“What’s that?”
“Mark.”
“That’s Mark?”
“Yeah.”
“Is he…”
“What do you think?”
Gretchen set the oversized duffel bag down with a thud, and took a seat in the chair in the corner. She lit a cigarette and crossed her legs. At first she looked out the window at nothing, then back at the bag. She had picked it up at the sporting goods store a week ago but had used it for the first time this afternoon. The guy at the store, some little snot nosed kid, assured her that it was the thickest and most durable bag she could buy that wasn’t military grade. Despite this, the bag had become very damp and was starting to moisten Michael’s floor.
“So.”
“So what?”
“So what does this mean?”
Her eyes moved back out the window at nothing, she extinguished her cigarette prematurely and let out an exhausted sigh. Closing her eyes she brought her thumb and fore finger to the bridge of her nose, pinching it lightly and then expanding her entire palm to cover her brow. She remained this way in silence for a very long time.
“It means we can finally be happy”
“You can’t be serious?”
“We talked about this.”
“You mentioned it after we… I thought you were joking. I didn’t think you would really go through with it.”
“But I have.”
“I see that, but I don’t know what you expect me to do about this. This is insane”
It was a long time before she looked up. And when she did she wished she hadn’t.
“Insane?”
“Look I’m not saying I regret what we had, but I can’t just leave Haley. I love her. We have kids for Christ’s sake.”
“What we had?”
“What if I wasn’t home alone? If Haley had answered the door? Or the kids? What then? If you leave now and take that with you I won’t call the cops or anything. Just never show your face around here again. Please, leave me and my family alone.”
She looked out the window again, this time at her car parked across the street. It was Mark’s work truck. A little red thing all beat to shit; he loved that stupid truck. Paid almost two grand just to get the transmission replaced. He used to say it had “sentimental value” and that “she wouldn’t understand”. She couldn’t understand then, but she understands now. Sometimes, you love something so much that you will do anything for it. Sometimes, you love something so much that you have to die for it. She had thought about what she would have done if anyone else would have answered the door; she came prepared for such an instance. In the bed of the truck was three more duffel bags, two large and one smaller. Sometimes, you love something so much that it has to die for you.
