Short Story: Proposal

“If you can guess what I have in my pocket, you can have it.”

Anne observed Jared carefully, and warmth spread through her when she saw the familiar shine in his eye. “This surprise won’t be anything like the one a couple of years back right?”

Jared winced and gave a nervous laugh. “Not really.”

“It’s okay, I don’t see any doors nearby that I can hit my head with,” she giggled, stepping closer with outstretched arms. “Do I get any clues?”

Jared laughed, more confident now, and pried her hands away from his shoulders. “You aren’t going to get your hands close to it, not yet at least. But I could give you a few clues.”

Anne huffed but smiled nonetheless, it was really cute how Jared was always trying to keep her on her toes.

“Your first clue is that it is quite small,” he said softly, “but it’s very important.”

Her breath caught in her throat. Could it be? Her stomach clenched and tears sprang to her eyes. She covered her mouth with her hands as she laughed breathlessly, that indescribable feeling of having your insides turn to mush surging through her; he was actually going to do it now.

“Your next clue,” he told her as he slipped his hand into his pocket, “is that what I have in my pocket is very pretty, and that it sparkles like your eyes do when the light hits them just right, like they did with the sunset we saw yesterday.”

She couldn’t contain the incredible smile that broke out. “Jared,” she choked out.

He kept smiling at her, and wiped her tears with his free hand. The contact brought shivers down her spine as she reveled in the feeling of his skin against hers. His hand cupped her cheek, his lips brushing hers for one small, beautiful second.

“Your last clue,” Jared whispered as he took his hand out of his pocket and dropped to one knee, “is that it contains a promise.”

“Can you guess what it is?”

Words failed her, and Anne could only choke out a sound of assent as she nodded her head.

Jared opened his hand to reveal a small ring. It was beautifully crafted, with a simple silver band holding a diamond.

Anne’s eyesight blurred slightly and she lifted her hand to brush away the tears that had slipped past her eyelids. Her hands shook as she placed them back onto her cheeks, her breaths coming in short gasps.

“Marry me?”

Her knees trembled and she fell to the ground in the same position that Jared was. She barely felt the sting as she threw her arms around Jared’s neck, hugging him close to her. “Yes,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry?” He teased her, hugging her just as tightly. “I don’t think I heard you.”

“Yes,” she said, her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Yes, I will marry you.”

He pulled back from her and placed the ring carefully on her finger; Anne felt her smile bloom impossibly wide and she raised her gaze to meet his. Love shone in his eyes. “I love you, Jared.”

“I love you too, Anne.”

The Curse of "Someone Should"

Something curious that Katherine had realized over the years was that everyone wanted things to be done, but no one was willing to do them. It was all quite strange, and it baffled her that no one else seemed to realize it.

Every day she heard those two words she had grown to hate so much, and every once in a while she would say them without realizing that she had, it seemed to be built into everyone’s systems. Every person she knew said “someone should” at least once a day.

Someone should take a picture of this place, it is so beautiful.

Someone who is not corrupt should run for president, it is what this country really needs.

Someone should invent a better way to manage poverty in our country.

Someone should call mother, she could be missing us.

Someone should. She was sick of those words. Why did no once say “we should”? Why did no one say “I will”?

From the moment she realized this, she knew that this was why things never got done anywhere and why certain individuals stood out rather than others. Those who said they would be willing to take risks and do things ended up changing the world; those who left the problems to others even when they had the knowledge to fix them were an embarrassment.

The next morning when she woke up, she decided that she would do things. That is why when her mother complained that someone should take out the garbage, she stood up and did it. She made her way into the kitchen and took out the big bag of trash that no one seemed to be willing to move. When she got to school a fight had started and students whispered that someone should stop them before they got hurt, that was just what she did. She stood in the middle of the two students and glared at them until they walked away.

There was something refreshing about doing things; it made her feel alive in a way that she had never felt before. She felt as if she mattered, as if she had the power to influence incredible things that people only dreamed with.

Katherine changed that day, and she made a very important promise to herself. Whenever she heard someone say “someone should”, she would write down whatever the person had said, and promise herself that she would try as hard as she could to achieve it. She now has a journal full of the ideas and dreams of others, ideas and dreams that she would try and turn into realities.

The Man Who Didn't Exist

They’ll tell you that I never was, that I’m a lie, a made up man to mess with your head. But I swear that I am, or at least that I was, and due to some lucky twist of fate – or it may be that I was unlucky – I was able to unravel the web of lies and secrets that our dear government has spun around their unsuspecting population. You have no reason to believe me, but I hope that you do, for your sake more than mine.

It all started the day I took a wrong turn home. Funny, right? One step out of my routine and my life is over. Never step out of your routine dear stranger, the consequences are fatal... I would know. But I digress. As soon as I turned left instead of right I started to curse myself, it’d take twice as long to reach home now. As it turned out, I would never reach home again until my very last days.

I crashed into someone when I took the wrong turn. Or at least someone else’s car. It was a big one, and it looked like it belonged to an important diplomat. Instantly I stepped down from my own car to grovel for forgiveness, what else could I do? I knew I was screwed, I didn’t know how much though.

I was standing next to the door when the driver stepped out. What unnerved me weren’t the scared eyes of the driver, or his tense posture – though they should have been indicators that something was really off – what scared me, shook me to my very core, were the eerily familiar eyes of the passenger. It was such an uncommon eye colour that now I wonder why our prime minister didn’t try just a bit harder to cover his tracks.

When the door snapped close I instantly tried to stop the redness that was threatening to stain my cheeks, and turned once again to the driver. “I-I’m really sorry, I should have checked where I was going but I just took a wrong turn and I was too distra...”

The driver raised his hand, and in a deep baritone that did not match his looks he cut across my jumbled rant. “Do not worry about it. My passenger wishes no unneeded attention to be drawn to himself.” This was my second clue. “And because of that he is willing to let this go this one time.”

I stuttered a thank you and watched as the driver turned towards his car, in a second of foolish bravery I seemed to regain my voice, “Is that really...” The glare full of terror and pain I received was more than enough of an answer.

Shakily I nodded at him and turned towards my own car. I risked one last glance and saw the violet eyes narrow threateningly. It was in that second that my mind began to comprehend the world of trouble I was in. With trembling hands and shot nerves I decided not to go home, something was just blaring warnings at me and I didn’t deem it safe enough to return to.

I had just seen our country’s most wanted terrorist inside a government’s car. What was going on?

My Experience With MUN

Joining the MUN (Model United Nation) group in my school has been one of the defining moments in my life.

I’ve always been very shy about speaking in public, my hands would shake and my cheeks would be stained red. I would stutter and avoid eye contact with whomever I was speaking to, even if it was just a group of close friends. I didn’t like to be in the spotlight, with everyone’s eyes on me.

Having an extracurricular activity is mandatory at my school, it has always been. One year there was nothing in particular that drew my attention, and one of my best friends suggested that I join MUN with her. I agreed readily figuring out that it would not be so bad if I had someone with me, and offered her a large smile. Inside I was terrified, of course.

When the first Wednesday of the activity came by, I considered not going. But I still made my way to the class, with some paper and pencils in hand. I didn’t know what to expect, seeing as MUN was not one the most popular activities. I sat down on a desk and waited for more people to arrive.

There must have been only ten people that first day, but the teacher was happy nonetheless. Our first class was not an introduction to what MUN was, but an introduction to public speaking.  I was nervous when I stood up to introduce myself, and as I have previously said, stuttered my way through a tiny speech.

Then came the next class, and we were introduced to the world of MUN. It ended up being an activity where we pretended to be delegates from countries all around the world, where we discussed current events just like it was done in the real United Nations. I fell in love with the idea that very second. My first task was to create a Position Paper showing the UK’s position on the Libyan Crisis of 2011.

I can still remember the first conference I went to. It was in a school called Markham, and the topic was the Congo Gorillas. In retrospect it was an awful committee, the Chair (which is the person organizing the committee) did not know what he was doing, and we never got to write a Resolution (which is the whole point of going to the committee). But when I was inside the conference, I felt powerful and important, and it was a feeling that I wanted to repeat. I ended up winning Most Prepared Delegation with my partner, and we were very proud of ourselves.

As the years went by I attended many other conferences, with different topics. They ranged from Nuclear Power to Women’s Rights. I was many countries. There was Canada, Hungary, Chad, and many more.

This January I attended a conference in Harvard. Yes, you read it right, Harvard, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. As you can probably imagine, my nerves were shot the whole time I was there, and I suddenly developed an incredible case of stuttering. I am ashamed to admit that I did not participate as much as I could have, and that I only spoke once during the whole conference (which lasted around three days). But I came in contact with many cultures, and befriended people from all around the world.

When I returned home, I knew I wanted to repeat the experience I had had in Boston. I knew that I wanted to walk their windy streets again, that I wanted to have those express meetings with other delegates in the elevator, that I wanted to end up outside the hotel because I accidentally took the emergency stairs, and that I wanted to meet more interesting people from all around the world. All in all, I wanted to go back.

But I still had one more year to go, and boy was it an interesting year.

I was accepted as part of the Secretariat in my school (the group which runs MUN). This came with many responsibilities that I gladly embraced. It was our job to plan the training sessions for the new girls, it was our job to organize the conference that was to happen at our school, it was our job to get people interested in the activity. It has been amazing.

This year I finally got the courage to go to a Specialized Agency committee rather than a General Assembly one. The difference is that Specialized Agencies are much more dynamic, and you represent a character rather than a country, because of this they are harder to prepare for, and more experienced delegates participate in them. The one I took part of was of the Korean War, and I got to represent the President of South Korea. By the end, we had done the impossible and drafted a Peace Treaty, rather than a Ceasefire Agreement as had been done in the actual event.

Then came the AENU experience. AENU is an excellent group of delegates, made up of various Peruvian Universities, and is ranked as one of the Top International Delegations by Best Delegate (which is the most important web site there is on MUN out there). The stakes were high and even worse for me because I was given only one week to prepare for it, rather than the whole month all delegates had. To make it even harder, I was given an impossible topic for an impossible country, I was Afghanistan talking about Climate Change.

My first reaction was to laugh, there was no logical way that I could pull this off, there was no website belonging to the Afghan government, and if they would focus on anything it would be to improve their economy and not improve how eco-friendly they were. I was not completely wrong, but after two days of searching I had found my salvation, their 200 page national development plan. Here I found all I needed, but it was a lot to read, even if I only took the few pages I needed.

Because of that I got into a lot of trouble with my teachers. I was seen reading in every class, highlighting pages like a madwoman and mumbling to myself about earthquakes and tsunamis. But I did it, and I got my Position Paper and my Opening Speech done in time.

The three days we had to participate in the conference were intense, I won’t lie. But it was all worth it, because in the end I was awarded the Best Delegate award. It was one of the moments I’m proudest of, and I was even offered to join the AENU group (but I had to decline, seeing as I still have two more years of school and it is only for university students).

As part of the Secretariat, I also needed to organize a committee, and my incredible brain decided to do it on time travel. Bad choice, awful decision. Despite how hopeful I was, it didn’t work out, and most delegates just spent their times doodling on their pages rather than drafting Resolutions as they were supposed to.

This January I am returning to Harvard for another conference, and I couldn’t be more excited. I have promised myself that I will participate and talk in every opportunity I get, and that I won’t let my fears and insecurities hold me back as I did last year. I am participating in a Specialized Agency conference, which dates back to the year 323 BC and deals with the conquests of Alexander the Great, I will be representing Ptolemaios.

All in all, I must say that MUN has been life-changing. It helped me get over my fear of public speaking, and it opened my eyes to the political and humanitarian side of this world that I had been unaware of before. I am completely in love with it (almost as much as I am with writing!), and will never regret the decision I took to get involved with it.

My Favourite Memory

I remember waking up and realizing that day was going to be different than any other day I had ever lived. Maybe it was the feeling of anticipation I woke up with, that niggling voice at the back of my mind that told me to live that day to the fullest, or it could have simply been the scorching heat of the sun that had seeped into my room that reminded me that this was the first day of summer.

All I know is that hours later, I was crouching on the sand, holding a water balloon in one hand and the hose on the other, a grin plastered on my face as I fought with my cousins like our lives depended on it.

One of my cousins, Alejandra, was hiding behind a plastic trashcan that sat beside the wooden path. It was the perfect place for her to hide, and no one would have seen her deadly projectiles coming, had it not been for the startling red hair that we could see peeking from above the lid.

My other cousin, Ximena, was sitting right beside me as we ducked behind the small sand dune that had formed. Our mischievous minds had decided to form an impromptu alliance, as we had figured that we had more chances of beating them if we worked together and not against each other, not that we knew what beating them entailed.

We sprang from behind the dune and charged at Alejandra; I was wielding my hose like a mighty sword, and handling the water balloon as if it was the most dangerous bomb ever invented, and Ximena was throwing her water grenades at her sister. All in all, we felt as if we were waging the battle that would define our lives.

Alejandra retaliated in kind, as without us noticing she had roped my little sister, Carolina, into being her unlikely ally. And just like that the sides were drawn. We were bombarded and sprayed, and with no place to look for cover we ended up completely soaked.

After our balloons were spent and the battle ended, we threw ourselves onto the sand and rolled in it, giggling like fools. There were no hard feelings after the fight, seeing as we couldn’t bring ourselves to figure out who had won and who had lost; it was simply another adventure our young selves had to add to a growing pile stories.

The day is now forever engraved in my mind. The blazing sun above us, the skies lit up in a bright blue color that is so reminiscent of movies, the sand that burnt as it got stuck between my toes, the taste of salt in the air, and our cries of joy and laughter that rang in my ears for many days.