Betrayal by Kallio Michele

Author:Kallio, Michele [Kallio, Michele]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

***

Dan leaned heavily against the closed bedroom door. His eyes scanned the dim-lit room. He listened for her steps in the hall; with a sigh he realized she had not followed him. Dan tore off his shirt, his lip curling into an angry sneer as the buttons scattered on the hardwood floor. He wadded the shirt into a ball and threw it against the wall. He cursed silently. Undoing his belt he let his jeans fall to his knees, leaning against the dresser he kicked his legs free, leaving the pants on the floor.

It had been a terrible day from start to finish. Mrs. Thurber had died. Her lingering death from bowel cancer had been hard beyond belief. Dan leaned into the dresser, his hands splayed on its glossy top. Staring into the mirror he remembered the day he had told Jean Thurber and her husband Bill of his diagnosis. That had been three years ago, she had been twenty-eight years old. Dan cursed the fates for taking a loving mother from her young family.

“Why on Christmas? Why did she have to die on Christmas Day?” Dan asked his reflection.

Shaking his head as a dog does after a heavy rain, Dan tried to clear the sight of Bill Thurber and his young son from his mind. Dan stared unseeingly into the mirror; in his mind’s eye he saw another woman, in another hospital bed, his grandmother. Tears rolled down his cheeks forming puddles on the dresser.

Death had always been the enemy, first his grandmother then his grandfather, six months later. Dan had seen himself in Davy Thurber’s sad face. Dan shook his head again.

When he had come home at noon he had hoped to talk out the experience with Lydia, but no, she was lost in her mother’s journal. The turkey wasn’t even in the oven, let alone ready to eat. He had trudged back up King Street in the slush and ice, his stomach churning with grief and frustration.

When he arrived home again he ached to tell Lydia about Mrs. Thurber, feel her arms embrace him. He needed her soothing words, her solace. But what did he get? The nattering of a mad woman. He had little patience with her babbling and just when she was beginning to make sense the health center had called again. Once more he faced the ice and cold. Three hours later his shift was done. Dan remembered that he had whistled coming home, expecting carols and hot buttered rums while they unwrapped, at last, their Christmas gifts. Dan’s hands curled into tight fists.

“This was not how it was supposed to be,” he told his reflection in the mirror. Unable to look at himself any longer Dan turned his back on the mirror. With his arms crossed tightly against his chest he stared at the painting over the bed. Out of a morning mist rose the squat lighthouse at Brant Point. He remembered their picnic there. The trip to Nantucket hadn’t been planned, but oh how they enjoyed it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.