The Date Father Didn't Keep - Robert Zacks
It happened in one of those picturesque Danish taverns that cater to tourists. I was with my father on a business-and-pleasure trip, and in our leisure hours we were having awonderful time.“It's a pity your mother couldn't come, ” said Father. “It would be wonderful to show her around.”
He had visited Denmark when he was a young man. I asked him, “How long is it since you were here ”
“Oh, about 30 years. I remember being in this very inn, by the way.” He looked around, remembering. “Those were gracious days—” He stopped suddenly, and I saw that his face was pale. I followed his eyes and looked across the room to a woman who was setting a tray of drinks before some customers. She might have been pretty once, but now she was stout and her hair was untidy. “Do you know her ” I asked.“How she has changed! Thank heaven she didn't recognize me, ” muttered Father mopping his face with a handkerchief. “I knew her before I ever met your mother, ” he went on. “I was a student, on a tour. She was a lovely young thing, very graceful. I fell madly in love with her, and she with me.”
“Does Mother know about her ” I blurted out, resent-fully.
“Of course, ” Father said gently. He looked at me a little anxiously. I felt embarrassed for him.
I said, “Dad, you don't have to—”
“Oh, yes, I want to tell you. I don't want you wondering about this. Her father objected to our romance. I was a foreigner. I had no prospects, and was dependent on my father. When I wrote tomy father that I wanted to get married, he cut off my allowance. And I had to go home. But I met the girl once more, and told her I would return to America, borrow enough money to get married on, and come back for her in a few months.”
“We know, ” he continued, “that her father might intercept a letter, so we agreed that I would simply mail her a slip of paper with a date on it, the time she was to meet me at a certain place; then we'd get married. Well, I went home, got the loan and sent her the date. She received the note. She wrote me:‘I'll be there.' But she wasn't. Then I found that she had been married about two weeks before, to a local innkeeper. She hadn't waited.”
Then my father said, “Thank God she didn't. I went home, met your mother, and we've been completely happy. We often joke about that youthful love romance.”
We drank our beer and left. Outside I said, “Father, just how did you write that date on which she was to meet you ”
He stopped, took out an envelope and wrote on it. “Like this, ” he said. “12/11/73, which was, of course, December 11, 1973.”
“No! ” I exclaimed. “It isn't in Denmark or any European country. Over here they write the day first, then the month. So that date wouldn't be December 11 but the 12th of November! ”
Father passed his hand over his face. “So she was there! ”he exclaimed. “And it was because I didn't show up thatshe got married.” He was silent a while. “Well, ” he said, “I hope she's happy. She seems to be.”
As we resumed walking I blurted out, “It is a lucky thing it happened that way. You wouldn't have met Mother.”
He put his arm around my shoulders, looked at me with a heart-warming smile, and said, “I was doubly lucky, young fellow, for otherwise I wouldn't have met you, either! ”
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