It was raining outside. Sally hated the rain. She couldn’t place why but she’s always hated it since she was a little girl. She was sitting right at the kitchen window of her home where she liked to have breakfast with Alex. That seat was now empty.
She suddenly remembered all the reasons why she hated the rain they came flooding back with such force that she forgot to breathe and found herself gasping for air.
It was three years ago when she was walking home from work because her car broke down. She thought she could make it home before the rain but of course the rain thought something else. When she was halfway through it came down with the vengeful force it only reserved for her and she immediately was soaked. She kept her head down and kept walking all the while cursing under her breath. Suddenly a car stopped and the driver came down with an umbrella in his hand.
“I don’t mean to startle you madam but it’s pouring rain and I just want to get you to your destination safely. I mean no harm”.
She knew he was talking but all she could see were the kindest blue eyes staring right through to her soul.
True to his word he took her home and walked her to her front door, making sure she was in and safe. Throughout the ride home they never said a word to each other except when she told him her address.
Over the next week she kept receiving flowers from the same person with a beautiful note every time. It was always something kind, something uplifting. Then one day the mystery ‘flower-sender’ decided to leave his name this time and a number. She texted him. ‘You should take me out to dinner’.
At 8pm prompt the man with the kindest eyes was at her door again. She had forgotten just how stunning he was. It was an evening that shouldn’t have ended. Alex was the first man she ever really felt a connection with and she felt completely safe in his presence. This was a new feeling because she never knew her father and all three step-fathers’ she had, had all physically assaulted her to the point that she ran away from home when she was eighteen.
Alex was everything she never knew a man could be. He was kind, honest and utterly selfless that is why when he died she knew she was not destined to ever be happy.
It was of course a rainy day two years into their marriage she was home doing the dishes on a Monday morning because she took a sick leave. She was pregnant with their first child and it was proving to be a complicated pregnancy. The home phone rang. She cheerily went to pick it up whoever it was said she needed to get to Healing Hospital it was an emergency he/she said. In an utterly confused state she picked up her keys and drove down absentmindedly cursing the rain. She got in introduced herself and proceeded to wherever the nurse was taking her to. Before she got there the doctor intercepted her.
“Are you Mrs Blackmon”
“Yes”
“I’m Dr. Chike, I’m so sorry we tried everything we could your husband passed five minutes ago”
“What happened to him”
“He was hit by a drunk driver who is in police custody right now”
“I’m deeply sorry for your loss”
“What loss”
Then it began to dawn slowly on her; “Who the hell drives drunk on a Monday morning”, she thought “why is the room spinning so much, why can I feel my legs, wha…..”
She opened her eyes and the first person she saw was her mother. This had to be bad she only saw her mum when something terrible terrible had happened and then she remembered but she did not have enough spirit in her to cry. She wished herself to wherever Alex was but if only wishes were horses.
She later learned she lost her child the same day she heard the news. Everything became a blur to her, the funeral, the doctor visits, the therapy sessions, everything was just one big blur.
She stared down at the prescription pain medication in front of her at the kitchen table and she thought this time I will be with Alex and nothing will ever take me away from him again.
