Last Errand

Photo: clem-onojeghuo.com

"He won't wait long," Laura reminded herself. "Hurry."

Laura was ready to crack. Her ten year old voice whispered and whined through tears that still choked her up after all these years. She let it go on her whole life.

She was near tears now, but she would not do it...she would not cry.

"How many times without crying," she whispered "makes it okay to break down?"

Laura ignored looks from the people as she walked past the checkout lanes, and the whispers of the stock boys as she walked lop sided down the hardware aisle. She grabbed what she would need for him.  She looked down at the items Dale needed so badly that he had to beat her out the door.

Laura checked out, shuffled across the parking lot and sat in her car. She closed her eyes and tried to slow down her breathing.

"You want it fixed? Stop hiding the goddamn tools..." still echoed through her head. She instinctively shrunk away from the hit that had followed.


The phone rang and she jumped.

Laura was now sitting in her idling car in front of the house she has shared with her husband for three years.

Laura picked up before the first ring was done as she was getting out of the car, carrying what Dale had wanted and so deserved.

"I'm almost home," she said before he was done yelling. The cut on her lip cracked open sending that all too familiar coppery taste through her mouth as she gazed at the back of his head through the sliding glass window.

Laura dropped the sack with the steak sauce and the beer and opened the sliding glass door. He stood up and turned, already revved up in a bellowing yell. She silenced him as she plunged the screwdriver through his gaping, yelling mouth.


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