This micro story was published in the University of Phoenix’s College of Humanities and Sciences September 2017 Newsletter.
Lauren opens the package and smiles. Another globe for the collection, this one yellow on a brass mount, carefully packaged in bubble wrap. She gently takes it out of the box, spotting the card tucked beneath.
“To my wife, forever in my heart. Love, Thomas,” the note reads in crisp, clear handwriting.
She leaves the note on the table and takes the globe to the “Knickknack Room,” a room of gifts sent from Thomas on his travels.
Each prize reminds her that he was thinking about her from the other side of the world. He sent her so many gifts – globes, lanterns, tiny ships in bottles, astrolabes, compasses, maps, and anything that reminded him of the sea.
She looks for a place for this new globe, brushing aside some rolled up maps to place it on the third shelf. One of the maps, marked “Africa,” slides off the shelf and lands on the floor, too fast for her to catch.
As she bends to pick up the map, she notices something odd about the yellow globe. She looks closer and sees that red ink marks a heart shape around Australia.
Frowning, she picks up the globe, the map forgotten. She cannot recall a time when Thomas had drawn on any of these globes. They were treasures he had collected for her, their pristine condition essential to their value.
She turns the globe over in her hand, inspecting the sides and then the bottom. On the bottom, she spots the same red ink, spelling out a message in tiny script. She squints to read it: “Don’t forget me – Love, Charlotte.”
Lauren gasps, her hand going numb. The globe slips from her fingers and shatters on the ground, echoing the sound of her breaking heart.
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