My friend Jo Robinson of africolonialstories has given me the Super-Sweet Blogger Award. SHUT UP! I AM SO SWEET! I’M SUPER-SWEET! Jo said so!

ANYWAY, that means my story of the day will be very short. –I heard that sigh of relief. I’m right here, you know.

Here’s the story:

Surprise

by Marian Allen

He never took the alley home, but he did when we came back from our anniversary week at the resort. The rear garage door creaked and rumbled from disuse, stuck partway, then inched up far enough for him to pull in. I was afraid it would stick, but it closed more smoothly than it opened.

“Why the change? You hate change.”

He didn’t answer; he just opened the trunk and handed out the luggage, giving me the light stuff and hefting all the heavy stuff with his tree-trunk arms.

In the kitchen, I flipped on the light. He dropped the luggage he carried and flipped the light back off.

“Whatever,” I said.

“Put your stuff down.”

“Do what?”

“Put your stuff down. Right there. Right now.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer.

I shrugged and put what I carried onto the floor.

“Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

Again, no answer. I sighed and closed my eyes.

Taking me by the shoulders, he steered me out of the kitchen and across the front room carpet, onto the entryway tile.

“Open your eyes.”

I was facing the front door.

Above it, where there had been solid wall when we left, was a panel of stained glass, just like the one I had drooled over on Pinterest.

I could hardly get the words out. “How did you know?”

“Lola told me.” Lola, his sister, my friend.

The sun through the glass bathed us in multicolored brilliance. The colors shifted and flickered with the bobbing shade of the front birch’s breeze-shifting branches, just as I had fantasized.

A patch of red came and went, like a neon light clicking on and off saying:

I heart you

I heart you

I heart you

~ * ~

The Rules:

Thank the Super Sweet Blogger that awarded you.
Answer five Super Sweet questions.
Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award image in your blog post.
Nominate five other bloggers.
Notify your nominees on their blog.

The Five Super Sweet Questions:

Cookies or Cake?
Chocolate or Vanilla?
Favourite Sweet Treat?
When do you crave sweet things the most?
Sweet Nick Name?

Thank you, Jo!

Answers to the questions:

Cookies or Cake?

Caek.

Chocolate or Vanilla?

Chorklit.

Favourite Sweet Treat?

We spell it “favorite” over here, pal. And my favorite sweet treat is anything with chorklit in it. Or hazelnut. Preferably both.

When do you crave sweet things the most?

When do I not?

Sweet Nick Name?

Sugar-plum. That’s what I call babies. That’s the sweetest nick-name there is.

My Nominated Sweeties Are:

Cairn Rodrigues of Spoon!
Helen Ginger of Straight from Hel
Patrick O’Scheen with his dragon that looks like a bad bitey one
Pauline Creeden, the Book Ninja
Stephen Tremp, Author and Wormhole Test Pilot

MY PROMPT TODAY: red stained glass

MA