How we met (a short story)

Ed caught my eye from across the room, and I shot him a look of panic. “Help me!” I mouthed silently. He flashed an amused smirk and made his way through the crowd, every few feet stopping to shake someone’s hand or exchange a small greeting. When he finally made it to my haven near the coat closet and pigs-in-a-blanket, I swatted his shoulder playfully.
“How could you leave me like that?” I asked, feigning a pout. “I was stranded!”
“I’m sorry, baby,” Ed laughed, giving me a kiss on the cheek. “It won’t happen again.”
He grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. The white-gold band and emerald-cut sapphire of my new engagement ring pressed gently into my skin.
“Incoming,” Ed whispered into my ear. My head jerked up, my gaze falling on Aunt Helen.
“Oh, Stella!” Helen’s soprano voice squeaked as she rushed toward me. “Look at you! You look gorgeous! Have you been eating? Is this the — Oh, he’s a looker! Who’d have thought — let me see that ring!”
Helen’s long-nailed fingers ripped my hand out of Ed’s and brought it close to her made-up face, squinting at the sapphire. I braced myself for another squeal. I didn’t have to wait long.
“Ooooh! Fabulous, honey! Congratulations! I’m so happy for — Oh, Steve! Stephen, come here, and see little Stelly’s ring!”
Steve stared longingly at the pigs-in-a-blanket suspended halfway to his mouth. With a reluctant sigh, he placed it back onto his plate and waddled in our direction. He smiled, wiping his pudgy fingers off on his tan sweater vest and jutting his hand out to Ed.
“Steve,” he announced himself. “You’re … Fred?”
“Ed, actually,” Ed smiled, shaking the large man’s hand.
I started to giggle and scratched my nose to cover my grin.
“So, you popped the old question, huh?” Steve asked. “You sure you’re good enough for little Stella, here?”
Helen slapped her husband’s shoulder.
“Steve! Now don’t embarrass the girl!” Brushing off Steve with a wave of her manicured hand, she turned back to me. “Now, when do we hear the pitter-patter of wittle baby Stellers and Edwees?” She poked my belly for emphasis, and the blood rushed to my face. Ed choked, clearly fighting the urge to bust out laughing.
“Umm, we’re going to go ahead and wait on that one,” I stammered, still stunned. I wanted to kick Ed in the shin.
“Probably best,” Helen nodded. “Want to make sure you get plenty of … quality time together beforehand?” She winked and nudged my ribcage. Ed lost any shred of control he had left and turned away, coughing to cover his heaving laughter.
Before I could respond, Steve came to my rescue.
“So, how did you two kids meet anyway?” he asked.
Ed and I exchanged glances.
“Funny you should ask that,” I smiled and turned to my fiancé. “It’s a really interesting story actually.”
“Really?” Helen asked. “What happened?”
“Honey, you tell it better,” I said quickly. “Go ahead.”
He shot me a glare. I grinned back.
“Well …” he started. “We were working with Habitat for Humanity … in … Sugar Bear, where was it again?”
“Mozambique,” I prompted. Helen and Steve exchanged impressed glances.
“Right! How could I forget?” Ed continued. “It was freezing — one of the coldest winters the locals had ever seen — and it had just snowed a foot before we flew into Chimoio. I was with Bill, a good friend of mine from college, and Stella walked off the plane with her friend …”
“Trudy,” I said.
“… her friend, Trudy. Because of the weather, the pilot had to circle around the airport for an hour, waiting for the grounds crews to remove the snow from the runway. It had already been a long flight, and we all were in desperate need of a shower. Stella — she looked horrible. Her hair was all mussed up on one side, bunched in a lopsided ponytail, and her makeup was smudged and streaking down her — ow!”
My heel dug deep into Ed’s toes.
“Whoops! I’m sorry, baby,” I cooed. “Clumsy me…Continue.”
I looked away from Ed’s glare and peeked a glance at Helen and Steve. Both were holding platefuls of crackers and cheese cubes, mouths open, hanging on every word.
“… well, we, uh, right,” Ed stammered. “We got off the plane — a group of us — and went outside to find a ride to our camp. With the road conditions, nobody was driving. We asked all the locals, but no one wanted to risk it. Finally, we found this South African guy who spoke English and was willing to drive us there. Like I said, there was a group of us, and we all had to smash into his tiny compact car for the 50-mile drive through the mountains, where I had the misfortune of sitting next to Stella.”
Helen raised an eyebrow and looked at me. “Misfortune?”
“He’s only saying that because I didn’t give him the time of day,” I said quickly and pushed down with my heel again. Ed squirmed. “See, he tried to show off by babbling on about his volunteer work in Tibia and New Zealand, and I refused to listen to him brag for the entire four hours. I just didn’t have the patience or tolerance after that bumpy flight, so I told him to keep it down. But despite the … unpleasant … drive, the view was incredible, wasn’t it, honey?”
“Oh, it was beautiful!” Ed agreed. “The small road was lined with these huge redwoods, and the road had no shoulder at all, so you could look down and see this breathtaking view. Our village was at the bottom of the valley, and we reached the camp just before nightfall. A local family invited us in for dinner — we were all famished — and crowded around the floor of their one-room shack. We had just finished dinner when these Turkish —”
“— Kurdish,” I corrected.
“Right, Turkish rebels drove into the camp on their humvees. The locals started to panic, closing their shutters and blowing out their candles. We didn’t have any clue what was going on, and all of us just kind of stood there. Then, out of nowhere, a rock flew through the window, spraying glass everywhere, and we started hearing these gunshots.”
Helen gasped and gripped Steve’s arm.
“Everyone in the room dropped down to the ground,” Ed continued. “Bullets were spraying through the side of the house and whizzing over the tops of our heads. We heard people screaming in the distance. … Children were crying.
“When the bullets stopped, we heard the rebels rev the engine of the humvee before they sped away. We looked around at each other, not sure whether it was safe to move. … There were two small boys in the house with us, and one of them was whimpering in the corner. We lay still for another minute, and when we were sure the rebels had gone, Stella and I went to check on him.”
Ed paused, his eyes starting to swell with tears. I grabbed his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
“What happened?” Helen asked, her hand pressed firmly against her cheek. “Did he… Was he … ok?”
Ed jerked his head away. A single tear fell down his cheek.
“When we reached him … his breathing was shallow. … And he was bleeding from the shoulder,” I said. “It didn’t look good, but we weren’t going to give up that easily. Ed immediately took off his shirt and ripped it to make a bandage. … Blood was everywhere, and the locals were in hysterics. Bill and Trudy tried to calm them down, while Ed and I cleaned the wound and applied pressure. There were no doctors for miles. … We knew this kid’s life was in our hands.”
I looked over at Ed, and he put his arm around my shoulder, squeezing it tightly. Helen shook her head, her hand still pressed against her cheek in shock. Steve’s eyes were a pale red; his fingers held a half-eaten cracker motionless above his plate.
“We did the best we could,” I continued. “He was pale and clammy. We called for someone to get us a blanket to treat his shock. … He couldn’t stop shivering. He was so small … so small.”
My voice cracked. I wiped away the tears spilling down my hot cheeks.
“When he finally started to regain consciousness, we shouted for someone to get help. We needed a car — anything to help us get this boy to a doctor.”
“But no one had a car in the village,” Ed said. “We had to make a stretcher out of two tree branches and a tattered blanket.”
“One of the locals told us there was a doctor in a nearby village,” I said. “So, the four of us and the boy’s father carried him the five miles through the valley, waking the doctor in the middle of the night.”
“We stayed with him until dawn,” Ed said. “Stella continued to dress the wound, while I tried to keep his fever down. Neither of us refused to leave his side. … I think it was then that I knew.” He looked at me and smiled. “I knew she was the one.”
Ed tightened his grip around my shoulders, and we stood there for a moment, looking into each other’s eyes and smiling.
“Oh, how beautiful!” Helen’s eyes were puffy. She looked lovingly at Steve and awkwardly kissed his check.
Steve’s eyebrows jumped at his wife’s sudden affection and turned his attention back to Ed and me.
“So … so, what happened next?”
“Well, the boy had lost a lot of blood,” I said. “The doctor said he needed a transfusion right away. We tested everyone, and Ed ended up being a match.”
I looked at Ed and smiled, grabbing his hand tightly. He blushed and turned back to Helen and Steve.
“But after the transfusion, the boy didn’t react well,” he continued somberly. “We stayed in the village with the boy for four days before his fever finally broke. He still wasn’t healthy enough to walk, but he wanted his mother. So when the doctor said he was safe to leave, we carried him the five miles back through the valley.”
“His family was so grateful, they insisted on making us a feast,” I said.
“They invited the entire village,” Ed said. “We laughed and ate all day long.”
“After, Ed pulled me aside and asked if I would like to go for a walk.”
“I brought Stella up this path to a cliff—”
“—where we watched the sun set over the valley.” I turned and looked into Ed’s eyes. “It was so romantic.”
He smiled down at me and kissed my forehead. “We’ve been together ever since.”
Helen fanned her face with her hand and clutched on to her husband’s arm.
“Oh, that was a lovely story!” she said, allowing the tears to trickle down her rouged cheeks. “You two … you two are going to make it; I can tell.”
A glass clinked in the next room, and guests started pouring into the dining room: Dinner was served.
Steve’s eyes perked up and started to pull away from Helen’s grasp.
“Well, look at that!” Helen said. “Perfect timing.”
Ed grasped my hand and led me to our places at the head of the table. Guests smiled and tipped their glasses to us, and we smiled politely.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” my father tapped a knife to his champagne glass to quiet the room. “L-ladies and gentlemen, we gather here tonight to celebrate young love.” He flashed a grin at Ed and me and winked before continuing. “Please join me in wishing these two wonderful people all the happiness in the world as they prepare to embark on a lifetime together.”
“Here, here!” Steve called out.
“Here, here!” voices repeated, tapping their glasses and clapping their hands.
Ed and I held hands under the table and grinned. When the voices calmed slightly, my father stood up again. “Now,” he said. “Let’s eat!”
More cheers rang out as servers brought food to the long table, placing the large platters of chicken, fish, vegetables and rice in front of all the guests.
Ed’s uncle, Ernie, reached in front of Ed and scooped a large helping of mashed potatoes onto his plate.
“So,” he said smiling. “How did you two kids meet, anyway?”
Ernie’s wife, Maggie, perched in her seat.
“Yes, tell us how you two got together.”
Ed and I exchanged glances. With a shrug, I smiled and turned back to the couple.
“Match.com.”