1 post tagged “robert kincaid”

I just wanted to share this beautiful story I've read 10 years ago.........

the bridges of madison county

The Bridges of Madison County

Bitter sweet, that’s how Robert James Waller pictured love in this best novel of his. I myself had to go through a sleepless night to finish the book because once you started reading it there’s no stopping. RJW definitely knows how to entice and keep his readers craving for more. He is a vivid story teller that you would even think that it just happened. You will feel that you are even included in the story, a third person who sees and hears everything transpiring in the book. I dare you to read the book and both love and get hurt like never before and never again.

It is a story that has the present-way back style. It all started with Michael and Carolyn Johnson contacting a novelist to write the story of their mother after they have learned how lonely their mother keeping her marriage with their father as she had an affair with someone she was deeply in love. It was only for them and the organized family they built why their mother stayed and kept herself from following the man she loved all her life.

Francesca Johnson was an Italian bottled of war and poverty who find her salvation with then Naval officer Michael Johnson. She left all her younger lifestyle to join Michael after the war was over. She had so much in her mind, dreams and ambitions she thought Michael will be very enthusiast to share with her. But Iowa was where they are heading to mother Michael’s children while he till the lands. It was a peaceful life but Francesca has a hollow longing for her dreams. She was bored despite the demurred smile she wears all her life.

It was In a late summer when she first met Robert Kincaid, the writer-photographer from National Geographic looking for the covered bridges of Madison County. Dressed in orange suspender over shirt and khakis, Robert Kincaid made the conventional fellows look because of how he dressed. On those times, sandals on men can cause stares and gossips. Guided by pointed directions, Robert found Johnson’s mailbox on his way to one of the covered bridges and was compelled of asking. That was when they met and that difference in Robert made Francesca’s sleeping longings and dreams alive again. She had not only pointed the direction but come along with the stranger in his pursuit.

Her family joined the fair in school and was due in few days, made Francesca unleash her need of adventure. Robert Kincaid at first look was the man she never had. Eyeing his every move and stunt as he took pictures on the Roseman Bridge at sunset, she admired the man even more. She invited her in and to dinner. He suggested something ‘silent’ to cook and that filled her emotions with admiration to this man who dress differently, calls his truck Harry, his dog Highway, and eats ‘silent’ food. This great feeling pushed her to go back to the bridge and tuck a letter of invitation to the man the next evening after their long walk on their lawn and out to the little road by their mailbox.

The next day, she heard Robert’s truck pass by. She went over her tasks and went to Des Moines for a dress. Afternoon came and Robert drove in. She made him bathe in the master’s which she demanded for construction with Michael while she slipped in her new dress. She cooked what he called ‘silent’ vegetables and ate over wine she kept in the cupboard. After dinner, she opened the cassette to a highway music which Robert recognized. They danced and one finally made love. These feelings, as she recounted, never happened to her in the long years of marriage to Michael.

Sun rising, Robert held Francesca again and again until finally he asked her to go out so he can took pictures. She leaned on a post with nothing but white shirt and denim pants that fits her just right. Days gone by with Robert and Francesca taking pictures on the seven covered bridges, eating, walking for miles, and making love anytime of the day. Robert finished his duties fast to attend to Francesca. They dined one time in Des Moines, not together but meeting there by the airport to escape malicious eyes and rumors. Small town that it is, they will be the talk of the town in minutes.

Finally, at dawn on the day Francesca’s family was due, Robert asked her to come with him. Francesca wanted to but she fears for her children, of what life was ahead of them if their mother ‘runs with a stranger’. Could Michael bear the insult and questioning of neighbors? She can’t afford to have a life she wanted with people she left behind suffering. She swears to God he asked again, she will come but Robert is a kind man. She will not take her away if she will suffer in the end. They made love for the last time. The time for him to go had come; he waved once and never looked back. Had he, Francesca ran behind until she can’t move no more and sat on his wake.

The afternoon Robert was supposed to go home; it was a joke that Francesca and Michael were also making their way to the city. Heavy rain and the cloud brought by Francesca’s tears made her not see him but just imagine his back, the way he was seated next to Highway and the knapsacks on the rear. As Harry made a final turn away, she cried openly while Michael was asking what was happening.

Robert left a number to Francesca, which she kept but never called. He too never called her because of the problem it may cause but he mailed her pictures. She sent her another through the national Geographic edition of the covered bridges. It went long this way, until Michael died. Francesca tried to call Robert but he cant be reached. He was somewhere 70 and she was in her sixties then. All her inquiries became futile. Until after a letter arrived with packages of cameras she recognized as Robert’s. He died and left her his cameras. His letter told her where he’d been: he went to Puget Sound because his body got tired but she never had a woman after her. She cried for the years they never had together and also died after few years with her yearly birthday ritual of reminiscing what transpired that late summer.

She kept a journal which she finally decided to let her children read after she’s long gone; which actually happened and why her story was being told. Her children cried fir her because both were taking their marriages for granted when their mother gave even her happiness for her marriage and family. This story moved the author so much he went to Puget Sound to investigate the life after the ‘covered bridges’ of the man Robert Kincaid. Libraries and neighbors didn’t help much, until he found a jazz man whom Kincaid became friends with.

This man became friends with Robert because he usually comes every Tuesday to his gig, drinks a couple of beer and left him a tip and salute. One day, he needs a picture for a gig and went to Kincaid. That day he asked about the woman in portrait and he asked him to walk with him. He has a dog but Highway was long gone. Harry was also through with his service life. He practically lived alone in a shack. When they reached the beach side, they sat and he started talking. He cried big tears as he recalled what happened on that late summer. He let out the billfold battered paper Francesca tucked in the bridge, the silver bracelet he carved her name, and her address. That also made Romer made a composition called Francesca. He let Robert hear it on the next Tuesday, and he went less frequent until no more. He looked for him and found that he died peacefully in his shack.

So sad story but definitely a good one to picture what love is… to whoever found it, please be careful as there are few who tasted but were denied of it forever just like what happened to this story. Love comes only once, it is vulnerable, but can last forever. Once you find it, keep it because you’ll never have the chance to have another.