I wrote most of this late one night on my phone while trying to block the light from waking up my OH. I dusted it off and then finished it in order to share it with you guys today. I hope you like this writing snippet.
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
“Sometimes, you give your heart freely, others it’s stolen from you, and sometimes you have no rights to it at all.”
“Lonnie?” The name was spoken hesitantly.
“Lonnie never cared about my heart. He only wanted to possess me.” She spoke softly, but with a hard edge to her words.
He could hear her sister shift uncomfortably, Fern had her own memories of Lonnie.
He finished closing the door, as silent as he could. The surprise he’d planned for the girls was waiting outside. He admitted to himself that as much as he wanted to make Fern smile, it was really Helen that he…
“And Garrett!?”
He froze at the sound of his name.
” Garrett .I … He… It’s a little of the first two, I guess. He stole my heart, and I gave it freely. Even though I knew it was pointless. Nothing can happen between us.”
His heart stopped beating at the first admission and broke at the second. Tears coursed down his cheeks as he stood in the entry way. Of course, he’d known she was still getting over what Lonnie had done. He’d known it would take a long time for her to be ready to open her heart again. But the finality in her voice made him wonder if she ever truly would. He breathed deeply against the pain, trying to stem the flow of tears so the girls wouldn’t hear. The walls of his house weren’t thick enough to block the sound of a broken heart.
Silence stretched thin in the other room. Finally Fern spoke, “I know I’m younger, Helen, but I want you to listen to me. Listen! If we stop livin’ and just. . . just give up inside then what has it all been for? We could’ve stayed there in that place. It wouldn’ta made any difference. But we got out. We’re out, Helen. And I’m not sayin’ that you should just… just jump in Garrett’s arms or nothin’ but he’s a good man. He’s the tree that the wind blows but can’t uproot. Give life a chance. Don’t stop livin’.”
Garrett would have given much to see inside the room after Fern’s words but he didn’t want to interrupt such an important conversation. He silently blessed Fern for her words to her older sister. He dragged in a ragged breath, waiting for Helen’s response. A footstep outside the door alerted him and he moved to intercept the person before they knocked. He eased the door open and motioned them to be quiet, all the while his ear cocked for any word from Helen.
“Helen?”
A soft sigh drifted to him, “I’ve got nothin’ left in me. Nothin’ at all. Nothin’ Garrett would want. Nothin’ that I even want. No. No, Fern, no more. I’ve heard you, now you hear me. I’m wrung out and I can’t…I can’t.”
Before Garrett could move, Helen burst from the room. Blinded by tears, she didn’t see him standing there, one hand on the door while the other reached out for her. She bolted to the room across the hallway, slamming the door shut. Slowly he opened the front door wider, and cancelled the surprise he’d planned. There would be no smiling tonight.
He wasn’t sure if he ever would again.
the start of a good life 