She folded her arms nervously looking around to see if
anyone noticed her. They did. Her hair was sticky and matted to her forehead in
an unconventional way, her eyes sat in a pool of tears and her shoulders
twitched from time to time. She clasped her hands in her lap and bent her head
down low so that the people passing by couldn’t see her face. She squeezed her
hands and then released immediately because of the jolt of pain that ran
through her fingers. She touched her face lightly and instead of her usual
creamy soft skin, she felt what felt like a bump on her cheek. She popped her
collar and sank further into her jacket. She looked out at the snow covered
street laid out in front of her blur as she sighed and a cloud of fog appeared.
For a moment, she smiled a small smile at the memory coming back to her.
“Sarah! Sarah! If you attack me with another one of those,
you’re dead!”
“What? This?”
“That’s it now I’m coming
at you with this gigantic snow ball. It’s perfect”
“Nothing is perfect. This
world will never be perfect”
“True but this moment
right here with you is pretty perfect..”
“Really?”
“Hah! Got you!”
She found it remarkable that she could still muster the
thought of those rare happy memories despite all that had happened. She clutched
onto the handle of her suitcase giving herself a few more minutes. Her hands
were frozen cold and the purple bruise on her hand stood out even more against
her pale skin. Her lower lip trembled. It was the same hand he had put their
engagement ring on. She knew she was stalling, she should have been gone by
now. This fact was confirmed when she saw him running up the street calling out
her name. She just sat there waiting for him to reach her.
“Sarah! I’m sorry please. Come back home. It’ll never happen
again”
“I know.” Lie.
“I don’t know what came over me, you pushed me too far. Why
must you argue?”
“I don’t know”
“Well I’m sorry but it wasn’t just my fault. Just come home,
I swear I won’t do it again”
“Okay.”
And she let him take her home. Again.
