Take On Me
Heather drove to Joey’s apartment through the torrential rains and prayed he would be home. The storm and its insistence that she keep all her windows closed made her claustrophobic. She turned her radio on a low volume and lit a cigarette as she pulled into his driveway. His roommates were visible through the front window and she vented her frustration about it by pulling on the emergency brake with brutal force. Heather liked Bam Bam and Eggroll but she didn’t want them to hear her crazy rants. It was bad enough she had to tell Joey.
Her ex-husband saw her through the window and waved. She didn’t care that people thought it was strange that she made best friends out of the men she divorced. She waved back and held up her pointer to say she’d be inside in a minute.
He wasn’t always the greatest husband but Joey was one of the best listeners Heather had ever known. Whether she wanted to review a movie or debate a current issue or dissect her own thoughts, Joey joined her. She cherished their conversations and found it difficult to choose anyone over him when she needed to hear the right words. Though Joey perceived her as histrionic, like the rest of the women in her family, she knew he would be the first one to believe her story.
She also knew her sense of peace was a false one but the pounding rain helped her believe she was cloaked by the storm. She contemplated just taking off and heading for Jade’s house but found she couldn’t do it. In only two short weeks, Jade would become a mother for the first time and Heather wouldn’t risk exposing her sister or her nephew to any more danger. She would have to start hiding things from Jade for the first time in their lives.
She turned off the car and listened carefully to the sounds around her. The rain slammed drops onto the hood and the wind sang out a ghostly cry. A voice in her head kept telling her to calm down and she had to force herself to push aside thoughts of death. She looked up at Joey through the window and thought about the demise of their relationship instead.
Heather had gone from one marriage to another without any space or time in between. The first aisle she had walked down led the way for a hotheaded nineteen year old who still believed in fairy tales. The second saw a twenty-five year old with the same capacity for love but with hope that had been severely battered.
Damon’s penchant for maintaining as little employment as possible had forced Heather into welfare lines and just the memory of it watered a seed of depression within her. When she had become the target of his anger and the victim of his disloyalties, she reached lows most people would never know. Only when she realized her young son would have no choice but to grow up the child of an abusive marriage did she run screaming to a divorce attorney.
Heather wrapped her hands around the steering wheel and rested her head on its cold metal center. She thought about the strength it had taken to walk away from her first marriage and the stupidity it took to jump into her second one so quickly. She had known who Joey was before they married and she married him anyway. When she looked up at him again, she saw he had ventured out onto the porch. Heather was hit with the memory of the first time she had seen him and how they had fallen in love almost instantly.
She had been a waitress at a rock n’ roll club and he played bass in one of the bands. Noticing his beer was almost empty after a show one night, Heather had approached him to ask if he wanted another. Joey had a sexy smile and even sexier eyes. They were big and round and deep brown. She had always been a sucker for a Puerto Rican.
They entered into a union that neither one had much faith in. Their passion was ever present but the respect always needed a refill. They had loads of fun together but neither trusted the other. And though they tried to make it work for the sake of the boys, they had found it to be impossible. Their differences were stronger than their marriage and again, Heather ran screaming back to divorce court.
Heather glanced around the perimeter of the driveway one more time. She checked her rearview mirror for unwanted guests and finally, disengaged her locks. She kept a vigilant eye out for white vans and scraggly blond monsters as she walked up the hill to Joey’s apartment.
Her walk turned into a muddy run and