Chapter 7: A Parting of Ways

...in which Linda confronts reality...


Linda knew she had to confront Joseph.

She felt a deep sense of betrayal and wanted to hear what he had to say. She didn’t think anything he said would satisfy her, but she wanted to know if he could be honest. Straightforward enough when things were good, he had an aversion to being held to account when they weren’t.

It was twilight when she left the store. She drove towards home, going by way of the garage. His car was parked outside the shop. The bay doors were closed but through a window she saw a strange flickering light. She parked and slipped inside through a side door, the photo clutched in hand.

She had to shake her head to be sure she wasn’t dreaming. Before her, a figure bent over a metallic box. It had a cubed metal head and wide goggle eyes attached to the body of a man. It wielded a wand with a flame like a blue dagger tooth that cut into the box, raining sparks. A steady hissing filled the garage and a thin smoky haze created the sensation of being underwater.

C.V., in t-shirt and jeans, stood off to the side, watching intently. Beside him stood another man whom she didn’t know. Joseph, still dressed in his blue coveralls, stood with his back to her.

C.V. saw her first, his eyes growing wide as he retreated into the shadows. His companion looked to him to see where he was going, attracting Joseph’s attention. He turned to see Linda.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.

“What’s happening?” she asked in a small voice, amazed by the scene.

Joseph grabbed the photo. He saw himself hand in hand with Stacy. A frown momentarily crossed his face. “What’s this?”

Regaining her composure, she pointed to it. “Your friend’s in jail. They’re coming for you next.”

He studied the photo. “Where'd you get this?”

“The police.”

“No, you didn’t.” He let the photo fall to the floor and looked away.

Linda jabbed her finger in his arm. “Joseph, this isn’t right. You brought that woman to my bed. She was stealing from Rightway. Now you’re breaking into a safe.”

Joseph took her by the shoulders and shook her, his eyes looking deeply into hers. “You’re not going to tell anyone about this, are you?” Her head shook side to side as if to wobble off.

He pulled her to him. Her ear pressing against his muscled chest, she heard his heart beat against the background of the hissing torch. She felt his body heat and her body, against her will, began to respond.

She resisted, trying to break free but he squeezed tightly, pinning her arms like the wings of a bird in a snake’s death grip, its hissing filling her ears.

“Have you always been this way?” She asked in a failing voice.

He squeezed tighter and she felt she was suffocating. But from somewhere deep inside, it came.

She screamed.

It startled Joseph and he let her go. The goggle-eyed figure looked up and even C.V. stepped forward to see what was happening.

Her high-pitched cry overcame the hissing of the torch. It cut through all the easy agreements dealing with easy issues that skirted the hard ones. It cut across lives lived in parallel only touching occasionally. It cut through non-responsive answers and to questions never asked.

Linda ran out of the garage, Joseph’s voice following. “I’ll see you at home.”

She got into her car; questions and answers flowed.

What’s the meaning of ‘home’? Love and safety.

What is it to ‘see’ when you see only what you want?

She felt gullible and complicit in the deception. She thought a career, an apartment and her man equaled a life, but she was led astray by smiles and easy yeses.

’You’ should ask the right questions and demand answers.

At the apartment, she grabbed the things she needed most, as if a firestorm were about to descend. She took clothes, important papers and some mementos. She prayed Joseph hadn’t followed. She carried them into the hallway and down to the car. He wasn’t there.

She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but she had to push through today to get there.


THE END