Do Empty Things Grow Cold?
“Not tonight Jim.”
Jim froze, he wasn’t angry but increasingly concerned, their marriage felt empty. Lately, he couldn’t stop pondering, do empty things grow cold? A shiver ran down his spine so he hugged his wife for comfort, falling fast asleep in minutes.
Rays of sunlight danced on the floor beneath the billowing window curtain. He watched the light for a bit, trying to decide when he should sneak away to start the day, Susie was such a light sleeper.
Jim delicately rolled out of bed and shuffled to the kitchen. The drip coffee was already brewing, and he only had to wait a minute to fill his empty cup. He made the short jaunt to the mailbox where he found a postcard from their daughter, Avery. He smiled at the picture of a beautiful Mexican shoreline and the playful hand scratched message ‘Desde Mexico con amor, te amo mucho!!’.
Avery’s message sparked something and at that moment, he decided his marriage wasn’t going to grow cold. He jogged back inside, elated, and handed Susie the postcard, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and headed to the bedroom to get dressed.
“Where are you going Jim?” Susie shouted after him.
“I’m going to go buy some things, don’t ask, it’s a surprise!" he quipped as he hurried past her and out the door.
“What?!” Susie shouted, but he was already gone.
Jim sped through the grocery store aisles, igniting concern on the faces of the other, less enthusiastic shoppers, he sorted through a mental rolodex of Susie’s likes: chocolate, steak, wine, flowers, and of course, a card. When he got back to the car he grabbed a pen from the glove box, opened the card, and jotted down a personal message, then left it on the front seat.
Jim cruised home on Beckett street tapping the steering wheel as he went, he slowed when he saw construction up ahead at the next intersection. A man wearing sunglasses and an ill-fitted hard hat, flipped his sign from ‘stop’ to ‘slow’ and Jim took his turn. But there was a mix up, the traffic controller on Axel rd. released his car at the same time… Jim never saw it coming. The last thing he saw before his head slammed into the driver side window was Susie’s card frozen in mid-flight.
Susie was afraid, but she waited patiently for Jim to open his eyes, it’d been a week since they closed, and she’d been to the hospital every day since. When his eyes fluttered, she yelped with joy and squeezed his hand. Susie was elated, “Oh thank God! Jim, when you’re ready, I’d love to have the evening you planned for us the day of the accident, okay sweetie? I loved the card and the message you wrote to me. I miss you too.”
Jim blinked and smiled, “that all sounds great!” he shouted. Then his smile faded, and he scratched his chin, “But what did I have planned, and who…are… you?”