A Fighting Chance--A Short Story

                                               A Fighting Chance

    Sarah sighed.  “I don’t even know where he is right now,” she said, a tear grazing her cell phone as it found its way down her flushed cheek. 

    Her sister, Olivia, listened on the other end of the line.  “How can you not know where your husband is?”  She heard nothing but restrained sobs.  “I’m sorry, honey.  I didn’t mean it like that.”

    “No, you’re right,” Sarah replied.  “I guess it’s no secret that we haven’t exactly had the best marriage the last couple of years.”

    “Everybody hits a rough patch...”

    “No, this was different.  We’ve been fighting like crazy for the last six months.  We can’t even stand to be in the same room together without ripping each other apart.”

    She paused for a moment, working up the courage to admit the stark reality to herself.

    “I think my marriage is over.”

    “It’s not over until you give up, babe,” Olivia said.  “If you’re both willing to fight for each other, you’ll get through this.”

    “That’s just it,” Sarah said.  “I think we’re finally there.  Last night we started arguing about Jordan’s soccer game—I know, silly, right?—and then things just went downhill from there.  I told him he should just leave me if he hated being with his family that much.”

    “Sarah!  What’s wrong with you!?”

    “I know, I know.   It was just a bluff, really.  I was trying to prove a point.  I guess I was testing him…but that’s just it—he actually left.”  Tears began to drown her cheeks as restraint was all but abandoned.

    “Maybe he just needed some time…to think…to figure things out,” Olivia said, attempting to extend some remnant of hope.

    “How cliché!”

    “Yeah…but it’s true.  I’m sure he’s been stressed at work, and family stuff can just be too much sometimes.  Just let him blow off some steam.”

    “But why hasn’t he called?”

    “He will.  He just needs to figure out what to say.”

    “I hope you’re right.  I just…oh, hold on a second, someone’s calling me…”

    She switched over to the incoming call.

    “Hello?”

    “Is Sarah Barclay available?”

    “This is she.  Who is this?”

    “My name is Lt. Steve McCray with the Canton Police Department.  Ma’am, I’m afraid there’s been an accident.”

   “Thanks for doing this with me,” Sarah said.  They were driving to the impound where she was going to clean out John’s car.  “Thanks for being there this whole week.”

    “Oh, honey.  That’s what I’m here for…and I know you’d do the same for me.  How are you holding up?”

    “I guess I’m still in shock,” Sarah said, her eyes firmly locked on anything off in the distance.

    “That’s what happens, they say.”

    “I can’t imagine what it will be like when it really settles in.”

    “You’ll get through it.  You have to grieve properly.”

    “That’s what ‘everybody’ tells me,” Sarah said, painfully sarcastic.

    “Well, ‘they’re’ all right.”

    “But I don’t know how I can ever really do that…not the way this happened.  I’ll never really get closure.  I’ll never really be able to forgive myself,” she said, her sarcasm turning into despair. 

    “This wasn’t your fault.  You hear me—this was nobody’s fault.  It was an accident!” 

    “You can say that—even I can say that—but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to believe it.”

    They pulled up to the gate and stopped.  “Listen.  You have to find a way to deal with this or it will eat you alive.”

    Sarah smiled through the tears.  “I know…I hope I can.”

    “Now, are you okay to do this?” Olivia asked.

    “I’ll be fine.”

    An officer led the somber sisters to an unrecognizable ’05 Impala.  Sarah could hardly bear to look at the twisted wreckage.  “Maybe I won’t be fine,” she said.

    “We can do this later,” Olivia said.

    “No,” she said, collecting herself and drying her eyes.  “We’re here now.  Let’s just get it done.” 

    They opened the rear passenger door—the only one that would open freely—and starting rummaging through the junk in John’s car.

    “What is all over the inside of this car?” Sarah asked.

    “I think those are…I think those might be flower petals.”

    Sarah fell back against the car, weak and distraught.  Was he cheating?

    Olivia continued to rummage through the mess.  She paused.  She gasped.  She began to whimper.

   “What is it?!” Sarah asked.

    She held a small card in her hands.  Sarah pulled it from her trembling hands.  It read:

Sarah, I’m ready to fight for us.