Fireworks

by Elizabeth Palmer from the July 2, 2012 issue

Photo by bayasaa

Tagline: When Sara met Jack, she couldn't help hoping for an instant replay on a romantic old story...

In a Nutshell: Sara is interviewing an older woman about how she met her husband. She offers to enlarge the tiny photograph she has. When she delivers it, she is surprised to meet the grandson who is the spitting image of the man in the photo. They decide to go see the fireworks together.

Observations: I thought this story was very sweet. Again, Woman's World seems to like nostalgia and you really get that feeling here from the mention of the soldiers and the USO and Clark Gable (on whom I used to have a crush, even though he had been gone many years).

Something clever I wanted to point out was how the author lead you to believe that Helen was suffering perhaps from dementia when she said she saw John all the time, but then--surprise!--the grandson turns out to be John's spitting image. I love plot twists, and they're difficult to pull off in 800 words. I did happen to see the twist coming, but only because I've studied hundreds of these stories.

The part I liked best was the private exchange at the end between Helen, the old woman and Sara. 

See, when Helen met her husband, he asked her if she liked fireworks, and decades later when Sara meets the grandson, he asks the exact same thing. The two women look at each other knowingly, and you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Perfect.