After finishing
her day’s chores, as usual, Mary sat with a letter and a cup of salted coffee.
This letter was written to her by her beloved Bob, just before his death, which
she discovered after he died. She
reads it right from top to bottom as she sips the salted coffee; a routine that
she follows every day since she has discovered this letter.
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The letter says…
“My dearest,
I have
always loved you more than anything else and feel so proud to
have you in my life. I pray to God to bless me with you as my wife every time I
take birth. But today, I feel sorry and guilty because of one lie that I told
you on our very first date but never ever rectified it.
I still remember that evening,
forty years back. You were looking so pretty dressed in red, as I waited for
you in the coffee shop near your home. It feels like yesterday… you came in
front of me and sat just opposite to the chair I was sitting on.
I was so overjoyed to see you and
also so nervous! You preferred to have only a cup of coffee and I agreed to
have the same. After the waiter left two cups of coffee along with a pot of
milk and sugar cubes, you asked me whether I would like to have it with sugar.
Nervous and shy, I instantly said that I would like to have the coffee with
salt! But I was surprised to see how beautifully you made me a cup of coffee
with salt; and trust me, it tasted so sweet!
Something that was a slip of
tongue became a hard fact for you every time you made coffee for me henceforth.
Your smile could always change everything in this world for me… even the salty
taste of a cup of coffee, turning it sweet! I never told you even after we got
married that it was a mere slip of tongue, a lie.
Today,
when we have already come a long way in life, I feel
guilty not to let you know the truth behind the one and only lie I have told
you.
I would also like to admit that,
no matter how many times I am born, I want you to be my wife, making me cups of
salted coffee that taste ‘so sweet’!”
Like every
other day, tears fell on the letter as Mary finished reading it. Ever since she
has read it, she has started taking salted coffee. Every time she makes it, she
thinks Bob is around… and sips it with a smile on her lips.
Often people have asked her how this weird combination of coffee with salt tastes. Mary answers back, “Very Sweet!”
Often people have asked her how this weird combination of coffee with salt tastes. Mary answers back, “Very Sweet!”
[ credits: Steve
Snodgrass]
