“You stood at your door with your hands on my waist and you kissed me like you meant it. And I knew that you meant it. So I decided that I can’t afford to be afraid anymore, and, if your offer still stands, I accept. I’ll see you soon. Love you.”
Tara listened to the message on her cell phone again and again. She hadn’t moved from her spot next to the front door; she’d collapsed when the officers had come to tell her the news.
They’d been polite, smiling gently, tugging off their hats as soon as she let them in.
They’d been too calm for what had happened.
“Are you Tara Collins?”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No, ma’am. You know Jacob Linwood?”
“Yes. What about him? He’s in New York.”
“Actually, ma’am, he took a flight out here and landed an hour ago.”
“Is he in trouble?”
“No, ma’am. He had your name and address in his wallet. He has no next of kin on record, so it’s our duty to report that he is deceased.”
Deceased. That’s what they called it when someone was killed by a stupid, random drunk driver.
Tara listened to the message again.
(Word count: 200; lyrics are here; video is here; I prefer the acoustic version for this piece, but the rock version is available online)
2 comments:
I like the continuation of the story. Is it just before he shows up at her place? or is that a short time later?
It seems like she may be loosing her grip on reality.
Ah. Hmmm. It's not a continuation of any story, that I know of. I guess it didn't come out quite the way I wanted it. I was angling for she was listening to the phone message over and over again just to hear his voice after she found out he was dead. The dialogue in italics is a flashback.
When online writers do that whole ~~**FLASHBACK**~~ nonsense, it drives me insane. It should be apparent by something simple, like a shift in verb tense or italics, that a flashback as occurred. I'll confess to having written this during a class.
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