It was Saturday morning and I was writing in a local Starbucks. My cell phone made a noise. I looked down, a message from my husband. Yippee, maybe he’ll join me for coffee. I read the words as they scroll across the top of my phone: “Hi Hon You’re a FINALIST in the Daphne contest. Love …”
WTH. It couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t be. I’m not that good. I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined finalling with my first entry. I was looking for feedback, nothing more. I take a deep breath. It would be so nice to believe this message.
My fingers dial home.  He picks up. “Are you serious?” I ask. The harshness in my voice draws looks from nearby coffee drinkers.
“Yes,” he says. He tells me about his conversation with a woman  from the Kiss of Death Chapter. Tears stream down my cheeks. I tremble with every word he says. Could this really be happening? He must have it wrong, but the thing is he doesn’t know words like Daphne and Kiss of Death. They are words that belong to me and my writing world. He tells me she plans to phone back.
I pack up, with  tears, I cannot stop, streaming down my face, and head for the door.  I cry all the way home, hug my husband, and make him repeat his story–  a hundred times. Then the phone rings. It’s the lady from Carolina. I soak in her information like a gift from the universe, thank her profusely and start to wave my arms wildly in the air, because I don’t know what else to do. It’s true — I finalled in the Daphne.
Some moments in  life hit you hard, and this was one of them, for me.
***
How about you? Do you have a special moment that hit you like a hammer in the night?
Picture:  Daphne Du Maurier (1907-1987), British author and playwright of Romantic Suspense

“Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca (which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1941) and Jamaica Inn and the short stories “The Birds” and “Don’t Look Now“. The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.” (Wikipedia)