Transcending Queen (15 page)

His lips were sealed and dread was written
all over his face.

“Say something,” I demanded face to face with
him.

When finally he spoke, he told his truth, “Do
I know how to truly love? I tried, you got the best of me and this
is how it turned out.”

Jack was there when I fell into his arms and
broke down. My face buried in his chest crying uncontrollably at
the end of my rope. I couldn’t hold back and I didn’t care who saw.
Jack held me tight with tears of his own streaming down his face,
so wanting to make it stop but he couldn’t. The pain cut too deep
when I had to let it all completely go. My legs weakened but Jack
kept a tight hold refusing to release me. They hauled Colin away as
I broke down crippled by a man, as a priest, I should’ve been able
to trust.

The next day at the crack of dawn, we packed
our suitcases. I threw mine in the car without so much as a glance
around, I didn’t want to see. I got in the car waiting on Jack
trying not to think. He slowly drove us through town and as we
passed the church I refused to acknowledge it. We crept our way out
heading back to Barrington, I could only look forward.

“This is the edge of town. Do you want one
more look back?”

I slumped in my seat and ignored the rearview
mirrors as they tempted me, but I refused to look.

We were back at my old house soon enough, but
it didn’t feel like home. It was empty and without life as I had
left it months ago. “Thanks for helping me unpack. Can you stay
until Alice arrives?”

“Sure, I can make us something while we’re
waiting.”

Once Alice arrived, we moved out onto the
patio listening to the stream of the creek gently trickle while
sipping our tea.

“I need to move and get my own place.” I
said.

“I think it’s for the best.” Alice
acknowledged.

“I can help you move, just let me know when.”
Jack said.

“I’m leaving everything behind, it’s all
rented anyway. I’ll take my personal belongings, my laptop and a
few odds and ends but all the big stuff stays. I can handle it
myself.”

“We can help you through this. I can bring
Maci by and Jack can check in every so often.” Alice offered.

“No, I need space to find my own way and
figure things out for myself.”

“We understand, right Alice?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, we understand.” Alice said.

“I love you guys.” I admitted.

“We love you.” Alice said.

After that day, Alice focused all of her
attention on her daughter and parents while keeping her life in
order without a man. Jack returned to be with Luann and now that
the bar was forced to shut down, Luann could start her own
restaurant. They had created a strong friendship while Jack and I
investigated and later admitted their feelings for each other when
Jack kept calling her to keep in touch. He filled me in every now
and again about his humdrum lifestyle in that small town and
decided it wasn’t so bad after all.

I, with my whole life ahead of me, found an
average job to pay the bills and rented an apartment of my own. In
my spare time, I sit at my laptop writing a story about this girl
leaving a small town to discover her dreams. As I type one letter
at a time stringing them together to make a word I rip away at the
darkness until only light shines through my sentences, purging
those crazy adventures paragraph after paragraph accepting it as my
past while I embrace change, I’m embracing my future.

###THE END###