Playing Cinderella

The porch light was on, the soft glow of the light flooding the yard. Mr. Ezekiel Morris sat on his recliner in the front room, a paper held in front of his face, while his gaze rested instead on a young woman in the opposite corner. She held a book open on her lap, her gaze turned towards the crisp white pages. Her brown eyes were wide and distant, only blinking occasionally. Zeke knew his daughter, and knew her very well. She was, after all, his baby. He knew that she wasn't reading any book.

Mrs. Noelle Morris sat somewhere between the two, focused on her knitting. Her brow was furrowed with too much concentration, far more than a woman would need, if she'd been knitting for over twenty years, as Noelle had. The silence in the room was heavy, as the minute hand inched toward the twelve. It was the weekend that all three people had been waiting for weeks to enjoy. Edgar Morris was on leave, and he would be coming home.

Zeke knew for sure something that he was certain his wife and daughter could only guess. Shinji Tanaka, the man who was falling for his daughter, would be coming home with Edgar. The two were best friends, Ed often said. They were closer than brothers, he would state to his parents in the letters. In the previous letter, however, Eddie had hinted about something that Zeke was dreading. Edgar had mentioned that he and Shinji hoped some day to be brothers in more than spirit. To a father with a beautiful little girl (and every little girl was stunning to her father), those words could mean only one thing.

Shinji was going to ask for Marcy's hand.

Just as the minute hand landed on the twelve, headlights pulled into the drive, and two car doors slammed shut. Before Zeke or Noelle could confirm who the passenger was, Marcy had dropped her books, and was flying out the door...

--

Shinji set his suitcase down, rubbing a sore shoulder. But then the door on the screened porch slammed shut, and Shinji whirled unable to contain his hope any longer. It was, in fact, his sweetheart Marcy who flew down the stairs and flung herself into his arms. Shinji's sore shoulder was forgotten, as he took her weight, wrapping his arms around her and holding her off the ground. It had been seven weeks since he'd seen her, and Shinji had feared the worst. Yet here she was, hiding her tearstained face in his shoulder, her heartbeat slamming against his.

A soft masculine chuckle sounded nearby, and Edgar strolled over, stroking the back of Marcy's hair.
"I missed you too, Sis."
Shinji felt her soft laughter against his shoulder, and it jolted a reminder straight to his heart. This was the woman that he loved, the one that he wanted to marry, and feel that laughter against him for the rest of his life. The moment was flawless, and he just wanted to drop to his knee and propose; but he didn't. Slowly, he disentanlged himself, and picked up his suitcase once more, watching Marcy greet her brother.

With a heavy suitcase, and a heart that was even heavier, Shinji walked up the steps that would take him into the Morris home, and hopefully the start of everything. He walked into the living room, and set his case down to greet first Ms. Noelle, and then Mr. Morris. He turned and held out his hand to Mr. Morris, but the man simply waved him into a chair. Shinji lowered himself slowly, grateful that he'd asked Edgar to keep Marcy busy outside. He folded his hands lightly, and waited.

"Tanaka, we both know what you're here to say. What I want to know, however, is what my little girl has to say." Shinji stared blankly at Marcy's father, wondering if the mere thought of giving his little girl to someone had cracked him entirely.
"Mr. Morris, I have not yet asked her. I came to ask your blessing, pending her acceptance."

The steel-gray eyes that Edgar had inherited narrowed for the first time at Shinji, and he wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing, or either way if he would survive it to know. Mr. Morris said nothing, silence once again falling in thick drifts about the room. Even Noelle's knitting needles had stopped their clacking, and both the wife and the suitor watched Zeke.
"You came to me first?"
"Yessir."

The father took a deep breath, attempting to forestall any tears, as he surveyed the pictures about the room. They were memories, and moments. Little pieces of his baby girl trapped withing a glass and frame. They were memories, but cold and dull compared to the living and breathing reality that this man wanted to take away from him. He finally pulled his focus back to the man in question, and studied him. The lanky Asian soldier was not who he would have chosen for his darling. The man was too foreign, and too much of a hearbreak waiting to happen.

Yet Zeke had not been oblivious to his child's anxious hope that evening, checking the clock, pretending to read the book. The laborious letters, too, Zeke had seen. The hours she'd spend poring over his letters, and the many hours spent in writing the return. It would seem, that Marcy was no longer playing Cinderella. She wasn't the little girl who would pretend to clean, waiting for Prince Charming to come and take her away.

Marcy had found her Prince Charming, and his influence in her life and transformed her into a real Princess. The fellow sitting in the armchair was the man that Marcy had chosen. He could cry young, and he could complain about the age difference, or remind Shinji that there was a war going on. Yet, Zeke knew that it was in vain. When two hearts had found their match, nothing and no one could deter them. If Zeke even tried, he had the wisdom and the knowledge of who is daughter was, to be aware of the fact that he would lose more than Marcy's physical presence, but that he would lose her love as well.

This would wound and scar him, but to forever lose his precious little sweetheart? Zeke knew that it would stop his heart cold. And these thoughts, whirling through his mind at a rapid rate, were what prompted him to stand, and to extend his hand to Shinji.
"Son, if she says yes, you have mine and her mother's blessing."

The smile of relief and dazzling joy that only scarcely tipped the corners of Shinji's lips only confirmed his love for Marcy, and the devotion he felt. Not to mention, Zeke could see the pride and knowledge that coming to Zeke first had won him a great many brownie points.

Now he had only to convince the would-be bride.