Under The Surface by Joyce Frohn

Photo Credit: Ken Whytock

        Beth slid the picture into a crack in the stone wall of the summer cabin. Maybe Charles would find it and remember her, someday. She packed her suitcase. It seemed a pity that the finish would be ruined by being dragged through the moss and rocks. She sighed as she took off her engagement ring. It was her first good piece of jewelry. She’d have to leave both rings on the rock next to the clothes. Clothes were easy. But she couldn’t take anything memorable.

        Beth ran a finger over her red dress. That one he would remember. She remembered the dance where they met. She had been the slimmest girl there. The perfect flapper. No one had guessed she came from a hick town, so small, she’d had to bob her own hair.

Charles was so handsome and seemed so modern, talking about how wonderful women getting the vote was. How long had it been? Only a week after the wedding? “No wife of mine is going to…” Just like her father. And of course, with his Daddy the judge, and half the county Catholics, no hope of a divorce.

    The clock on the wall chimed two. She’d have to hurry to catch the three-thirty train.

She tucked a dress, stockings, underthings, her wedding ring and engagement ring in a

small bag. It should only take a few minutes to lay them out on the big rock.

        She ran through her list quickly; two good dresses, swimsuit, underclothes, stockings, handkerchiefs, the address of The World in Chicago, copies of the articles she’d written in the high school paper, her mother’s picture. All packed.

Charles Darling,

       I went for a swim in the lake. I might be gone a while. Meet me at the flat rock under the big oak.

      Love, Beth

  She left the note on the kitchen table. She took a quick glance around the cabin with stone walls, vaulted ceiling, and the woods around. What a pity it had to come with Charles.

Joyce Frohn has been published in "dirty magic", "Bullet Points" and the anthology, "Magi", among other places. She is married with an adult daughter. She also shares a house with a loud black cat and several feral dust bunnies.