Like Elizabeth

"Maybe I am more like Elizabeth Bennett than I realized," Mel thought as she lay in bed one night, Pride and Prejudice still playing somewhere in the distance as she drifted to sleep. It had been a trying day of work and watching the neighbors kids for three hours until their single mom made it home from work and then some more organizing and decorating of the newly redesigned house. The neighbor had 2 very rambunctious boys ages 5 and 4 who loved to wrestle and rough house and give Mel that anxious feeling that one would tackle the other and land on their heads and she would be responsible for them breaking their necks. She loved babysitting for boys because they were so much less work on her part. They would play with their toy cars or sword fight through the living room, and she could just sit back and watch. Girls were different. Girls wanted constant attention and a life sized, living doll they could dress up and do her hair and make up. And that always resulted in Mel wearing a coconut bra and grass skirt with her hair in knots and lipstick as eye shadow. It was exhausting.

But now laying in bed, she was able to process the events of her life with a more critical eye. When her neighbor, Mrs. Slotski, got home and took over guard duties of her energized wrestle maniacs Mel slowly walked the short distance home between their yards. The houses on their street were small, and so were the lots, set in a small town, middle of nowhere feeling neighborhood just outside a larger suburb of Detroit. As was her normal routine, as soon as Mel walked in the door and made her way to her bedroom, she turned on the TV to find the DVD of Pride and Prejudice picking up right where she had left off last night. It was by far her favorite movie. It was just getting to the scene where Elizabeth Bennett tells Mr. Darcy off for his interference in the marriage of her elder sister Jane and his friend Mr. Bingley. That was one of Mel's favorite parts of the movie. She loved the sassiness of Elizabeth, especially because of the social constraints of the time period.

That night Mel had some interesting dreams. All of them had something to do with weddings. The first dream had her in a back room of an unfamiliar church getting ready to walk down the aisle. Her bouquet was made of wildflowers that she had apparently picked herself, and her dress was simple and lace. As she walked out of the room and turned the corner to walk down the aisle to her groom she woke up. It was always the same thing, she would wake up just before she saw her groom's face, just before she found out who she was marrying. It was frustrating! It felt like a cruel joke that her subconscious was playing on her.

The next dream was similar. She was standing outside a large white tent in a field waiting to go in and be announced as Mr. & Mrs. Somebody. Her dress is art deco inspired. Looking down at her hands she notices the lace gloves and a gold bracelet with dangling, gold charms that were her great grandmother's, along with a beautiful diamond ring on her left hand. In her dream she felt the happiest she ever had. As she looked up at her groom standing next to her, the only things she noticed about him before the dream ended abruptly were that he had a lean torso and broad shoulders. Mel woke up feeling increasingly anxious to know who this mystery man was.