Weekly Expression #4 BK

Weekly Expression #4

By Beka K.

She set the coffee down and took a deep breath as she looked at her phone for the millionth time. She still had thirty minutes until six. She wished now that she had not come so early but what else was there to do? Pace her apartment floor yelling and fighting with what she thought he would say?

She finished off her medium latte and got up to buy another.She hoped for once it would calm her nerves rather than make her more jittery but who was she kidding? She lifted her hand and watched it shake. She sat back down knowing a second highly caffeinated drink would do more harm than good. She dug out her water bottle from her purse and began to drink that.

She had called Alex and told her all about the dream that terrified her and reliable Alex prompted her to make the call she had been dreading and putting off for years. It wasn’t that it was a scary dream. It was actually quite peaceful but for some reason she woke up sweating and gasping, unable to control her fear.

She pulled her smartphone out and scrolled her facebook news feed. She needed something to distract her from the inevitable.

She heard the chime ring as the door opened. She looked at her phone. Six on the dot.

“Kristen.” She looked up and forced a smile as she motioned for him to take a seat. “I didn’t think I’d ever hear your voice again, let alone see you face to face.”

She kept silent, unsure how to go about this. It had been ten years since she last spoke to him. Ten years had done a lot of damage to him. Her mother had kept her informed, not that she cared to know. Kristen herself had kept so much from even her mother in order to avoid it leaking to him. Her mother knew only what she had to.

“So are you going to talk to me? You are the one who called.”

“I wanted you to see this.” She handed him the letter. He unfolded it and read the contents.

He couldn’t make eye contact with her.

Was it because he knew now why she had never called? Why she had missed 10 years worth of holidays and birthdays?

“I don’t know what to say…”

“Yeah, neither did I.” Her tone was abrasive. “I just wanted to thank you. I would never have made it this far without your help.” She spat out ‘help’ hoping it would act like a knife to the heart. “This wasn’t exactly how I planned my life to go but  I see now it was where I was meant to be. So thanks for all your positive reinforcement on my career paths. Because of you I had no where to go other than here.” She stood up, already tired and angry that she chose the harsh path to take. The one full of spite and sarcasm.

He sat in that seat, staring at the letter before him.

She put her patrol cap back upon her head and put her phone back in her pocket.

She turned away and walked towards the door. Would this be the last time they would see each other? Would he do or say nothing?

“Colonel!” She swung around, surprised to hear her new rank from his voice. He was standing, saluting her. A tear fell from his eye.

Maybe this was not the last she would see of him.

She walked out the door with hope, on her way to take her new role as Colonel in the U.S. Army. Her flight for Afghanistan left in seven hours.

She thought back to her dream. The storm had settled over the ocean as she walked up the decaying stone steps. The clock before her broke, piece by piece and fell into the dark abyss. Time was running out. That phrase echoed in her mind over and over again throughout the dream and all throughout the day.

Time was running out.

But no more.