The Kiss: An Anthology About Love and Other Close Encounters(113)

After getting off the phone, the moments seemed to creep into eternity. His mind searched for the best way to tell her the news. He already knew the way. He would simply have to force the words from his mouth. There was no easy way around this. Nancy needed him to be a man now more than ever and he was ready to do just that. Well, as ready as anyone could ever be.

He heard the car pull up and rushed to open the door. He was tempted to approach her but Nancy was nearly to him now. He took a deep breath and prepared for the misery that would cloud all of their lives for years.





*


The workout was going as normal with Debra being her usually competitive self. Nancy was more than willing to step up to the challenge as both ladies raised the levels on their treadmills. From the corner of her eye, Nancy then saw a gym employee approaching them. She was looking directly at her. As their eyes met, Nancy knew something was terribly wrong. Over the last few months, she had a growing sense that something terrible was in her future. She had been anticipating bad news for some time, but still a wave of fear boiled up within her.

As the girl approached them, she eked out her required question. “Nancy? Are either of you Nancy?”

Nancy felt her fear rise to a new level. “Yes, I am Nancy. What’s going on?”

The girl straightened her body but her eyes flickered to the floor. She seemed aware she was dealing a vital blow. “There’s a man on the phone. He says he is your husband and that it’s an emergency.”

Nancy began following the girl back to the front desk. She could see the phone’s handset from here. It sat on the counter like any other object, but something about it was ominous. In a strange way, the thing was almost evil incarnate. Nancy hesitantly picked up the phone. She held it there a moment then remembered the need to speak. “Hello.” It was all she could get out.

Paul’s voice sounded through on the other end. There was an eerie desperation and pain in his voice. Something had gone terribly wrong. Nancy just knew. “Nancy? Honey, hurry home…” His words were simple, but they cut her deeper than a knife. She weakly put down the phone. Her mind was in a fog and began wandering a million different directions.

Before she could process one full thought, Debra was at her side. “What is it?” Her friend was clearly concerned. Nancy did not even know how to respond. She stood there a moment feeling blank, much like the living dead. Finally words formed across her lips, which seemed to be operating from some inner auto pilot. “It was Paul. I need to go home.”

If Debra responded, Nancy was unaware. Everything around her faded and darkness swarmed in. She had known something like this was going to happen. She had felt it building, as though some force was attempting to prepare her. Her mind immediately rushed to thoughts of her family back in Virginia. The faces of her sisters and father flashed in her mind.

Before she knew what was happening, she felt the light touch of a small hand against her own. It was her daughter, Korina. She momentarily realized they were out of the gym and her other hand instinctually reached into her bag. Her mind faded again. She had never felt such a confusion of emotions flow through her. She feared the news that was coming, yet desperately wanted to know. She needed to know. She barely felt the keys drift out of her hand and the encouragingly light push into the open passenger door.

The drive lasted an eternity; yet was over in an instant. They were here. Nancy saw the door above the porch open and she rushed up the steps. She wasn’t ready to hear the news. Nothing could ever prepare her for the words, but she had to hear them. She had to know. The thought kept replaying in her mind as the faces of her loved ones flashed across her unseen vision.

Paul spoke with a deep mixture of love and pain. He did not want to say the words. They both knew it, but he had to. “Your father and two of your sisters, Loraine and Evelyn, have all been shot.”

It hit her like a flying bullet. He may as well have just pulled the trigger. Pain shot through her entire body and Nancy fell to her knees and screamed out. “Oh God!”

The next three days passed in a complete blur. The details of the news had been conveyed. Loraine and Evelyn had both been shot and had passed on to another place. Nancy’s father remained in critical condition. Nancy’s body was now standing in front of her sister Loraine’s coffin, though her mind was somewhere else entirely. It was not until her form shifted and she stood in front of her youngest sister Evelyn’s coffin that she came back to reality. The young woman resting in the casket had only been 21 years old. Nancy leaned over to kiss her sister’s cold forehead and say goodbye. As she leaned up, her eyes were met by those of her daughter, Korina. Nancy felt a million emotions and thoughts boiling within her but one suddenly dominated them all. “She needs me.”





*


As the Colors Fade


The shots were fired,

The deed was done,

She knew she would never again see the sun.

Her eyes were open,

Her mind was numb,

The act could never be undone.

Never.

The word reached into her soul,

There it took its hold,

An eternity of black,

From which there was no going back.

The pain sank in,

She wanted no more than to die within.

In an instant she watched the colors fade away,

There was nothing left now but shades of gray.