Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: CONFUSED (07/29/21)
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TITLE: Amy’s Leaving | Previous Challenge Entry
By Douglas Knight
08/03/21 -
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She’s a good woman, a terrific mom, a fabulous teacher, and faithful to her church and community. I thought she was faithful to me.
She says it’s not me and she didn’t mean for this to happen, but….
Paul Palato slumps in his favorite chair where he normally sits evenings and weekends relaxing. He is not relaxing, now. The air seems so thin that he can hardly breathe. His heart is pounding inside his chest so hard he can feel it.
Amy, his wife and mother of his only child, Missy is in their bedroom crying and packing a few personal items and clothes.
Another man - that’s what she said. She cannot explain it, but he is easy to talk to and made her feel … how did she put it? Oh, yeah, like a “beautifully vital woman.”
How do I make her feel? I should have asked. Why didn’t I? Why don’t I?
Paul starts to rise out of his favorite chair, but he stops suddenly. She says she’s made up her mind. Her mom is expecting her.
Her mom knows. I guess her mom knows everything. That means her dad must know, too. He’s the head deacon. He’ll talk to her and tell her how wrong this is. Christians work these things out.
Counseling- that’s what we’ll do. Whatever we’ve done wrong in our marriage, we’ll fix it. I’m a godly man. She’s a god-fearing woman. It’s not good for Missy. It looks bad for the church.
Paul gets up out of his chair to share his counseling idea with Amy. As he turns toward the bedroom, Amy appears.
She looks tired and older than her thirty-four years. She holds a small suitcase in her hand and her purse strapped over her shoulder.
The couple who have known each other since high school, stop and stare at each other. They don’t know what to say to the other. It’s almost like they’ve never met. Yet, in reality, they know all the good and secret things about each other that no one else knows.
A few small ticks of the proverbial clock seem like hours. Paul feels this terrible ache in his heart and an indescribable sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Barely looking at the other, they exchange a weak goodbye. Amy shuffles out the door.
Paul stands motionless for several moments in a sort of emotionless fog. The engine of Amy’s newly purchased used car lifts Paul out of this fog. All the pain he felt the moment Amy made her announcement returns two times more painful than at first.
He rushes to a window to watch as Amy backs out of the blacktop driveway. For a second, Paul believes there is a hesitation before the car lunges forward down their quiet suburban caul de sac. He watches until the taillights disappear into the late evening darkness.
Surely, God will work things out. All things work out for good or something like that. Isn’t that what one verse says. Probably because there is so much rolling around in his head all at once, Paul is unable to recall the exact words of that scripture.
He sits back down and pulls up a Bible App on his phone. He puts “good” in the search. A multiplicity of verses display.
Paul stops as he hears little footsteps approaching from the hallway. Did Amy forget to say goodbye to Missy?
“Why was Mommy sad to go on vacation?” Missy stands now, chin in hands, elbows on the arm of the chair.
“Was it because we weren’t going with her?”
“I’m sure that’s it.”
Paul doesn’t know what to say to Missy. He finds it so unlike Amy not to have taken Missy with her. But so much of this is not typical Amy.
“I’m sad, too. Are you sad too, Daddy?”
Paul can feel salty tears burning to burst free. He tries to hold them in, but fails. He feels a little hand touch his cheek causing the tears to pour out.
Missy crawls up on his lap. She wraps her chubby arms around his neck..
Paul folds his arms around Missy.
“Mommy is alright, Daddy. She’s in God’s hands.”
Paul closes the Bible App and kisses his sweet, innocent daughter on the forehead.
“Of course, she is.”
No matter what happens.
(This story is fictional. Any resemblance to persons or events is coincidental.)
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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