The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants
A short story by Margaret Colocasidou
She always wondered who she was going to marry. Where was he? How would she find him? What would he look like? She had only one stipulation – he had to be faithful.
Those three little words, “I love you”, always held a fascination for her. Little did she know that there would be three other little words that would be life-changing. Check it out.
Thousands of miles away, on a small Greek island, the little boy was running up and down the mountain with the goats when he decided to crawl into an old car tyre and roll down the mountain. It gathered speed but of course he had no fear, not even when it stopped abruptly and ejected him unceremoniously. His grandfather berated him for leaving the goats unattended as they made their way home, he with a slight limp as he had lost one shoe on that bumpy ride due to the fact that he had never possessed a pair of shoelaces, not that it ever bothered him. He was an easy child and very compliant. Nature was his playground.
The next day it was his job to load the donkey with their homegrown produce and sell it at the market. He decided to stop under a tree as it was blisteringly hot. He tied the donkey to a tree and he promptly fell asleep. He arrived late at the market and didn’t sell as much as he normally would have and was worried about what they would say at home, but all was well.
She on the other hand grew up in an entirely different setting on a busy main road in London with cars roaring past her window. She was a member of a gymnastics club, although it was her fervent wish to attend ballet school. Her parents couldn’t afford it so they sent her to gymnastics which was free. She also was very compliant. She helped her mother with all the household chores which was a heavy load with three brothers, a father and no washing machine! Although she adored her father, she never left her mother’s side – they were joined at the hip.
One summer her parents were due to go on holiday, but as she could not accompany them due to work commitments, they decided to pack her off to her aunt’s house as there was no way they were going to leave a young lady on her own in the house. It wasn’t far & she was happy to go as she had two cousins there and her daily commute to Liverpool Street Station would be easier anyway. If truth be told they couldn’t trust her brothers to look after her; once, the boys took the youngest brother to the West End in his pyjama bottoms for a laugh. In actual fact while the parents were on holiday the boys threw a party with the music so loud that the neighbours called the police! Hardly the perfect setting for a young girl.
The parents had instilled a good work ethic in them by example as they never had a day off in their lives. She was in awe of them especially when they worked opposite Holloway Prison. Her father was a cobbler and sometimes he would walk up the long path to the prison gates delivering their mended shoes in brown paper bags. How cool was that? He was her hero! The thing her parents drummed into her was you get engaged, get married, have children, in that order, no dilly-dallying!
Her first Saturday job was in a hairdressers just two streets away from where the young man now lived. Her next job took her to Euston Station, and then coming round full circle to working just a few streets away from him again! How close can you get?
The little boy grew up and had moved to England with his family. He was now working in his mother’s restaurant and, at the precise moment that he was cleaning tables with a big happy smile on his face, she walked past, glanced inside and her eyes landed squarely on his face. She saw a young man with a smile so happy & lovely, she immediately fell in love with him. She said to herself, “There he is”. (Those three little words!). She knew that she was going to marry him, she knew that he was the father of her children and she knew that he would love her and only her. She felt that she was on the cusp of being discovered; it was as if she had been sleeping before this moment.
All she had to do now was walk past the restaurant at exactly the same time every morning on her way to work, positive that he would look out of the window & spot her. She did this every morning with a slight flick of her hair in the hope that the quick movement would catch his eye…but it did not and she was not quite sure what to do next.
At the weekend she was walking opposite the restaurant with her two cousins when the young man spotted her. He of course knew the cousins because they were his neighbours, but the girl – well, he had never seen her before! He saw long straight brown hair, a short skirt, long skinny legs, and was intrigued, but she was so engrossed with her cousins that she did not turn to look. He watched enraptured as her hair flapped in the wind, she talked animatedly with her cousins, walking with an easy grace. So he sent his sister to the girl’s aunt’s house to enquire after her and they had a long conversation while the girl sat by their feet playing with his sister’s baby. His sister invited the aunt to a party at the restaurant at the weekend and requested that she bring the girl and her parents along.
She was very nervous about the party and decided to wear her killer yellow jacket with the matching short skirt and to let her hair flow freely down to her waist. She felt slightly more confident and in control now.
When she arrived at the restaurant she felt embarrassed but tried to look nonchalant. When the first song came on the young man swiftly arrived by her side and asked her to dance. Her heart skipped a beat. He was even more lovely close up. He asked her what her name was but the music was so loud that he repeated it wrong and she was too nervous to correct him so he ended up calling her by the wrong name all evening which tickled her pink! He asked about her job and she told him she was a secretary. He told her that apart from working in the restaurant he was also an extra in the film industry and owned an Equity card no less! She was very impressed and thought she was going to marry a film star!
When he arrived to collect his date for the very first time there was much excitement in her house. To her shock and horror he arrived dressed in a red polo-neck jumper! How dare he not come dressed in a suit for this very important occasion, but do you know what? She actually liked it! Her youngest brother was loitering (although she rather suspected, hiding) in the kitchen. “What do you think of him?” she whispered excitedly, to which he replied “He’s alright”. She was more than happy with this response and wondered fleetingly how she would have reacted had he answered otherwise.
Life is a funny thing. These two people were born within spitting distance of one another, moved thousands of miles away from each other and moved closer and closer over the years till they were in the next town to each other; it seemed that they were gravitating towards each other whether they liked it or not. Unbeknownst to them the universe threw them together till they were nose-to-nose.
Standing there in her living room watching him she suddenly felt scared, it seemed that her whole life was about to change. She had heard of brides getting cold feet, but could it happen at this point?
When she finally heard those all-important words “Will you marry me”? she knew for sure. The heart wants what the heart wants.
Ten years later she looked in her rear view mirror at their three gorgeous boys squabbling in the back seat and sighed contentedly.
