The Gesture

In the olden days, one, normally a man, would go out and buy a ring. Spending lots of money on it. Then the other, I think the word they used to use was ‘traditional’ and so would be a woman, was given the ring. She, as was what is shown in the old films, would then be delighted to later show off the ring to her friends.

What followed was often the man feeling happy but also broke, or smug about how much they had spent as they can afford a big one. The effort was to find ‘the one’, but this one used to mean ‘ring’. Not ‘them’. The rituals were odd as it meant setting up a future with someone and putting your resources into something that could be lost, or worse, just make the next stage in life difficult.

No one is sure when the change happened. All Rachel knows is. For her. The perfect moment is not some compressed piece of carbon attached to a metal band. For her, it’s finding someone who knows her.

This was how it was for her. People would often talk about the moment they realised they had found their person by creating, organising or doing something that, to them, showed they had found them.

Some of her friends had decided to play on this new idea and simply tell people they were slightly interested in what their desires were. For a time this was fun, but after having people do this for you had two, slightly surprising, consequences.

The first was predictable. Claire had told 3 different people, 3 different amazing ideas. They each, over the course of a year or so, did them. After each one they felt they had found their person, but Claire carried on much the same as the day before, except for having enjoyed the thing they planned for her.

The obvious consequence was that the the planners gave up, they felt rejected. One had tried to show affection by capturing a moment by walking to the top of the local hill, often called ‘The Hill of Love’ as so many events involved the hill, and showed his love by setting off fireworks on her birthday. A highly illegal action for the simple reason that despite everyone loving fireworks, it was a fire risk for the trees. But Tom did it. Went to jail. Publicly sentenced to put others off. The only reason the judge undid some of his restrictions was because after 3 months it was clear Claire could not care at all and the boy was fool hardy. Public embarrassment was a stronger message than anything the judge could do.

But after 3 big events, Claire stopped enjoying them too. Her story does not end badly for her. She was not the first to try this. But she is one of those stories people tell their children when discussing love. Some will listen. But not all.

Rachel did. She heard the stories and listened. Seeing Claire as they grew up confirmed it for her. But it made her slowly stay away from being centre of attention. To chose the quiet room to read or a tree to sit under and listen to the breeze around her.

So when the day came she met that someone special, she didn’t give hints. Fearing to repeat what had happened to others that she had seen. But after about 2 years, it happened.

Discussions of living together, growing old together, having a place to settle down started. The future was becoming less scary and growing old, together, was a happy place for her. Then Alex did the one thing Rachel didn’t expect.

A swing was made.

Alex disappeared for a few days and when they returned, held Rachel’s hand and took her on a journey. After a couple hours walk the hidden waterfall pass was climbed. To see it, the trek took you out to the trees and through rocky outcrops and be able to see the waterfall. Not many started the trek on the other side to see it, fewer would finish it to sit and watch the water flow over the top. Today this would change.

With her eyes closed, Rachel sat on a seat with the whispered words, “hold tight”.

Slowly Alex pushed and Rachel held on. Creaks and huffing followed but she held, her feet not touching the floor.

A call came “Open your eyes!”. Above the sound of the waterfall Rachel had to be told twice.

She had never seen it up close. No one had. Alex had built a private swing for people to see it. Others would come and use it. Others would sit and watch and dream as the water flowed over the side and fell 100 feet. But this moment, this chair, was hers.

She was the first and it was made for her.