Deerstalker - a Sherlolly story

An Unexpected Visitor

“Ouch!” Molly yelled as her mother put another pin in her hair.

“Just stay still, so I can put the last one in,” Diana Hooper told her nervous daughter. Once she finished putting Molly’s glossy brown hair in an elegant up-do,  she held up a mirror so Molly could see what she had created on the back of her daughter’s head. 

“It’s gorgeous!” Molly exclaimed as she saw the curls that were bundled together with various pins with little diamonds on them, creating a kind of bun. It matched with the tiny diamonds that lined the top of her dress. 

Diana lead Molly to the tall bathroom mirror. She stood behind her, as Molly finally got see her entire ensemble for the Valentine’s dance.  Eventually,  Molly had chosen for a bright yellow dress instead of a pink one.  The sweetheart neckline, tight waist and the flowy skirt that ended right above the knee made Molly feel more elegant than ever before. Kind of like Belle, her favorite Disney princess. 

“Oh, Molly. You look gorgeous. You’re going to have such a great time tonight,” Diana told her daughter, while she gave both of Molly’s arms a little squeeze.  A proud smile had formed on her face.

“Thanks, mom. I’m sure I will,” she replied with an equally big smile. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach flapping wildly, as a million scenarios about how tonight could go played out in her mind. She had read about nights like this a hundred times in her books and had fantasized about it a thousand times more. She knew this was going to be her night. This was going to be the night she would dance around in a dress that made her look like elegance itself. The night all her friends would marvel at how she shined. The night when she would be kissed when the clock struck twelve. The night she would finally find true love.

At a quarter before nine Molly was sitting in the living room, facing the front window. From where she sat she had a perfect view of the front of her house and the clock hanging on the wall at all times.  David had told her he would pick her up at eight thirty, but she wanted to be prepared if he showed up early. Also, doing anything else made her too nervous. Every time the dials on the clock told her a minute had passed, her heart made a little leap. 

After 14 minutes had past and it was 8:59, Molly was certain she would die of a heart-attack. This many beats per minute couldn’t be healthy. The more rational side of her reminded her that there David could be a couple of minutes late. Still, that meant he could arrive any minute now. 

 It turned out that any minute was quite a broad definition, because at 9:15 no one had knocked on the door yet. Molly tried to tell  herself that being 15 minutes wasn’t that strange, but felt herself starting to panic. Maybe she should call him? Just to check…

Immediately she stood up and ran upstairs to grab her phone from her room. She snagged it from her desk to run down again and position herself in her original spot in the leather chair. Sitting there with the phone in her hand, she suddenly wasn’t so certain about calling him anymore.Maybe she should just wait a little longer…. After debating it for a little while, she decided she would call him at 9:25, but prayed she wouldn’t have to.

Unfortunately, she had. The clock on her phone told her it was 9:26 and reluctantly she started to dial his number. As she heard the dial tone, worry, anger and despair raged on inside her. She felt as if her heart was going to explode when she finally heard his voice, but she could feel it sink just as fast when it turned out to be his voicemail. When the beep finally came, she had to muster up all the energy inside her to say. “Hey David, this is Molly…. I thought we had agreed that you would pick me up at nine… but…uhm…but I haven’t heard from you yet. So… if you get this could you call me back. Uhm…bye,” on the last words her voice cracked and she could feel her eyes get wet. A certain time at the library came back to her and she knew that it was always going to be like this. She would be forgotten.