8.26.2011

The Gift

I have a friend who has a cousin she used to play with as a child and while cleaning out some old stuff came across two photographs, one of her with her cousin when they were kids, and one of her with her cousin as adults.  She thought the photos were lovely, encapsulating so many heartwarming things about their relationship.  She had a wonderful idea, since they were already framed together, to give them to her cousin, who she didn't see very often but who happened to be coming to town the very next week.  She wrapped the photos in some beautiful handmade paper selected from a drawer of paper saved over years of unwrapping gifts at many celebrations, a lamentable habit she acquired from her mother.

She was so excited about the gift that she had a little trouble falling asleep the night before they were to meet, imagining her cousin's delight.

Naturally, her cousin was embarrassed since she hadn't thought to bring a gift, but my friend insisted that it didn't matter one bit.  Seeing her cousin take the gift in her hands, it suddenly struck my friend that the paper she had chosen was from her own wedding and that the gift her cousin was about to unwrap was the very gift that her cousin had given her in that exact wrapping paper, ten years ago as a wedding present.

  

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