Promises Are Meant to be Kept

Many moons ago, there lived a young boy Tom who was madly in love with his long-time girlfriend, Jen. Ever since the beginning Jen’s parents strongly disagreed of her relationship with her boyfriend. Saying that due to Tom’s poor family background, if Jen still insists of being together with the boy, she will be suffering for her whole lifetime.

Tom on the other hand, was an orphan boy who had lost his family in an accident when he was merely seven-year-old. Since then, he could hardly call anyone his own until he met the love of his life, his girlfriend Jen in a supermarket one day where she had come with her mother. It was a love at first sight for the two and their story was now three years strong.

But because of the continuous pressure applied by Jen’s family, she used to often quarrel with her boyfriend and ask him, “How much do you love me, Tom?” Poor Tom did not know how to answer that, so he used to struggle every time Jen popped him this question, which used to make Jen very angry. The boy had to silently allow her to continuously release her anger that was triggered by her family.

When it grew too much to handle, Tom decided to move overseas to earn enough money for Jen and her family to agree to their union.

Before leaving, he proposed to his girlfriend… “Jenni, I don’t know how to say it right, but I do know that, I love you. And I promise to be with you forever. If you agree, I am willing to take care of you, the whole life. About your family members, I will work hard to convince them and agree on us.”

“Marry me soon, will you?”, Jen said teary-eyed.

And her parents, looking at the effort shown by the boy, agreed to wait for Tom to get all settled before they could give away their daughter Jen to him.

Two years passed on…Jen got herself a part-time job in the neighbourhood, whereas Tom managed to find a job in a small factory. They continued their relationship through letters. With time the distance grew tough for them, but the loving couple never gave up.

One day, the girl left home for work like the usual and on her way to the bus stop, a car lost control and hit her. As she regained her senses, she saw her parents around and realised how serious was her damage.

Looking at her parents, with their faces all wet in tears, she tried to comfort them. But then, she found out that she cannot even spell out a word, she tried her best to make some voice but all she managed was to breath without any voice. She’s become mute for life. The doctor cleared that the injury had affected her brain, which had taken her voice for the rest of her life. Jen could not believe this and became inconsolable. 

Later, the girl got discharged from the hospital. Everything got back to normal at home. Except that now when the phone rang, she could no longer have the courage to pick it up. Ring after ring, stimulated her pain but she could not tell Tom about this. She did not want to be a burden on Tom and wrote him a letter saying that she no longer wished to wait for him, and their relationship has ended for good.

Seeing Jen’s pain and suffering, her father decided to move to a new town. Hoping to see herself happier into a new environment, Jen started to learn, slowly picking up sign language. She also tried her best to forget Tom, but it was all in vain.

One day, her best friend informed her that Tom is back. He was now a rich boy and was continuously looking all around for her girlfriend-Jen. She asked her best friend to tell him to forget her. Few months passed by and Jen got no news from the boy.

Then one day her best friend told her that Tom is getting married soon and passed on the wedding card to her. She opened the card with a sad heart and found her own name on the card.

The moment she looked up to her best friend, Tom appeared in front of her. With an unfamiliar sign gestures, he told her “In these past months, I have spent half of my time forcing to learn the sign language, in order to tell you, that I have not forgotten our promise, please allow me to be your voice for life. Please marry me, I love you.”

Looking at Tom’s hard efforts to win her back, Jen finally smiled. And the two got back together to get married soon after.