Day 1018: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: airport

Every enemy could be defeated except time and age – their ravages could be held at bay only for so long.

But, if you had a great deal of money and had been graced to avoid serious injury or illness, you could hold even time and age long enough off to finally, finally get what you want – or deceive and be deceived that you could do it.

Robert Lee Braxton was 85. When he saw that Mrs. Selene Slocum-Lofton had responded in full to his invitation, he felt that he had held off the ravages of time and age for just long enough … 68 years waiting for this triumph, but, at last! His destiny had been this woman … it had been like being a boy waiting an airport, plane after plane arriving but not yours … and yet, on schedule, at the time destiny had appointed though not suited to his patience, here she came!

Who among the circle of his youth had not wanted Miss Selene Madison in 1951? Beautiful of face and figure, with the carriage of a queen even in youth – the story was that her mother had been ill around the time of her birth, so her grandmother had formed her in her early years – it was considered that whomever Miss Madison should choose would instantly be made a king in the eyes of his peers.

There had been dozens of suitors – and then a dozen – and then two. It had rankled Mr. Braxton for 68 years that when it came down to one, Aaron Slocum-Lofton had bested him. He had never seen how it could have occurred that “the old man” nearly twice his age had walked off with the prize of the century – nonetheless, if it had to happen, it was best that it be Mr. Slocum-Lofton, because he was so indifferent to the whims of other men around him that he would not notice if a younger rival found a way to stay around, waiting for “the old man” to die!

Surely it had all been a misunderstanding anyhow – she had only been 16 when making her decision, and perhaps not mature enough to understand what “Beau Bob Braxton” had to offer her. He had outlived Aaron Slocum-Lofton. Perhaps there was not much time left – but surely he could outdo whoever it was Miss Madison – rather, the Slocum-Lofton widow – had been recently seen with. Queen Selene was coming to him, at last. He would lay it all on the table, and at last, she would fall into his arms.

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