The Alley's Secret Story

Hello World!! 

There once was a little boy and a little girl 

Lived in an alley;

Says the little boy to the little girl,

"Shall I, Oh! Shall I?"

Says the little girl to the little boy, 

"What shall we do?"

Says the little boy to the little girl, 

"I will kiss you."

(traditional nursery rhyme)

~ ~ ~

"Don't forget eggs! We are all out, and make sure that none of them break this time Alyssa!" My mother's scream echoed as I raced out of the house and began down the alley outside our house. Why wasn't he here? He always met me here! He was never late! My heart began to race as I my mind began to create stories in my head. What if he was hurt?! What if something had gone terribly wrong?!

It had been 3 years since Allen and I had been dating, but we had kept it a secret from both of our families. We were the youngest in our families. He was the youngest of 4 siblings and I was the youngest of 5. It didn't matter how hard we tried or what we did we were always thought of as the little girl and the little boy. I suppose being the youngest did make you little, but it still made things much more difficult otherwise.

Why wasn't he here yet?! He had told me last night that he would be here by morning. "I'll be waiting for you outside," he had said with the adorable crooked grin of his. My mind kept wandering back to the night before when he had sneaked into my room. All he had told me was that he needed me to pray that he would be able to get what he needed. Why hadn't he felt the need to tell me anything else?! What made him think that would be enough information?! Then as usual he was gone as quickly as he came, but of course he had to be or he would wake Alex up. That would cause quite the frenzy. 

I closed my eyes and started to take a deep breath while counting to 10. I opened my eyes to find his crooked grin in front of me. I did my best to give him a glare but I knew I looked more like an excited little puppy more than anything else. I turned away from him and began walking the other way down the alley. He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his arms. I turned my gaze towards the wall away from him just as I heard him say, "Shall I, Oh! Shall I?" I looked back at him just as he pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket and handed it to me. 

An animated Hershey's kiss

Source: www.candyindustry.com

My eyes welled up with tears as I opened the box and inside I found.... Wait, this couldn't be right! There was a small chocolate kiss inside the box. I glared at him and turned to walk away once again when he grabbed my hand and slid a ring on my finger. After 3 years, I had grown accustomed to Allen's gestures more than his words. He had a hard time expressing his feelings but his face would say it all. I looked into his hopeful eyes and smiled my while my eyes began brimming over with tears. He knew that nothing needed to be said more than he knew that my answer would be yes. However, I decided this time I would have some fun as well, so I retorted back, "What shall we do?" He looked surprised for a split second before he responded with, "I will kiss you."

Author's Note:

For this nursery rhyme, I thought it would be fun to change up the concept a little bit. Since the nursery rhyme didn't specify an age, but instead mentioned the word "little" I thought it would be fun to use that to my advantage. I'm not sure why, but when I first read the nursery rhyme I immediately imagined a proposal in the alley. The only part that was a bit challenging was getting the proposal to match to the nursery rhyme without changing it to much. I feel that once the nursery rhyme became something strangely different it would loose its authenticity causing it to loose its essence. I did my best to do full justice to the entire nursery rhyme, and I hope that you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Bibliography:
This story is based on the nursery rhyme "A Little Boy and A Little Girl Lived in an Alley" in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang.