Memories of Summer

[A Memory of Summer: Charles]

"Just tell Kate the truth, you love her, and the chance that Angela took her own life when she found out you did... is possible."

Before a tall mirror is a man standing, his eyes are bright grey as they scan his appearance up and down. The bags under his eyes are nothing compared to the tiredness hiding on the inside of him. The last three days have been hell for him. His wife has taken her own life, their son has seen his mother's dead body and calls have been coming in from everywhere.

"How is the boy?"

"How could you let this happen?"

"Maybe Noah is better off living with us? Just for a while."

It's horrible to think that ten years ago, the man now putting on a black blazer and his ex-wife Angela had stood before the altar. Everything had seen so perfect. Charles, himself, had developed his company and Angela had gotten offered a job at one of the most successful law firms a nearby town had to offer. Everything seemed so unreal as they stood there, healthy, passionate, and in love.

But then things started to change, small things shift between the couple. They grew as individuals, which of course you would expect, but not as a couple. And every little fight grew to be bigger than the problem it had presented to be from the beginning.

Maybe it was all the time they spend apart that made ghosts appear in Angela's head. From the days where she didn't know who or where she was or was certain that people were following her.

Sickness isn't supposed to destroy love. Charles knew very well that he would always love Angela, the one he recalled from his memory. But when she couldn't even recognize their son, Noah, he knew she was gone. From there he had tried his best to take care of the woman that no longer knew who either she or he was.

Maybe he wouldn't have met Kate if it wasn't for Angela who recommended her to work as his assistant. Of course, he had been attracted to her the first time he saw her, how couldn't you be lost in the smile of hers or just close everything that wasn't her laugh out?

But she was forbidden.

If he hadn't been so broken down, if he hadn't felt as if life was just a complete mess and if he been slightly drunk that night a year ago, he might not have fallen as hard as he did for Kate. It was obvious that when they went to that conference out of town, she had only tried to talk some support into them and probably neither he or she had expected them to end up in bed together.

The guilt he had felt for doing that towards Angela, had been alarmingly small. It wasn't a secret for the people that knew them closely, that if it was possible he would have gotten a divorce and taken their son with them. But Angela's diagnosed mental illness made it impossible for the two of them to be separated.

Kate and Charles kept having their affair. But if anyone asked them they would never call it an affair. Of course, they weren't open to everybody about their dating, but step by step they got closer to each other. So close that one day Kate got to meet Charles' son Noah, and she was introduced as his protective angel.

What made the entire situation more complicated was that Angela had started to take some very strong medicine which had made her to for longer times be the person she used to be. It would be a lie to tell if Charles would say that he wanted them both to them. But he couldn't live and hold on to the imagination forever, he wanted a reality to support him and keep him steady.

But a week ago when Angela had been "good" for very long, he decided it was time to tell her about Kate. The doctor's had told Charles that Angela wasn't quite able to remember what had happened the months she had been gone from reality. So they had advised him to tell her what he wanted slow and carefully.

Angela had been so happy when Kate knocked on the door a warm summer afternoon. She came in and Charles had suggested that they all would sit down in the living room. Of course, Angela was still not understanding why Kate was here. But as they sat down, putting Angela in an armchair and the two of them in front of her on a sofa.

They had slowly started to talk, explaining to her what had happened during the years she hadn't been herself. That Charles was very sorry but it was clear to see that neither him or Angela herself had any feeling for one another anymore. This Angela actually agreed to but when Charles took Kate's hand in his and started to tell Angela about their love for one another something dark came over Angela's eyes.

The glass vase standing on the table was shattered against the floor and as Angela was fighting the demons inside of her scream was echoing between the walls. Kate fastly got up and headed for the door, Angela tried to fight the grip Charles took of her and go after Kate who took Noah in his hand and pulled him out with her.

There would be a lot of other things smashing and hitting against both walls and floors until all the noises died down. Of course, Charles hadn't imagined that this would be easy, to tell someone who has been gone for years that the now is different from what she left it to be. That what she used to be is gone and that people she knew have changed.

But not even in Charles' wildest imaginations had he ever expect to find Angela's body to be hanging from the kitchen ceiling after he got home from driving Noah to school.

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6th of April