Stories
Yes, Dear!
“Yes, dear. Oh, definitely! I’ll arrange everything tonight. I’m sure this guy must be special. I can’t believe it. This is for the first time that you have invited someone on your own. I’m so excited. Gosh! Is he rich? Must be.” Mrs. Tanner was beaming with excitement.
“We’ve selected him for our show. He simply fits the title! I too am excited.”
Mr. Tanner was the head of a small production studio. Mediocre shows were being produced and staged there. Being a frank person, he had a habit of discussing his work with his family. He was always mentioning his artists and models to his family. As soon as he did that, Mrs. Tanner would try to extract as much as she could about them. For her, life meant raising kids, gossiping, partying and trying to find a good match for her ‘not-so-lovely’ daughters.
Her favorite line would be:
“Oh dear! Our daughters are in their prime. We need to find handsome boys for both of them.”
Hence, every time she would ask her husband to invite them home for dinner. At dinner, she’d make wonderful arrangements and say: “All the food has been prepared by the lovely hands of my daughters. They believe that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
That was it! But this would turn them off for there was nothing lovely about both her daughters. They both were the nastiest girls the guests had ever come across and ugly too!!! All the effort made, and money spent by Mrs. Tanner was wasted. In spite of all the failures, she never gave up! Her motto was:
‘Try try try till you succeed. And if you don’t, deny you ever tried.’
Mr. Tanner was fed up with his wife’s matchmaking, especially when he mentioned the names of the spot boys and janitors. Mrs. Tanner would immediately ask, “Is he young and rich? Just ask if he’ll marry our daughter.”
Irritated as usual, he’d yell, “For God’s sake! He is our new janitor. I say, stop this nonsense. Your daughters are not even worth them. Name a single good quality about them? No sane young man would marry those silly girls of yours. If I’ll come across any idiot fit for them, I’ll definitely show him the way to our house.”
This would result in big fight between them.
“Oh, shut up! Aren’t you ashamed of saying such false things about your own blood?”
This would go on and on for weeks, months, and years…until the daughters were no longer in their primes. Finally, the day came when Mr. Tanner called his wife from his studio and asked her to prepare a special meal for his ‘special’ guest. Actually, Tanner did consider him special. He was the right man for his new show. He was not getting good offers lately and this was the man to set things right. A new show with a fresh approach. Was he excited? Oh, yes dear!
Mrs. Tanner made all the preparations for the special evening as usual. Her daughters were ready with their best dresses on; brightly made up, chattering non-stop as usual. How proud was Mrs. Tanner of them!
Mr. Tanner was to bring his guest along with him while returning home from his studio. His wife could hardly wait. She did feel a bit sorry that only one of her daughters was about to find her dream man- but it was okay. The other would soon follow!
It was 6 o’clock. No trace of them. Finally the bell rang at exactly 7 o’clock. Mrs. Tanner and her daughters rushed to receive them. In came Mr. Tanner in high spirits and an old, but solidly built man, with a toothless smile, followed him.
Mr. Tanner announced proudly, “He is Mr. Croft, the new anchor for our latest show titled ‘The Old and the Beautiful’.” Moving towards his wife, he whispered to her, “Given a chance, he’d definitely marry either of our ‘lovely’ daughters.” He continued aloud, “And Mrs. Tanner, don’t you think that he is the finest old young man?”
Disappointed and extremely agitated, she exclaimed, “Oh! Yes, dear!”
24-Oct-2009
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Naira Yaqoob
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