Aunt Edna

The young couple radiated love and enthusiasm as they posed for pictures while cutting the cake. The clinking of forks on glasses signaled time to kiss. They embraced passionately, trying not to smear wedding cake on each other.

“Hold that pose.” Uncle Albert snapped his digital camera. “Great shots.”

Simon kept the smile pasted on his face as he whispered to his bride, Debbie, “There’s Aunt Edna. I’m sure she is going to want to give us some goofy gift from her travels.”

“That sounds nice.” Debbie replied. “Where does she travel?”

“She’s nuts, actually. She always tells of travelling to other times. I think she spends too much time in her house watching old movies. I try to avoid her. ” Simon relayed some of Aunt Edna’s fantasies to his new bride.

“We can talk about this later.” He concluded. “Much later. We have some partying to do.”

“Hello Simon.” Aunt Edna approached the young couple. “Congratulations you two. I’ve brought you a wedding gift.”

“How thoughtful, Auntie. This is my new wife, Debbie. Debbie, Aunt Edna.” Simon feigned politeness.

“How do you like it?” Edna presented them with a framed 8” by 11” color photograph of the newlyweds cutting the cake minutes ago.

“It’s wonderful,” Debbie gazed in amazement at the fresh portrait. “How did you get this printed and framed so quickly? This only happened five minutes ago.”

“Oh, I had this done years ago. I was just waiting for the proper time to give it to you.”

“Years ago? What do you mean? It just happened.”

“I have lots of pictures, if you would like. Do you want any pictures of your kids, or would you rather wait?”

Was Aunt Edna uncovering deep unknown and hidden passages? The bride and groom stood silent.

(296 words)