Untitled

Chapter 1

She looked up at him from the bed. Lying atop the sheets her tiny frame, wasted away by the medication losing the battle against the disease ravaging her body, seemed somehow smaller. The harsh light, glaring off the barren white walls bleached the color from her skin, already pale with sickness.

Sitting beside her on the edge of the hospital bed, his hand rested over hers; Garret Green could barely look at her anymore. Her beauty, stolen by the radiation and chemotherapy was of little consequence to him. Rather, it was the constant pain, hidden behind her luminescent blue eyes that made him look away. Her strength amazed him, never complaining, enduring it all in stoic silence.

“When I’m gone…” she began again, her voice a whisper.

“You can’t talk like that,” interrupted Garret. “You can’t give up. We need you here. I need you here. Think of the boys.”

“The doctors have done all that they can. I know it’s painful to think about but you have to listen to me.” She paused a moment waiting for his eyes to come back to hers. “Garret, you’re young, the boys are young. You’re going to need someone. I want you to know that I’m okay with that. I want you to be happy.”

Looking away again he stared through the window trying to block out what he was hearing. “I can’t do this right now. I don’t even want to think that way. You have to keep trying to get better.” Standing, he crossed to the window, looking down at the cars below in the parking lot. “I have to go pick up the boys at your parents.”

Walking to the door Garret pulled it open and was about to step outside when she called after him, “Think about what I said. Remember, I love you.” With out turning, he walked out the door to the elevator. Wiping a tear from his cheek, he stepped inside.




The continuous high pitched tone from the heart monitor signaled a code red at the nurses station sending a small army scurrying down the hall and into the room. Checking her pulse, they found no sign of a heart rhythm. Slowly filtering from the room only one remained until the doctor on call arrived.

Karen Green was pronounced dead at 9:53 pm on the 17th of October after battling cancer for two years. In a flurry of activity surrounding her death, Garret was almost able to forget the pain of finding out about her “Do Not Resuscitate” order signed only two days prior to their conversation. The church brought meals. His parents and in-laws took the boys on outings to try and take their minds off their mother. Garret took a week off from his job as an English teacher at the local high school to make preparations for the funeral.

Returning to work, the following Monday was awkward at best. Students walked into the room silently, not wanting to disturb the teacher who had been through so much in the past weeks. Teachers he passed in the hall patted him on the back, but didn’t quite know what to say.

A month passed and things returned to normal at work, his students and other teachers forgetting Karen’s passing. Classes became loud and unruly, teachers joked in the hall, but Garret had changed, shrinking into himself. The once happy and outgoing favorite teacher to many students had closed himself off from the world around him and was wallowing in his grief. Students who used to come in for lunch, just to hang out and work on their homework, avoided the classroom except during required classes.

At the end of the school year his principal called him in concerned and wanting to talk. “Take it easy this summer,” he said. “Be with your family. Take some time for yourself.” Pausing, as if trying to work out in his mind how to continue, “I know it has been a tough year with Karen and all. I have been hearing things from some of your students. Don’t take this the wrong way Garret. We need you back. The old you.”

Walking from the office, Garret made up his mind. His parents had been offering for months to take the boys for an extended period while he went off on his own. With no commitments for the next three months, he was going to get away.