Wedding cake-in the middle of the road.

The Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road

Thando and Phumeza were a youngish couple, although they weren't as young as they were when they'd gotten engaged four years before when they were full of the hopes and dreams that a couple in their twenties has. But, in their early thirties, they still had plans for a long life ahead of them. Their love was one for the books. Their story could have been written

This was a couple very much in love but very poor. They shared a cramped apartment designed for one person. Their kitchen, a corner of their walk-in closet, was comprised of a microwave, a hot plate, and a mini fridge. They washed their dishes in the bathtub. One day at work when Dennis saw a beautiful, slightly damaged, red leather wing chair that had been set out at the curb for the trash truck, he carried it home the mile and a half on his back since his car was out of commission and he didn't have the funds to repair it.

Tight finances had prevented the couple from setting a date for their wedding. Their optimism propelled them forward. They'd talk excitedly of their plans until the reality of their situation would set in and one of them would tactfully change the subject to something more mundane such as the weather. A ceremony on the beach was one of her more extravagant wishes.

 It was a hot Friday afternoon when the couple drove in the dusty work truck, making the two-hour trip from Cape Town to Engcobo. On the way, they chatted about this and that and nothing at all.

Inside the box was a white sheet cake decorated with piping, pink roses, and a statue of a plastic bride and groom lying on its side. The cake itself had suffered a crack down the middle, a result of its fall from the back of a truck.

"Of all things to find. We can't even afford a wedding, yet here's a wedding cake just lying in the middle of the road? Phumeza couldn't help but think of their yet-to-be-realized wedding and the couple whose wedding cake would never reach its destination.

"Is this us? Are we stuck in the middle of the road like this cake? Is it a sign?" She looked at Thando, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

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