She chooses a quiet table in the corner and there we sit, chatting easily about the minutiae of our daily lives.
The evening wears on and I can tell she has something to say by the way she pushes the food around on her plate. Her eyes trained on her fork, she quietly speaks.
“I didn’t think you were ever coming back.”
She raises her head, and her eyes meet mine.
I can only whisper my reply, “Neither did I.”
“I thought for sure he’d kill you somewhere out there and I’d see it on the news and we’d never find your body. I was so scared.”
For a moment, I’m struck speechless by the pain in her eyes. I am not the only one he’s hurt.
**********
He planned a trip to the coast for my birthday. October 2nd and 3rd. We’d gone to the same place on our first vacation together, exactly 12 years before.
I was afraid to go, but completely terrified of what he would do if I refused. His behavior had escalated to the point that I was secretly planning to leave, but I wasn’t ready yet. I needed just a little bit more time.
I insisted upon driving the entire time, because I didn’t want to let him behind the wheel of the car. We went to dinner to celebrate my birthday and he suggested that I have a glass of wine. I realized my mistake as he asked for the keys, afterward. Of course he should drive… I had been drinking.
Five miles in the dark, on treacherous, winding roads. As the headlights swept around the curves, I caught foggy glimpses of the waves crashing far below us to the left; to the right, a solid wall of rock that seemed to stretch up into infinite darkness.
He was agitated. Fidgeting. There was something important he needed to say. He was talking too fast, jumbling his words. One hand on the wheel, leaning toward me, looking over at me instead of at the road ahead. Speeding through one curve, slowing for another.
Only five miles. Only five short miles.
I sat completely still in the passenger seat, hands folded neatly in my lap, eyes straight ahead. I spoke to him quietly, calmly. Stalled him. No matter what he did, regardless of what he said, I was determined to show no fear.
**********
My hands are shaking, but I finally speak.
“I was scared, too. He said he was ready to give me ‘The Answer to Everything,’ and I just knew that the moment he told me, he would drive us right off the cliff, straight into the ocean. I thought I was going to die… that he was going to kill me. But then… he didn’t.”
We sit in silence for a moment. I smile. She smiles. I reach for my drink.
I’m eating enchiladas at a quiet, corner table with my friend.
I am alive. I am loved.
And the truth has set me free.
————–
Disclaimer:
Originally I decided I wouldn’t write specifics about my current situation in this space, in an effort to avoid airing my family’s “dirty laundry” to the masses. Please understand that I don’t hate him, I don’t wish him any harm, and I’m not trying to make him look like a monster. He is getting help for his behavior, and I hope he’s able to conquer those demons.
But this is my story. My life. This was my reality. I won’t be silent.
