When I was 20, a man I barely knew proposed without a ring.
I said yes.
Our friends were alarmed
about our fast decision to marry and move to New York City from the U.S. state of Tennessee. I got a letter from an elder at church suggesting I wait to get to know my fiancé better. His friends held a tearful intervention. One of our university professors questioned the decision. My mother referred to my fiancé not by his name—David—but by the nickname “rank stranger.”
But we were in love. After refusing premarital counselling (we didn’t need it, we insisted), David and I got married and moved to Manhattan. We could see the Empire State Building at night, if we craned our necks while sitting on our creaky fire escape.
My life was as romantic as a love song. Then the phone rang.
“May I speak to David?” asked a sultry-voiced woman.
I handed my new husband the phone, which he quickly hung up.
“Wrong number,” he said. A few hours later, it rang again.
Another woman. I hovered near the phone. Did my seemingly loyal husband have a double life?
Another wrong number, he said. The calls became more regular, at all hours of the day and night. It got so common, I was no longer surprised when the breathy voices morphed into sighs of disappointment.
David always got off the phone, ex-asperated. Or was it an act?
I took messages when he was out.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2022-Ausgabe von Reader's Digest India.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 2022-Ausgabe von Reader's Digest India.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Calendar Girls
After Molly Baker’s husband died suddenly, her friends organized a year’s worth of support
THE GREAT WILDEBEEST MIGRATION
It's a spectacular sight when countless ruminants cross the Serengeti in search of greener pastures
Soumitra Chatterjee's Tryst with Destiny
The encounter that led a budding actor to a legendary filmmaker, and sparked an iconic creative partnership during the golden age of Bengali cinema
Frozen in Time
The life and work of Vittorio Sella, a pioneer of early mountain photography and the man behind some of the very first images of the Himalayas
HALLUCINATIONS
There was a monkey perched on the IV drip stand to the right of my hospital bed. It scowled at me, but I wasn’t afraid: A brief simian visit was part of my daily routine. I never questioned why there was a monkey in the hospital. I wasn’t lucid enough to recognize that my mind was playing tricks on me.
Music in the Air
Cuba is bursting with sound, and each region moves to its own defining rhythm
SHOULD YOU TRY A DETOX TREATMENT?
It's a popular new-year health habit. But science doesn't support it
Ringing True
He thought his late parents' wedding bands were gone forever
14,000-FOOT MIRACLE
The skydiver fully expected to die when her parachute failed to open. Instead, she's writing the next chapter of her life
I SURVIVED!
THREE UNUSUAL MEDICAL EMERGENCIES, AS TOLD BY THE PEOPLE WHO NEARLY DIED FROM THEM
