Beyond the Story Shelf

Things They Left Behind

This little diary is filled with secrets. Some it gives up easily; others it leaves more obscure.

Ken’s diary is filled with the things that mattered to him during 1945. Hidden at the back, on pages printed with the title “Telephone Numbers,” was a list.

Ken kept meticulous records of the rupees, annas and pies he spent during his time in Burma and Bengal. Looking more closely, I realised this was not a list of telephone numbers at all, but a list of gifts he had bought, or planned to buy.

Ties for his brothers.
A purse for Dad.
Linens for Mum.

Then one name caught at my heart.

Beside Joan — the woman he was going to marry — there was no gift recorded. No lace, no linen, no little item for the home they would one day share when he returned.

Instead, in Ken’s confident pencil, were three question marks.

???

Those three tiny punctuation marks gave me a glimpse into Ken’s private world. They showed the uncertainty of a young man trying to choose exactly the right gift for the woman he loved.

Sometimes the smallest mark gives you the clearest window into a person’s heart.