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   The Dark Road

   by Kaereni

   She was driving down the dark road as tears fell like raindrops from her
eyes.  Over and over again the events unfolded like a movie in her mind,
all the way back to when it first started a year ago.  Her husband for 10
years, Dan wrote her a story based on a dream he had.  Like a child with
his first drawing he presented it to her and like the fool she was she
showed him a place where he could go and share it with others.

   Her place, her friends, she said slamming the steering wheel with her
hand as she drove.  Watching with pride not unlike a mother's pride as he
shared his work his baby.  Picking him up when he was refused and turned
away.  Dusting him off helping him fix his baby till it shone.  Smiling
with pride as they welcomed him, like the prodigal son coming home.  A
team, a pair that's what they were and all knew it.  But over time he fit
in while she was pushed into the background, told to go away little girl
and don't bother us.

   All her life as far as she can remember she had fought against that
attitude to stand up, shout I am here and I have valid points to raise. 
But even her Dan joins the crowd telling her that she was just being a
child, that she was wrong.  She remembers the night when Dan finally told
her to go away and not bother us.  She lost her friends he took them and
fit in.  Pushing her more into the background with each day till finally
she was forced to leave.

   Finding out he had been sleeping with others.  The fight that followed
when she confronted him over it even now comes flooding into her mind with
crystal clarity.  This is something for us and us alone she had cried to
him, our thing special and ours only.  His blank uncomprehending stare
burns like a hot iron into her heart.  His words, but I was thinking of you
when I did so it's the same, turns the iron into a knife twisting in her
heart.  Its not the same, she cried out hurt, the same words coming
unbidden to her lips echoing the words in her mind.

   Then tonight again after knowing how she feels he comes in and says, I
have made a child with someone else.  Her mind freezes, locks up in shock.
Before she can ask whom he continues and explained that it was the one
woman who most in the world had a crush and lusted after him from day one.
In her outrage she screams and pitches a fit her heart totally shattered.
Again he says, but I was thinking of you so its okay.

   She grabbed the keys and ran out the door not wanting to hear more.  The
rain mixing with her tears giving her the look of a demented raccoon as her
mascara runs.  Her mind screaming in hurt she drives off.  Now she has time
to think but thinking is not what she wants.  She only wants the hurt to go
away.

   A curve, a old oak tree its bark skinned back showing it has seen hard
times catches her eye.  Aiming for it she floors the gas pedal.  A crash
and she was being thrown around like a rag doll.  Lying in the twisted and
steaming metal that once was a car, she feels no pain.  Time passes, red
blinking lights, a face pealing her eyelid back and shining a light in it.
Soothing voices telling her it will be okay, everything will be all right.
Feeling the darkness take her, she manages to croak out one word, peace.

   The woman became aware of sensations.  She wondered in a detached sort
of way if she were in heaven or hell.  She became aware of distant sounds,
people walking, and smells but not the smells of brimstone.  Gathering her
nerve she opened her eyes and saw flowers.  Flowers?  She thinks confused
her mind still muddled.  Blinking and with a dawning realization she
realizes she is in a hospital.  She sees Dan sitting in the one chair, his
face stubbled, eyes red, suit rumpled and generally looking like some bum
on the street.

   In a flash she realizes she lived, she is in hell.  But then she looked
at Dan, she still loves him, needs him with all that she is.  Even with the
hurt building again, the tears flowing once more, she was glad she was
alive.  She wondered what the future would bring, will she find the peace,
and will Dan ever understand the hurt she feels or the feeling betrayal
that burns her heart.  As Dan looked up she reached out to him, pulling him
close, their tears mixing, knowing she could not live like this anymore.