The Run Down

Sarah has gone home. She stayed three nights and didn't want to go home but I have to work tomorrow. Becca's Dad came in on Saturday and we did not tell Sarah. When I took her home tonight I told her someone was at her house. She tried to guess but had no clue. I told her it was a surprise. When we got upstairs she shivered and giggled in excitement just before we entered.

I wish you could have seen her face when she walked into her apartment. She was dazed and her little hands flew to her cheeks and she gasped. She stared for several minutes as if she couldn't believe her eyes. Then she ran over and reached out and touched his cheek and rubbed it and rubbed his arm and then hugged him. She simply stared with a funny little smile and then she giggled. She kept rubbing his cheek. She got down, moved to stand about three feet away and just stared at him with that little smile and after a few minutes she would look at the rest of us and giggle. then she'd rush over and pat his cheek and hug him again. She never spoke during the whole thing. It was so funny and so sweet. And I felt the knife twist because I knew if it had been Jerry waiting she would have reacted in exactly that way. And he would have grabbed her and never let go.

I turned and saw my dinning table with the cloth spread nicely on it, and the ladder back chairs around it. It looked very nice the way Becca has it set up. I reached out and touch the back of the chair, clasping the post and rubbing it and the past rose up and slapped me in the face. I saw myself standing just that way a thousand times watching my little boys sitting at that table laughing and Jerry at the end, eating my cooking and laughing with them. And I turned and ran out of the apartment and down the stairs and drove home.

They were not there.