The Belfry

Bruges Belfry-Picture from Wikipedia

I want to travel the world, and Belgium, specifically Bruges is on my list of places to visit. While quite a dark movie, one of my favorites is In Bruges. Two hit men are sent to Bruges to hide out until the fate of one of them, who messed up a hit in a horrible way, is decided. I love Brendan Gleason's character as he attempts to make the banishment a sight seeing trip and explores all the wonders of the city. I always wanted to write something that took place in the that city after seeing that movie, using the Belfry, as in the movie, a pivotal character. Again, I might have gone all Harlequin on the story ending, so forgive me.Here are all the Write and Link submissions.

 The Belfry

The stairs were steeper than Connie expected, but she was determined to make it to the top. She knew she had lost a lot of her stamina in the last two years, but had turned a new page in her life with the turn of the calendar. She missed her old self, and decided she wanted her back. A few years earlier, as she approached 50, she slowly stopped doing many of the things she enjoyed.  These were activities that were keeping her toned and strong. Never having been particularly career driven, an evening with a calculator after an older work friends retirement party put some fear into her about her own future. Naomi was retiring young, at 62, with a tidy self funded retirement account, a husband with a firefighters pension, and they were going to now see the world. 

Hearing about Naomi and Franks plans, Naomi faced the reality that she was in her own boat for a future retirement.  The numbers didn't look good.  She had been putting a paltry 10% of her  income aside, but decided she now needed to contribute to the maximum allowed.  When she hit 50, she did the catch-up funds. This ate into her paycheck and soon her gym membership and rock climbing club went by the way side. She started scrambling for overtime, working late, eating microwaved meals, and using her lunch break for running errands she was too tired to do evenings. It was too much for Naomi, the loss of her carefree friend, who insisted Connie join her and Frank on their Belgium portion of their European tour. They had a cute two bedroom apartment in Bruges for a week, plenty of room for an extra, and air fare rates were at bargain prices. They specifically added Bruges so they could spend time with a younger cousin of Frank's, named Jack Cavanaugh, who was living in the city. Jack lived alone, his ex wife and adult children were back in the US.

Now here was Connie, in this beautiful Belgian city, looking up the staircase to make it to the top of the famous Belfry, back to her carefree self. "This will be magical," she told herself, having associated the Belfry with old world mystery and intrigue.  With each step, she pushed herself  along, a little smile forming at her lips.  She was happy her friend nudged her to come. The panic at being an old  woman who had wasted her life living like a carefree twenty year old, and now had to live on cat food, was gone. The annoyance she felt in the last twenty years since her divorce at well meaning friends and family trying to set her up with  just the right guy was stamped under each foot step. It wasn't that Connie shut the door on finding a partner, but she was happy enough with her life that she was not willing to settle for anyone less than perfect for her.  After a ho hum existence with the wrong person, she wanted something magical. 

At the top, she found glory. She saw the canal and people watched as they strolled in the open market. Before her climb, uncharacteristically, Naomi complained of a sore knee, and Frank didn't want to go up without her. She spotted them standing at a fruit cart, buying something, and walking towards a bench in the center. Naomi looked like she was walking perfectly fine, not favoring her strong knee whatsoever. She turned to take a look in the other direction and came face to face with a handsome man, almost bumping him in the nose with the top of her head. "Excuse me!" Connie said with a laugh, not knowing if he spoke English. "I need to watch where I turn." He smiled a warm smile back at her. "Not a problem at all. What's a bump on the nose between fellow Americans."  They chatted a moment about the sites, the sounds, the history of the city.  "It's just magical." Connie said.  Standing with his hands in his pocket he said, Do you believe in  magic, Connie?"  Not recalling saying her name at all, she was a bit taken aback. "I have to say, excuse me again.  I don't believe I told you  my name."  He took his hand out of his pocket and extended it towards hers. "Of course you didn't, but it is nice to meet you. My name is Jack."