Paw. We wanted to get you something to match the season,” the little smiled widely to display a jagged set of baby teeth and adult ones still growing in. A few gaps remained. Her brown eyes then widened in horror when she asked, “Do you not like it, Paw Paw?”

       The old man smiled warmly, which aided in relaxing his nerves, “No, sweetie, I love it,” he said as kindly as he could.

       “Then what’s wrong?” Abby asked, “Do you not like Halloween?”

       Matthew chuckled a burst of hardy laughter and shook his head, “No dear, Halloween was my favorite holiday- apart from Christmas- for many years,” he paused for a moment in thought then spoke again, “Have I ever told you about your grandmother, Abby?”

       “I know that she died when I was too young to remember her,” Abby said softly.

       The old gentleman shook his head silently then said, “Do Paw Paw a favor, sweetie, and get that photo album off the shelf.” The little girl did as told, the heavy book fell in her arms but she held onto it. She was so strong already, both in spirit and in body, just like his daughter, Sue, and her mother. It warmed his heart. He patted the couch cushion next to him and Abby walked over and plopped herself down with the book on her lap. She handed the album to her grandfather who opened the dusty book to a photo of a handsome man with slicked brown hair next to a charming young woman in a red dress with auburn hair. They smiled beautifully; arms linked around each other.

       “Who are those people?” Abby asked as she looked at the photograph with washed-out colors. The woman looked a little like her mother.

       “That is your grandmother and me on the night we met, Abby,” Matthew replied in blissful remembrance, “It was the autumn dance that the town used to put on every third weekend of October.

       “You two are so young,” Abby replied in awe. The couple looked so lovely and happy.

       “We were sixteen years old and it was 1966,” The grandfather began his tale. The occasional bump and clang could be heard from the kitchen as Sue cooked dinner for the trio. Abby listened as her grandfather recounted his tale.

       “I had shown up with a group of my buddies that I went to school with but Mary Beth- your grandmother- arrived with a date. His name was Peter Lundgren and he had been courting Mary Beth for a few weeks before. Nothing serious, though,” Matthew explained.

       “It was pretty cold that night so all of us teens were packed inside the old meeting house like sardines because it was warm there. My friends and I had only planned to stay for a little while, we were going to be there long enough to have an alibi while we went to drink out at the-“ he was cut short.

       “Paw Paw!” Abby shrieked with laughter.

       “Oops,” Matthew replied comically, “We were… ah… Going to do something else by the river, but the moment I saw Mary Beth, I knew I would stay until they shut the social down.”

       Matthew smiled and inhaled, “I had known her from school, of course, we only had two hundred people total, but tonight-“ he trailed off momentarily, “she was gorgeous. That auburn hair all done up nicely with the bright lipstick and makeup that made those brown eyes seem even bigger. Of course, that plain red dress she wore didn’t hurt either despite its simplicity.”

       Abby stared in deep interest, wishing she could have attended that Autumn Ball at the same time as her grandparents.

       “We first spoke to each other when I had gotten up to grab a cup of punch,” Matthew said, “She was talking to some girlfriends while her date greeted some of his group, I wasn’t paying attention and I was already a little ah,” he looked for the right way to put it, “woozy.” He settled on. “I bumped into her since I wasn’t paying attention.”

       Abby knew what her grandfather meant.

       “Mary Beth tells me, ‘You keep your greasy hands away from me!’” Matthew laughed, though his own father’s side had been Irish, his mother’s side were Italians, so Matthew had always been associated with that side to the public despite having the name Matthew O’Connor. “I fell in love with that fiery girl right then, only I didn’t quite realize it yet.

       “I said something to her that… might’ve… been offensive and stumbled off. I thought that was the end of things.”

       Abby laughed at her grandfather’s mannerisms. He always made the funniest faces when trying to act innocent of his mildly devilish jokes.

       “Anyway, I had found a girl to dance with but she uh,” was a skank he almost said but laned on, “She wasn’t my type. Mary Beth and Peter were burning the dance up together though, you would have thought they were in love by the way they moved so gracefully. Meanwhile, my date didn’t know how to dance and I knew a few moves, but I had two left feet when I tried to do them so we were bumping into everyone and fall all over the place.” Matthew howled another laughter, “I ended up stepping on your grandmother’s foot.” Abby joined the giggling.

       “Eventually, I ditched the girl to sneak a smoke outside,” Matthew told.

       “Hey,” Sue’s voice came from behind him, “What are you telling my daughter.”

       “Aw mom,” Abby began.

       “I’m telling her of how your mother and I met,” Matthew told her calmly.

       Sue’s eyes squinted in suspicion, “I don’t know if Abby is old enough for that one.”

       “She’s old enough, don’t worry, I’m not telling her everything.”

       “Yeah, I’m old enough, momma.”

       Sue took a breath and sighed, “Alright, but keep it PG, I still have nightmares from when y’all were drunk and reminisced on the story thinking I was asleep after Aunt Connie’s wedding.”

       Matthew laughed in a way to say I’m sorry and yikes at the same time.

       “Dinner will be ready in another fifteen minutes,” Sue told them and walked back into the kitchen. She knew her father wouldn’t be that dumb to discussing all the events of that night.

       “Anyways,” Matthew began, “I had snuck out back to have a cigarette-“

       “Smoking is bad, grandpa,” Abby said with conviction.

       “Yes, very bad,” Matthew agreed, “But we didn’t know that back in those days. So I was smoking and I hear an ear-splitting scream yelling at me, ‘Where do you come off?’ I turn around so quickly and I see that little redhead staring at me in a total rage.”

       He and Abby laughed at the thought of big, bad grandpa being afraid of a small woman.

       “Abby, when I tell you I was afraid, Vietnam didn’t scare me as bad as Mary Beth’s anger that night.” Abby was old enough to know that Vietnam meant a war that her Paw Paw had been in and was given a Purple Heart. She did not know what a Purple Heart was given for, though.

       “Well, she had spent what felt like an hour screaming at me and calling me all kinds of names for how rude I was to her that night until, all of the sudden, she calmed down and asked if I was going to offer her a cigarette or let her freeze out there.

       “Well, me being the gentleman I’ve always been, gave her one and convinced that pretty lady to leave her boyfriend and come with me. We got our photo taken, left, and became high school sweethearts. I married her on October 20, 1970, when I got back from the Army. The month we met in and the same month your mother was born two years later.”

       “But, Paw Paw,” Abby asked, “What does the candle have to do with that?”

       Sue called the two of them into dinner before Matthew had to explain that it was the same scent of the candle that was burning when Mary Beth snuck her new boyfriend into her room.