Together Alone - WWE

Today's prompts for  October 28, 2009, due no later than next Tuesday:

• Use a word that most readers will have to look up in their dictionary
• Reference a religious holiday
• Write as  3rd person omniscient
• A telephone needs to ring
• tag with wwe

Tom and Maple were an old couple, who lived in a small cottage in Goa, close to the sea.  Tom had worked in Government service and retired twenty years ago.  Their only son, Arthur had left home ten years back, in search of a job.  Since then,  they have not heard anything about him.  Two years ago,  Maple received an envelope containing a letter written by someone named Razia,  who claimed to be Arthur’s wife.  In this letter she said that they have settled down in Vancouver, Canada and they are very keen to visit India soon, to meet them.  She had included a family photograph of herself, Arthur and their twin children,  Jeanette and Christopher.  Razia said she was born and had her schooling in Iran, where her parents still live.  She had come to Vancouver to finish her college education.  She met Arthur here and spent considerable time in his company.  They decided to get married three years ago.

Maple admired the photograph with the pride of a grandmother, as she sat on the sofa next to Tom.  The fact that Razia was a muslim woman from Iran, did not appeal to her, as she was xenophobic.  However, this did not prevent her from commenting on the photographs.  She found the girl to resemble Arthur when he was of her age.  She gave no comments on the boy, who she thought resembled his mother.  She coolly passed the photograph to Tom for his perusal.

Tom wore a grim, disinterested look as he looked at the photograph.  He felt deeply hurt at Arthur’s inability to inform them about his marriage.  He wondered if his only son did this on purpose, or, whether there were other pressing problems which he did not wish to share with them.  He could not justify any reason to condone this behavior.  Maple’s motherly instinct came to the fore as she tried to convince Tom that Arthur had no intention to hurt their feelings, although she wasn’t sure if that was really the case.  

Tom got up from the sofa and busied himself in his usual chores.  However, the visit of his son, along with his family, loomed at the back of his mind.  He added another chore to the existing ones. Daily, he would remain close to the telephone to receive a call from his son about his impending visit.  If any taxi slowed down near the gate of his cottage, he would rush to the main door, thinking his son has arrived!   After days of anxious waiting, one fine morning the telephone rang.  Tom picked up the receiver with alacrity and heard his son’s voice on the other end.  Arthur informed them that they would be arriving on the eve of Christmas and spend the Christmas vacation with them.

Tom lost little time in giving this good news to Maple, who was in the kitchen.  They had spent the evening of their lives together alone in this cottage, during the past ten years.   Their only motivation to live was waiting for their son to come and give them company.  The time had come and they wanted to enjoy every moment of the visit, perhaps, for the last time.