The yellow Ribbon This is the story of a boy and a girl who were next door neighbors. Jane was her name. Johnny was his. They had known each other since they were three. Jane always wore a yellow ribbon around her neck, rain or shine, summer or winter, whether the ribbon matched Jane’s outfit or not, she would always wear it.

Johnny had barely noticed the ribbon as kids, but now that they were in high school, it bothered him.

“Why do you wear that yellow ribbon around your neck, Jane” he would ask every day, but she wouldn’t tell him.

They spent a lot of time together, whenever Johnny asked her out, she would say yes. She always wore a yellow dress to match the ribbon around her neck. Time flew past, as it has a habit of doing, and one day Johnny proposed to Jane. She hinted that she might tell him about the yellow ribbon around her neck on their wedding day but he never got around to ask her.

They raised a family of four. Whenever their children asked him about it, he’d always hushed them, and somehow none of the kids had dared ask their mother. It was not until Jane was on her death bed a year later that Johnny, seeing his last chance slip away, asked Jane one final time about the yellow ribbon she wore around her neck. She shook her head a bit at his persistence, and then said with a sad smile: “Okay Johnny, you can go ahead and untie it.”

With shaking hands, Johnny fumbled for the knot and untied the yellow ribbon around his wife’s neck. And Jane’s head fell off…