FanStory.com - Pandora's Boxby zanya

Strolling along the beach, I saw it glinting in the sun, a bottle with a message inside.

'Look Jim,' I shouted, 'a bottle with a message. How cool is that ?'

'Jane,' Jim replied,' do you still believe in all that stuff? Guess in these times, people want to latch on to anything. You told me once, that your first love promised to send you a message in a bottle one day?'

I smiled, bemused at the distant memory. My first beau, Jake, with his mop of blond curls, and his wanderlust. Who knows in what harbour he may finally have weighed anchor?

Getting closer to the bottle, I bent down to pick it up.

Jim stood at a distance scrolling on his iphone,' Shares perfoming better this morning , honey,' he said.

Jim and his shares seemed like they belonged in a different universe.
By now I had managed to unscrew the tight cork and unfolded the yellowed, damp piece of paper. That spidery handwriting was unmistakeable.

'Jane darling, I know I promised this more than two decades ago. Is it too late for us now? Jake.

It was dated Feb 12 2020, a few months earlier.

Why was my middle-aged woman's heart beating faster?

It was here on this southern beach we had shared our last, tender kiss.

Jim was approaching from the craggy rocks.

'Shares showing some promise.'

Hurriedly, I stuffed the paper into my jeans' back pocket.

'A Pandora's box best left unopened,' I said to myself.