On The Run: Part Two

Chapter Forty-One - "Discovery"

Jake

I rolled over as the morning light travelled through the slightly open blinds over the glass wall.

Sarah was lying next to me, staring at the ceiling. Her eyes were wide, and she looked like she was somewhere far away. It had been a few days since the Chloe revelation, and though she seemed like her normal self, everything was so different. She went to work, she came home, she had dinner, she made small talk, but she wasn’t really Sarah anymore. And I was terrified that she might never be again.

“Did you get any sleep?” I asked.

She turned to me, and then turned the other way, her gaze trained on the bathroom door.

“Sarah, I need you to talk to me. Please?” I begged, holding on to her arm, as I sat up on my side.

She turned, staring into my eyes. I tried to hold her gaze, but there was nothing to hold on to – there was nothing there. Her gaze was empty, and her expression was blank – there was simply nothing there.

She stared at me curiously, but said nothing. She shut her eyes tightly, and pulled her arm slowly out of my grasp.

“I’m fine, Jake,” she said.

I couldn’t hold back any longer.

“That’s the problem! You just found out that your daughter was sexually abused! You can’t be fine. You shouldn’t be fine. You’re not fine!” I blurted suddenly.

She opened her eyes and glared at me. I was taken aback; her eyes held so much hatred, it made me recoil.

“What would you have me do, Jake? You want me to cry? Or maybe I could pass out. Oh wait, I already did that,” she snapped harshly.

I had absolutely nothing to say. I stared wide-eyed at her, but I couldn’t find anything to say. So, I got up and walked into the bathroom.

She couldn’t be gone. Sarah couldn’t just be gone. Frankly, if I’d been through as much as she had, I would probably have given up years ago, but she was Sarah. She was so strong, so resilient. Maybe at some point, a person just stopped bouncing right back up.

I got into the shower and let the hot gusts of water wash away my thoughts. I would stand there until they did. Until all the thoughts and fears and worries in my head simply fell away.

I suddenly felt a pair of arms travel around my waist. My eyes flew open, as Sarah moved to stand in front of me. She was still in her clothes, and her eyes were still devoid of any emotion, but as she reached up and held my face in her hands, her touch sparked up my ever-present desire for her.

Slowly, she eased my hands onto her chest, so that I could feel her racing heart. It was beating so fast, I wondered if it was beating at all. Right against my fingers, it drummed.

I felt a smile make its way to my lips. It was our own language.

She was still there. Somewhere beneath the anger, beneath the indifference and the detachment was my wife.